CO2 is important to plants: we could go very deep on this indeed, however, we will make this simple as we can. Your plants are as dependent on CO2 as humans and animals are on oxygen; plants will cease to grow if CO2 becomes unavailable to them. This is why extraction is so important in your grow room, not only for the removal of heat, but to provide the plants with fresh outside air which is full of CO2. Having said that, there is a flipside to this coin. Plants can grow 20 – 40% faster and larger, yielding a lot more final product if you enhance the levels of CO2 available to them. Normal atmospheric air contains approximately 300 – 400 parts per million of CO2, a plant growing indoors in heavy flower with a lot of artificial light over it, can consume 4 times more CO2 than is available in the air. 1200 – 1500 parts per million is the optimum level for rapid plant growth, and in order to achieve this you will need a CO2 release system to add extra CO2 to your room.

There are a few things to consider when adding CO2. It can be done in a low tech fashion with exhale bags or CO2 boost buckets, which simply put, is decaying organic matter in a bucket or bag. As this happens, a fair bit of excess CO2 is given off. These methods are ok for the hobbyist grower trying to add some extra yield and vigour to their crop, but if you want to really see the benefits of CO2 in full force, and accurately dose your room to optimum levels, you will need a CO2 controller or analyzer of some sort and a regulator which fits to a CO2 gas bottle. These can be hired out from our shop, or alternatively, you can use a CO2 generator, which we also stock. These run by burning liquid propane gas and are cheap to run as LPG is easily available and very cheap. However, these units do give off some heat and tend to raise humidity levels in the rooom. Also, if you are looking at running a CO2 enriched room and want to make it as efficient as possible, we highly recommend that you look at the “Closed Environment Agriculture” section of our website, and read it thoroughly. We can advise you on the best choice to make, just give us a call!