Indoor grow tent! Swedish snus variety Tofta!

[deluxestogie]

As an added data point: several years ago, the entire 3 week period during which I was supposedly sun-curing an Oriental variety (hanging inverted, on the stalk), every day was overcast. I called them "cloud-cured". All those overcast days were humid and windy. They came out brighter than shade-cured, but not as bright as sun-cured. If we assume the 1000 lux figure for overcast daylight, then your ~500-600 lux exposure seems unlikely to be easily distinguishable from fully shade-cured.

Bob

 

[loui loui]

As an added data point: several years ago, the entire 3 week period during which I was supposedly sun-curing an Oriental variety (hanging inverted, on the stalk), every day was overcast. I called them "cloud-cured". All those overcast days were humid and windy. They came out brighter than shade-cured, but not as bright as sun-cured. If we assume the 1000 lux figure for overcast daylight, then your ~500-600 lux exposure seems unlikely to be easily distinguishable from fully shade-cured.

Bob

Yes it will be like shade cured in an arctic greenhouse without temperature or humidity fluctuations during a few weeks, let's call it supernatural-cured.
It will also be the most electricity-intensive batch of snus in the galaxy.

It is a bit funny to air-cure 7 small tobacco plants with a setup using around 270 watts in the middle of an energy crisis.
Next week the government will hand out a special payment to compensate for high electricity prices and after that it will come another one, the more I cure, grow and kiln the more the government pays me so this is in a way a government sponsored project. Electric-cured maybe.

 

[loui loui]

I was thinking about a name for this way of curing.
I like to call it supernatural curing cause it is beyond what is natural on planet earth.

It's characteristics are:

Same temperature, humidity and light intensity during both day and night.

For example:

27.5°C (81.5°F)
68% Relative Humidity
500 Lux

The typical supernatural curer is often a person beliefing in both science and magic and who try to combine aspects of science to something magical to produce a better outcome than just magic or science can alone.

Motto:
If one can repeat the magic over and over again by using science, conditions will be divine.

Or it is just a method of ad-hoc to cure something.

 

[loui loui]

This one has been topped and harvested.
Today it got a flower from one of the suckers.
It is actually the plant that wanted to flower first but did not get the chance until now because I removed the shoots except two lower suckers.
The harvest did suffer a lot cause I did not remove the suckers. It is about two months and a week old.

 

[loui loui]

I did switch the lights off too see the humidifier display but forgot to switch the lights on again.

The temperature did fall 6°C to 21.6°C (71°F)

The humidity did rise to 88%



It was humid in the tent but there was no dew. The pipe tobacco did feel very soft.
To avoid such a rise in humidity during lights off I need a humidifier with a hygrostat.
I solve the problem by keeping the light on 24/7. Nothing else than the light was stitches off, fans did keep working. Everything looks allright.

 

[loui loui]

I am trying to calibrate the Inkbird hygrometer.

If I understand things correctly I am supposed to mix water and salt, I used two table spoons water and four table spoons salt, and put it in a jar. I did ofcourse put the salt and water in a can of snus, it is just my favourite can but it should be ok to mix the water and salt directly in the jar.
I then dropped the can of snus into an IKEA Korken jar with the metal frame and rubber seal removed.
I did then drop the hygrometer sensor into the jar and sealed the jar with duct tape.

I am now supposed to wait until the humidity in the jar stabilise at exactly 75%, if done right it will always do.

 

[deluxestogie]

For others, here is a simple set of instructions for calibrating a hygrometer:

How to Test a Hygrometer: 6 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow

If you're a cigar aficionado, you need a hygrometer to make sure you're storing your wares at the correct humidity. A hygrometer is an instrument that is used to measure humidity in cigar humidors as well as greenhouses, incubators,...

www.wikihow.com

Bob

 

[loui loui]

For others, here is a simple set of instructions for calibrating a hygrometer:

How to Test a Hygrometer: 6 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow

If you're a cigar aficionado, you need a hygrometer to make sure you're storing your wares at the correct humidity. A hygrometer is an instrument that is used to measure humidity in cigar humidors as well as greenhouses, incubators,...

www.wikihow.com

Bob

Thanks!
I found this important information from the community:
"Salty solutions will create a specific atmosphere inside of the bag because of the modified vapor pressure. Just using distilled water, for example, would give you exactly 100% RH, and a saturated lithium chloride solution would give you about 11% RH. Keep in mind that this is true only at room temperature (20 °C), the whole process is temperature-dependent. Table salt (sodium chloride) tends to be very stable in that regard (less than 1 % change between 0 °C and 30 °C)."

