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Ask a Grower

Ask-a-Grower #105

Should I use CO2?

In one word, absolutely! Adding more CO2 to your grow room stimulates plant growth. In fact, plants can grow up to 30% bigger utilizing supplemental CO2. But you don’t have to rely solely on tanks to provide it. You can take advantage of naturally occurring CO2 in our atmosphere; importing fresh air is the easiest and most cost effective way of doing this. Unfortunately, during periods of time with really extreme temperatures, this is not a viable option because really hot or really cold air could potentially be devastating to your garden. But when temperatures are more mild, like at night or during the fall and spring, using a fan to bring fresh air into the garden is best way to provide your garden with that much needed CO2.

It’s important to remember however, that air circulation is essential for CO2 distribution. Plants will use up all the CO2 in their environment in a matter of seconds. So, the more airflow in your garden the better the chances your garden will utilize all the available CO2 in the garden.

Sealed rooms are a different story. When importing fresh air is not really an option, CO2 tanks and generators are generally the best methods of providing CO2. When you understand that a garden will consume all of the CO2 in a sealed room within an hour, the need to provide CO2 in some form becomes apparent. CO2 is essential to every garden but not providing adequate CO2 in a sealed room would be a huge mistake.