Water Chiller vs AC Unit? Which is better for cold weather plants like spinach.

[GeekSheikh]

Hi, I’ve been looking around and haven’t found any real answers. My house stays about 76F during the day where the grow tent is. I am currently cooking the tent with a portable AC unit but as you can imagine the tent has no insulation…so this is very inefficient.

I’d love to use a water chiller instead but am worried about the plants being bitter or bolting in 76F, will the water chiller take care of this issue? Can I use the chiller and forget the AC unit?

If so, how high can the ambient temps be so long as the water is around 65? Curious as to if this solution would work in the garage where temps can reach 95F+ in the summer.

Thanks

[imafan26]

I don't know the answer. I don't even try to grow spinach, snow peas, or lettuce until the temperature is consistently under 75 degrees. I haven't grown spinach in years actually, because the spinach substitutes are less fussy and the yield is better.

[applestar]

I really have no idea, but just as an observation, in the ground, it’s often the air temperature that is cooler, especially at night, and during the day with direct sun, the leaf temperature would be much higher, and the ground temperature where it is shaded would be cooler…..

[GeekSheikh]

Bumping this, anyone have any ideas?

[pepperhead212]

I also don't grow spinach - bolts early for me in every situation - spring, fall, and even indoors, in hydro! On the subject of which way to cool, it will depend on where you are, and if it is generally very humid, you will be wanting to remove some of it from the air (excess moisture = disease, for many plants), plus the water cooler won't work very well. But if it is very dry, as a rule, like in the SW (though this year that has changed greatly!), the water cooler will add some moisture to the air. But as for spinach, I can't say how much moisture would be best.

[imafan26]

Spinach likes temperatures between 60-65 degrees and even tolerates frost down to 20 degrees. I think Applestar has a point. It is not just the water temperature, but the air temperature as well that may make the difference. If the water temperature is down to 50 degrees and the air temperature is 80, the plants probably still won't be happy.

I did grow spinach a long time ago, but it has such a short growing window and it does not produce that much. It is also loved by snails.

If you run the AC, the water will naturally be colder. But you would have to run the AC between 40-50 degrees. You may as well just put your hydroponic set up in a refrigerator. Only with AC or the refrigerator, you would probably have to use a dome, because refrigeration will dry out the air and you have to have some humidity.