I am a bit confused cause when I did read that the temperature should be 20°C I did open the front door and the balcony door to cool down the air to 20°C. What happened then was that the hygrometer started to go up several degrees and in the information given it says that it should differ less than 1% between 0°C and 30°C but my hygrometer did change several % when the temperature changed just a few degrees.

At last I managed to get a reading at 20°C and the Inkbird hygrometer was 5% too high.

Reading at 20°C:
80%RH


I am a bit disappointed because according to the manual a typical deviation from true relative humidity should be 3% up or 3% down.

Also, when I started the light again the hygrometer reported that the humidity did go down, now the humidity goes down while the temperature goes up, it have gone down more than 2% in just a 0.6°C rise in temperature.

It is nice that the hygrometer can be calibrated but I think +5% is a bit crap but maybe these tools are like this?

Now I am waiting while the temperature goes up and the humidity goes down, these tools seem to be little more accurate than to have some pipe tobacco in the tent and feel at it, that actually seem like a very good way to measure humidity.

I may try to do it again with the thermometer inside the jar but this makes me wonder how accurate the Inkbird thermometer is if the hygrometer is +5% off, what a rabbit hole!

 

[deluxestogie]

Is your table salt pure NaCl, or is it iodized?

Bob

 

[loui loui]

Is your table salt pure NaCl, or is it iodized?

Bob

It is without iodine but it contains something against lumps E504 Magnesium carbonate & E535 Sodium ferrocyanide.
I doubt it is enough of something else than NaCl to cause the changes.

I did put the jar in a cold water bath, "humidity" did drop real quick to 49.5%, maybe it is normal, maybe water did condensate and the air did dry up.
It seem to be air tight but maybe it is not.
I am clueless to what is going on, it reminds me about when I checked hygrometers at the store, they all showed different values.

I will just quit the experiment, I don't need a hygrometer anyway.
The pipe tobacco trick is good enough.
Calibration failed and I don't know why!

 

[deluxestogie]

If you push the safe upper boundary of humidity, then accuracy (the correct number) matters. If you give the system a safety margin, with a lower than maximum humidity, then only precision (reproduceable numbers) matters.

Bob

 

[loui loui]

If you push the safe upper boundary of humidity, then accuracy (the correct number) matters. If you give the system a safety margin, with a lower than maximum humidity, then only precision (reproduceable numbers) matters.

Bob

Yes correct!

I think that it may be so that the combination of salt, water and relative humidity settle at 75%RH after six hours in the SAME temperature.

If temperature change quick, the balance of salt,water and relative humidity may change quick and the jar may need additional six hour in the new temperature to settle.

This is my current theory and I must test it so I did put the thermometer and the hygrometer inside the jar and duct taped it.
I did put the jar outside of the tent this time.

 

[loui loui]

I found this instruction here:

Boveda One-Step 75% Hygrometer Calibration Kit

Inaccurate hygrometer readings put premium cigars at risk. Your cigars will smoke perfectly when you store them in a steady environment between 60 and 72% relative humidity (RH). So what’s the RH in your humidor? Use this 75% RH Kit to calibrate your hygrometer.

store.bovedainc.com

"Place your hygrometer/sensor inside and completely reclose the zipper.
Allow the kit to sit for a minimum of 24 hours at a room temperature between 65 and 75°F.
Check the reading of the hygrometer/sensor:
• If the reading is 75% RH, this calibration is complete.
• If the reading is higher or lower than 75% RH: Note the difference as the margin of error for future readings. Or manually adjust your settings to 75% RH using a 1- or 2-point calibration technique and repeat the above three (3) steps.
Reclose the bag with the Boveda pack inside to reuse the kit within three (3) months.
To keep a hygrometer performing effectively, recalibrate it every six (6) months."

