carbon dioxide enrichment

any thoughts on CO2 enriched atmospheres? my aunt (major greenthumb) grows african violets, wandering jew and tons of other houseplants and swears by talking to them. exhaled CO2 is the trick she says! i've got a small garden in the attic and am contemplating CO2 addition. would baking soda and vinegar liberate enough to be effective? i can always use dry ice or get a bottle of CO2 from national welders but that seems a bit of overkill. i am not going to use any hps or metal halide lights, strictly flourescents, mirrors and mylar so i figure i can enhance elswhere.

by having proper air exchange via your ventilation system, you provide enough co2 for the plants

if you were using a closed system with no ventilation, then co2 enrichement would be necessary

if you have a ventilation system in place, then any kind of co2 enrichment is overkill, and if you dont have ventilation, i would highly recommend it over co2, because it is much cheaper to installer proper ventilation than a proper co2 system :D

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Originally Posted by scooterjay

any thoughts on CO2 enriched atmospheres? my aunt (major greenthumb) grows african violets, wandering jew and tons of other houseplants and swears by talking to them. exhaled CO2 is the trick she says! i've got a small garden in the attic and am contemplating CO2 addition. would baking soda and vinegar liberate enough to be effective? i can always use dry ice or get a bottle of CO2 from national welders but that seems a bit of overkill. i am not going to use any hps or metal halide lights, strictly flourescents, mirrors and mylar so i figure i can enhance elswhere.

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Fluorescents lights do not produce enough light to help the plant process the extra amount of CO². You need HID lights if you want to use CO².

Yes CO² is well worth the effort and expense. You can cut around 2 weeks of your overall grow time and increase your yield by as much as 20% or more.

Mirrors produce hot spots and can burn holes in your plants, FYI.

hmmm, 2 weeks? i will just stick to plain old induced/forced ventilation then. will lay off the mirrors as well, didn't realize they would cause hot spots.