Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - Indoor Garden 2018-2019 Revisited

SQWIBB · February 6, 2019

February 5th, 2019

The weather has been pretty mild or should I say absurdly hot for this time of year, for goodness sakes it's 60°F today and supposed to be 60°F again Friday. I have been trying to keep the temperature below 85°F but it has been hoovering around 88°F and reached 89°F yesterday. I had to come up with a game-plan and quick. I figured venting into the garage was not an option anymore because the garage heats up a good bit, for now I have the basement door open. The basement is a bit cooler than the garage at the moment.

Here is what I decided to try. The ceiling is insulated and the floor joist run horizontal to the house so the hot air is exhausted to the closet in the basement. I pushed up the insulation for a clear path to the other room.

Did it make a difference? Well based on one day I would have to say NO. I checked the temp this morning and it was 88°F inside the tent. I opened up the tent, watered the plants and hand pollinated the tomato plants and the temp dropped 3°F in 5 minutes, so I decided to just leave the door to the tent partially open during this heatwave. As long as it doesn't get any hotter I should be OK.
Next year I can run an intake to the far corner of the garage door where it will definitely pull in more outside air.

Am I being too critical? Maybe.
Am I expecting too much? I don't know, I never done this before.

When I start a project I am willing to invest a lot of time and research and in this case a lot of money, which I really don't have. Since this is my first year, I figured there would be challenges and expense and that next year would be much easier, I am still holding onto that belief, but, and this is a big BUT, I'm at the point where it's a sink or swim situation, I threw everything at this project and have maxed out, I won't be putting any more money into this project so it will have to work.

February 6, 2019	#45
SQWIBB Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: Philly 7A Posts: 739	*February 5th, 2019* The weather has been pretty mild or should I say absurdly hot for this time of year, for goodness sakes it's 60°F today and supposed to be 60°F again Friday. I have been trying to keep the temperature below 85°F but it has been hoovering around 88°F and reached 89°F yesterday. I had to come up with a game-plan and quick. I figured venting into the garage was not an option anymore because the garage heats up a good bit, for now I have the basement door open. The basement is a bit cooler than the garage at the moment. Here is what I decided to try. The ceiling is insulated and the floor joist run horizontal to the house so the hot air is exhausted to the closet in the basement. I pushed up the insulation for a clear path to the other room. Did it make a difference? Well based on one day I would have to say NO. I checked the temp this morning and it was 88°F inside the tent. I opened up the tent, watered the plants and hand pollinated the tomato plants and the temp dropped 3°F in 5 minutes, so I decided to just leave the door to the tent partially open during this heatwave. As long as it doesn't get any hotter I should be OK. Next year I can run an intake to the far corner of the garage door where it will definitely pull in more outside air. Am I being too critical? Maybe. Am I expecting too much? I don't know, I never done this before. When I start a project I am willing to invest a lot of time and research and in this case a lot of money, which I really don't have. Since this is my first year, I figured there would be challenges and expense and that next year would be much easier, I am still holding onto that belief, but, and this is a big BUT, I'm at the point where it's a sink or swim situation, I threw everything at this project and have maxed out, I won't be putting any more money into this project so it will have to work.