Record Temps Cause Grow Room Troubles

Record high temperatures in coastal Humboldt County have indoor marijuana farmers seeking cooling solutions to curb the heat wave and protect their cash crops.

The unusually hot weather is a welcome change in Eureka and Arcata for most, but pot growers are worried about the effects on their gardens.

"Cannabis doesn't do well once the temperature goes over about 90 degrees" inside the grow room, says one anonymous local grower. "When you have eight thousand watts of light in an eight by twelve foot enclosed space, it can get very warm when that outside temperature gets to 85."

One of the best things about the Eureka area for indoor pot gardeners is the consistently cool coastal weather, usually around or under 60 degrees ferenheight. Most growers simply blow outside air into their gardens and vent the heated air out the other side, and that is enough to keep the grow room temperature below the recommended 80F that pot plants thrive in.

"Sure, the plants don't die when it's 95 degrees in the [grow] room, but they certainly require more work like extra watering and raising the lights," another grower said. In order to help control the temperature, she said, many indoor pot growers have taken to shutting off half or more of their grow lamps during the daylight hours.

The implications of this are actually pretty funny. In an area where almost no one has air conditioning, when pot growers start shutting down half their grow lights due to the heat, we're guessing local electricity consumption tapers off during a heat wave. In most cities, heat waves are notorious for stressing the power grid due to overuse of air conditioners in peak daytime hours. Here in Humboldt County, our power usage likely decreases with the heat as thousands of cannabis growers shut off their high wattage light systems to reduce heat output in their gardens.

Pretty neat, huh?