Basics of Boosting Growth with Supplemental CO2 from a Mushroom bag

@twisted1 rest up -- that's no fun at all.  @realsmotpoker yes, I think this is the case for most people. But, and  I’m not sure if you have been following the whole thread, my situation is different in that my tent is in a naturally cool basement and I've mounted the driver to my bar-light outside the tent. 
A mushy bag has enabled me to push the plants upward of 1300 PAR with vigorous growth and no plant suffocation.  The initial posts spells that out, but like a lot of us, people have been doubtful. Twisted had the right situation and chance to test it, and I've been surprised at the CO2 levels from the bag.

today's co2 levels

started out great this morning. then i set the fan back to where it would cycle  still ended up in the 800-900 range and i turned it back off again now. maybe tomorrow ill take the meter to the other tent and see if the bottle is still working  or if it may need a refill

great info @twisted1 … for the fan, are you not able to set a schedule to run 1/2 a day however long? I stead of manual or is the later prefered? 👊

@twisted1 Those are much higher levels than I expected! Even with the exhaust, that is still 50% above background.  I’m surprised!

@green_fingers_87 not sure if you’ve been following along (several posts and threads have blurred together, lol), but Twisted is testing a claim I made that has growers somewhat divided.  The is so we can find the total value of output from the bag, and the exhaust cycling on is to figure how much CO2 would remain with an exhaust running under typical tent conditions.

@green_fingers_87 i am running on a ink bird temp controller. to stop it from running i set it to a higher temp.  my tent has 2 small mother plants and a couple seedlings so the lights are running at a low power level allowing me to keep the fan off. kind of simulating a closed loop and allowing us to see what levels the Co2 yeast bottle and the mushroom bags can produce. and then seeing how the levels look in a normal setup with a fan on a temp controller.   Running a grow tent with out a temperature controller to shut down the fan and allow CO2 levels to build up would be useless (imo) but i may try that one day also just to see but i have little hope that would provide any benefit.  but ive been wrong before.

@twisted1 … so you only use fan for high temps and just leave C02 to regulate, until you see it drop? 

Now you have the mushroom bag, I assume it is less taxing … not having to maintain?

Posted by: @green_fingers_87

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so you only use fan for high temps and just leave C02 to regulate, until you see it drop? 

@green_fingers_87 @twisted1 this is how my tent is setup as well, and the coolness of my basement and light driver being outside the tent allows for more CO2 buildup in the tent -- apparently more than I thought it would.  Dr. Bugbee says 1200 ppm is full saturation for cannabis. Others recommend a bit lower levels of 1000, and 800-1000 for seedlings in general greenhouse applications. I'm surprised to see that an immature mushy bag is producing good numbers that are close to recommendations. THANKS fo doing this Twisted, and hope you are starting to feel better.

@green_fingers_87  the exhaust fan is useful for removing excess heat. i normally dont run my tents this warm if i can help it. im just doing this to for testing purposes soon ill be running it like normal.   but the fan is also used to replenish fresh air (co2) that the plants use  through out the day.  and to help control the smell via the carbon filter another reason in doing this with seedlings and small veg plants since they wont stink up the house and upset the wife. lol

I dont normally use CO2 in my grow but we were having a conversation about using the Mushroom bag. I was of the belief that it was wasteful if not used in a closed loop system, so i decided to get a cheap meter and try some of the inexpensive options that many growers have asked about here.  Im posting the results so others can look and decide if its something they feel might be beneficial to use in their grow or not.    seems better than some one like me saying its a complete waste of money,  or some one saying it will increase your yields by 30%.  when the  truth is some where in between.  SO i have tried simulating some of the different ways us home growers run our setups with what i have.  I think tomorrow i will run my fan constant for the growers that have no controllers so they can see what they may expect.

I do have to admit i was wrong and i am seeing  CO2 levels above what i believed they would be and could provide a benefit to a grow when using a temperature controller on the exhaust fan.   Maybe not a 30% increase in yield but it could also be helpful in a grow that runs on the warmer side something i used to have issues with.

in the end i just hope it helps others that are thinking about trying it to make their own decision if they feel like it is something they want to use or not.   plus im having fun learning something.

@im_sparky Thanks.  still feeling terrible here starting to think this might not be the flu,  yesterday the whole world started smelling like bleach  lol

 The Mushy bag is surprising me high 1300's this morning.  i think it is warmed up and ready   lol

Todays numbers  fan still not running.  i think the 1100 reading was shortly after i watered. i was in the tent for about 5 mins before i closed it back up.

I just set the controller low (70f) so the fan should not shut off once the lights come on in the morning and i start collecting pics.

this is how many of us start with out any controller exhaust fan on full.