Dry Ice CO2

[JohnnyPotGrower]

Does anyone have any experience using Dry Ice to increase CO2 levels?

If so I am very interested and have some questions:
1) How much dry ice do you need (per plant) for it to be effective?

2) How much does dry ice cost?

3) Where do you get your dry ice?

4) If I'm not mistaken CO2 (dry ice) freezes at a much lower temperature than H2O (water). Common sense would tell me that this would mean it is impossible to store dry ice for more than a few hours unless you had a way of keeping it that cold. Would a normal food freezer keep it cold enough to store it for weeks at a time? Is it possible to store it for weeks at a time so one could buy it in bulk and use fractions of it a few times a week for a number of weeks?

Thanks for any help you can give

[Zandor]

Well anything over-800 ppm is helpful but you need a controlled environment to use it properly. You use CO² only with the lights on. You need to sustain the level as long as you can and it will melt fast. 5 pounds a day would work well in a closet every other day for the whole time veg to finish. No, a home freezer will not keep it from melting. You use a small lunch type cooler so you can seal it. Insert a 3/8 tube into the cooler and circle it around the base of your plants with one or two holes for each plant. Plug the end of the tube, while the dry melts the gas will leak out at the base of your plants and slowly fill the room. Keep the vent off and the door closed, donâ??t let the room get to hot either.

A better deal is to use gas CO² and a controller that monitors the PPM at all times. A timer is the second choice.

For the very best results bring the CO² level up to 1800-PPM and hold it that way for 6 hours at a time then exchange the air and do it again for another 6 hours or until the light go off and do it everyday from day one of vegetation to the last day of flower.

[JohnnyPotGrower]

Thanks

[Da1KrayzieThug]

How is the CO2 handled? I'm guessing you obviously can't hold it with your bare hands. There are people saying you can get Dry Ice in a lot of places but how would they give it to you?

[Zandor]

It's just cold. Your skin can stick to it but that's about it and it's not like you touch it and then your finger falls off or anything. When you buy it they just wrap it in paper. The icehouse here uses used newspaper. The store sells theirs warped in brown paper.

The only thing about dry ice is you have no control over the PPM. When you open the door you loose the CO² and same thing when you have a passive vent. You only use CO² when the lights are on and there is no exhaust taking the air out.

[Zandor]

One more thing about CO² is fluorescent tubs do not supply enough light for the plant to process the extra available CO².

[Da1KrayzieThug]

Zandor, In a normal indoor environment is there CO2 around though or is it something that you probably would require to supply to the plants? I know more is better but for instance: If I were to grow them in a room and occasionaly open the door for ventilation or have a system to circulate the air out of the room would they have enough Co2 to survive? Or would I have to be in the room a lot to provide CO2?