Yo, what’s good? It’s your boy Dan, and I’m here to school y’all on the importance of carbon dioxide (CO2) when growing your dope. Did you know that too much CO2 can mess with your plants just as much as not enough? It’s crucial to keep it at the right levels if you want to see your marijuana thrive.
First things first, you gotta make sure your plants are getting over 250 parts per million (ppm) of CO2. Anything below that and you’re gonna have a bad time. Anything above dangerous levels can kill your plants. CO2 is key to photosynthesis, which is how your plants turn carbon dioxide into energy.
Plants need a bunch of stuff to grow and reproduce, but hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen make up 95% of a plant’s dry weight. Adding CO2 can supposedly increase your yield by up to 20%. So, let me break it down for y’all on how to add CO2 the right way for that dank end product.
Your plants breathe in CO2 through pores called stomata. During photosynthesis, they extract CO2 from the air and use it to convert light energy into chemical energy. When you grow indoors, your weed uses the artificial light rather than sunlight. They take in the light and use it to produce sugar and oxygen, which gets released back into the atmosphere.
If you’re using low-powered lights like fluorescent lights, there should be enough CO2 in the air for your weed to grow. But if you’re using more light than your plants can handle naturally, adding extra CO2 will increase photosynthesis and yield. Your plants will produce more energy from the same amount of light.
CO2 also helps your crop resist heat and light stress. But it ain’t cheap, so make sure you’re ready to invest before trying it out. You gotta have all of these things under control before adding extra CO2: high-quality growing mediums and nutrients, top-shelf strain genetics, high-powered lights, a sealed grow room, and disease and pest prevention.
Now, here are the pros and cons of using CO2 systems for your weed:
Pros:
– Faster growth and bigger yield
– Security (no smelly air being vented out)
– Ability to increase grow room temperature up to 95 degrees Fahrenheit
Cons:
– Expensive
– Need strong grow lights
– Must seal the grow area to increase CO2 levels over 1000 ppm
If you’re ready to drop some cash and have met all of the above criteria, ask yourself these questions. If you answer yes to all of them, then you’re ready to add CO2:
– Have you maximized the amount of light your plants can use?
– Have you eliminated all issues in the grow room?
– Do you know how to use growth control methods?
– Can you keep the grow room’s temperature between 85- and 95-degrees Fahrenheit?
– Can you keep humidity levels at 70% during the vegetative stage and 60% in the flowering stage?
– If you can increase CO2 concentration to 1500 ppm, are you ready to seal the grow room?
Now onto how to add CO2. There are many ways to do it, but the best ways involve using a generator or compressed CO2. Avoid other methods until you can afford a generator or compressed CO2.
CO2 generators produce CO2 by burning natural gas or propane. They work well in large spaces, but they also produce heat that’s hard to regulate. Compressed CO2 tanks are perfect for small grow rooms. They come with a doser, pressure gauge, flow meter, timer, solenoid valve, and tubing. You can also use fans to move the gas around.
Other methods include fermentation, composting, CO2 bags, and dry ice. But they’re not as effective, can be smelly or unsanitary, and are more expensive.
To use CO2 effectively, place the source above your plants since CO2 is heavy and sinks to the ground. Use fans to keep the gas moving around so your entire crop benefits. Make sure the grow room is sealed to prevent carbon dioxide levels from dropping too low.
To increase yield, use air-cooled lights with glass inserts, dehumidifiers and recirculating air conditioners, oscillating fans, humic and fulvic additives, and ammonium-heavy fertilizer. These tips will help you get the most out of adding CO2 to your marijuana garden.
That’s all for now, folks. Keep it lit!