Grow Room Extraction Kits

Why do you need a grow room extraction kit?

Nearly every indoor grower knows that plants need light, nutrients and water to grow. Unfortunately, many growers woefully underestimate the importance of the environment.

The gardeners who pay close attention to the environment will always have the most successful grows. It makes a huge difference to plant health and growth speed, both of which will eventually affect the size of the crop. An extraction kit can help a lot with this.

What makes a good grow room extraction kit?

1) Carbon Filter

Having a high quality filter that's reliable is a key element in your extraction system. A carbon filter (such as the Rhino or CarboAir range) keeps smells at bay and keeps your air clean and free from smells that could be leaking out of your grow room - don't skimp out on this.

2) Grow room fans

A good grow room fan is a staple in good grow room extraction kits. This is what's moving powering your setup and will be connected to ducting to remove heat from the grow room.

3) Ducting

Your ducting connects your fan to your filter system, whilst venting the hot air out of your grow room and into an outside space.

All of these items are key and can be found spec'd out in our extraction kits as we've done all the hard work for you.

If whether you're looking for AC or EC extraction kits, we've got everything you need, no matter your budget.

Now you know what you need in your extraction kits, what else do you need to know to get great results?

The Key Factors of a great environment:

• The temperature
• The relative humidity (RH) level
• The level of infrared light
• The carbon dioxide (CO2) level
• The air circulation in the grow space

Air Temperature

Without CO2 supplementation, the ideal temperature an average of between 21ºC and 24ºC over a 24 hour period. If the temperature is 19ºC for 12 hours during the dark period and then 26ºC during the light period then that gives an average of 22.5ºC over the 24 hour period. Ideal you never want the temperature to go below 18ºC or else plant growth can stall. Nor should the temperature ever go above 28ºC as this can cause overheating issues. An extraction kit can help keep temperatures in the right range.

With CO2 supplementation the ideal upper and average temperature is a completely different matter. Both of these can, and should, be higher. The temperature should still never go below 18ºC. However, the extra CO2 the upper temperature should be more like 30ºC -34ºC. We will go into this in more detail in the CO2 supplementation section.

Relative Humidity

The combination of relative humidity and temperature create something called vapour pressure deficit (VPD). This is a measure of the "drying" ability of the air. If the air is hot and dry, the VPD will be high. This means that plants will lose too much water through the stomata (the breathing pores on the underside of the leaves where they "breath" in CO2 to use in photosynthesis). Eventually the plant will begin to close the stomata which means it will breath in less CO2 which, in turn, will slow down photosynthesis.

If the air is damp and cold, the plant will be barely able to lose water at all. Some water loss is necessary for something called transpiration. This is where water containing nutrients is drawn in through the roots and then some is lost through the leaves. If the water is not lost then no more water (containing nutrients) will be drawn up through the roots. This can lead to nutrient deficiencies. Worse still, damp encourages molds like powdery mildew and botrytis which can have a devastating effect on a crop. An extraction kit can help with keeping RH within the correct range.

To get the right combination of temperature and humidity use the chart below and try to stay in the green region:

Infrared light

Infrared light needs to be recognised as something that is emitted by some grow lights (particularly HID lights like HPS). This infrared lights heat up plant leaves directly, raising their temperature by about 1ºC to 3ºC above the temperature. This is the reason that it is better to use the actual leaf temperature in the chart above than just the temperature. It is worth mentioning that LED grow lights put out barely any infrared radiation.

CO2 Levels

Plants need CO2 for the process of photosynthesis. The background level of CO2 in the air is 300-400 PPM (depending on where you are. Plants can use anything up to 1200 PPM. The higher the concentration in the air, the more that plants can absorb, and the more photosynthesis that can be performed. CO2 supplementation can increase growth rate and yields by about 20%. When supplementing CO2 it is important to raise temperatures by about 5ºC. This is because the extra CO2 makes the plants more resistant to heat stress and it increases the plants' metabolism to increase photosynthesis.

As plants breath in CO2, the levels will go down. If you don't supplement CO2 an extraction system will suck out the depleted air and draw in fresh air with normal levels.

Circulation

While replacing the air in a grow space with an extraction kit is very important, it is also important to use a circulation fan as well. This circulates the air in a grow space to help prevent hot, humid and CO2 depleted microclimates forming around leaves.

Opticlimate full climate control is a great all in one solution for keeping temperature and humidity in the right range.

All our extraction kits include either a rhino or CarboAir carbon filter. These 2 top brands use the best carbon in the world which makes them the best filters in the world. Their unique reliability gives you, the grower, the peace of mind that you need. For more information about which kit is best for you, please see our guide: Choosing an Extraction System

To see our full Duct Fans, Carbon Filters & Air Control range, click here