Next update will be after 24 hours at 71°F.
Ad-Hoc combined with Trial & Error.

 

[loui loui]

It did settle during the night, calibration succeded!

The Inkbird hygrometer is very accurate!


This method is super accurate:

1. Put 2 table spoons water and 4 table spoons salt in a jar.
2. Put your hygrometer in the jar and duct tape the jar.
3. Put the jar in stabile room temperature 65-75°F
4. Wait 24 hour or until the jar is settled.

If I was to improve the method I would try to use several layers of plastic wrap instead of duct tape because the duct tape is difficult to remove.

The trick is to have no temperature changes in the room, if the temperature changes it will cause unbalance in the jar and you will have to wait another 6-24 hour.

 

[loui loui]

I moved the sensors from the the roofs air extraction point to below light at flower height and made some measurements.
It is more fun now when the hygrometer is calibrated.

Humidifier setting: High, blue light


I did measure the light intensity at the lower flower to the right, it will bloom tomorrow. It is below the light.

Close-up of the flower:

Lux at the flower: 136'801

Humidity at the flowers height: 77%

Temperature at the flowers height: 26.7°C (80°F)



Later I did move the sensors to curing height, still a bit lower than air extraction point but close to it.

Humidity at curing height: 77%

Temperature at curing height: 27.6°C (81.7°F)


Conclusion:
It is slightly warmer at curing height but humidity is about the same as the measured flowers height.
Max humidity is 77.3%RH, according to my research it should be safe curing and growing humidity, even at the humidifiers max setting 220ml/h.

Some leaves are getting a nice colour.

 

[loui loui]

 

[Knucklehead]

View attachment 44796

Your photography is beautiful. Is that just a cell phone? I can't hold mine that still. Lol.

 

[loui loui]

Your photography is beautiful. Is that just a cell phone? I can't hold mine that still. Lol.

Yes it is a good photo, a blooming flower, a senescent flower and two fruits in the same picture.
The trick is to put the camera close and fokus close, then the background becomes blurry, it gives depth to the image.
Yes it is photographed with a phone.
Composition is most important and the photo has very good composition.

 

[loui loui]

With the humidifier on max (220ml/hour) I noticed some condensation on the fan cage and the plant closest to the humidifier and fan, water had dripped down on the fan stand.

I did hang the fan upside down above the humidifier, if the solution works well I may fix a more permanent solution where I easily can adjust the fan height but at the moment I don't need it because the light will stay at this height until the fruits are harvested.
With the fan upside down water will drop down below the fan instead of on the fan stand.

 

[loui loui]

First experiment:
I want to see what happens if I keep the tent open with the humidifier switched off.
For this experiment I did keep the extraction fan going but switched the circulation fan off because I don't want to give the plant both a windy and dry environment, it will dry the plants.

I measured at curing height but the difference between seedling, curing and flower height should be insignificant when the tent is open and the humidifier is switched off.

Temperature dropped to 25.9°C (78.6°F)

Humidity dropped to 33.5%

Conclusion:
With the tent open and the humidifier switched off it is way to dry for my liking but the temperature was OK.
In this environment the pores of the leaves will close to save water, the plant will survive but with the pores mostly closed the plants can not absorb CO2 from the air at a fast rate.
If the plant can not keep the pores aka the stomata wide open the plant will grow slowly.


Next experiment, if the tent is closed and all fans are going but the light is switched off and the humidifier is on high setting, what will happen?
This will simulate a foggy night.

I measured this at seedling level.


The humidifier did cool down the air to 20.4°C (68.7°F)

The humidity did rise to 82.5%


Conclusion:
This will just simulate a night.
The plants will survive but they will not grow because without light no photosynthesis will happen, instead mold may grow.
Not what I want.