Indoor Air Quality Meters : Carbon dioxide or CO2 is the main gas to support plant life. It is a colorless, odorless gas found in small amounts in the air.
To make the best of gardening, you must provide the plants with all the components of the process described above: light, CO2, water and nutrients. If plants get enough water, but are weak supply of hydroponic nutrients or light, will not be printed. Injection CO2can offer great benefits if done by a qualified and experienced gardener. However, beginners can easily kill his CO2 injection facilities improperly.
Several important conditions must be created before using the increased levels of CO2. First and foremost, you must give a very bright light for the plants (more than 20 watts per square meter). Otherwise, it will be little or no increase in crop production. It 'also need to increase the temperature slightly (about 3-5 degrees). Finally, do not forget to provide plants with enough water and nutrients, since the increased photosynthesis will require more resources.
In a natural environment, plants typically use about 300-600 ppm (parts per million) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. By contrast, the plants to handle significantly larger amounts of CO2. With 1500 ppm of CO2 consumed, the plants can grow twice as fast as they grow normally. But in most cases about 40% – 50% growth increase obtained.
Preferably, the CO2 must be maintained at a constant level all the time. To achieve this objective regular injections of small amounts of gas needed. However, it is not always possible to perform such activities, as there is a requirement for the site of the ventilation system properly just before the injection.
Catches bigger injection of carbon dioxide is not to exceed the limits. Most of the plants will be destroyed, when CO2 levels reach 2000 ppm. In addition to high levels of CO2 are also toxic to humans. This is why you should ventilate the room before injection of CO2 to remove excess CO2 and preventing the accumulation.
Usually, the objective of increasing CO2 levels CO2 special devices () or bottled CO2, or CO2 generators are used. Both of these methods is to automatically provide the amount of CO2 in the environment for growth. It 'better use of CO2 monitors to track the precise levels of CO2 in the environment of growth and automatically adds the gas when needed. However, these devices can be very expensive, so most people use more cost-effective methods, for example, timer.
How to use CO2 bottle
Among the other control devices, CO2is bottle of CO2, perhaps the most popular method for distributing gas to the environment for growth. The system usually consists of full CO2 tank, a pressure gauge to check the amount of gas in the tank, a flow meter to measure the amount of gas released, a solenoid and a timer. Solenoid valve used to turn on and turn off the gas when needed.
Carbon dioxide provides easier and more precise, there are some tables practice, developed by Green Air Products. The first table shows how much time is needed to release the CO2 bottle by the system to reach 1,000 ppm concentration, while the second table of data on its schedule to reach 1500 ppm concentration. To use these tables, you must know the size of their environment for growth in cubic meters and the velocity of flow in your bottle Systemin cubic feet of CO2 per hour.
How to use CO2 generators
Previously, the generators of CO2 were used primarily by large commercial producers hydroponic only. But today, when these products are available in many formats, including hobby farmers can use CO2 generators to small interior gardens. CO2 generators work by burning natural gas or propane. They are usually equipped with a timer to turn the gas into the pre-defined periods of time and therefore CO2 at a scheduled time.
Compared with use of bottled CO2 is generating more money-saving options, because it is capable of producing about 26 cu. ft of gas CO2 per pound of fuel burned. In addition, CO2 generators are easier to work with. But with the production of CO2 which also generate a lot of heat. The latter can be considered both as an advantage when you live in a colder and further heating the air within the garden will be received, or as a disadvantage, which require additional ventilation, refrigeration and air conditioning to avoid overheating of the plants.
While they seem to generate CO2, you must also bear in mind that, when damaged, can produce carbon monoxide (CO), instead of carbon dioxide (CO2). This argument is in danger of life and can be fatal to humans even in small quantities (unlike CO2 which becomes deadly only in high concentrations). To check if your CO2 generator works well to look at the flame, which should be blue in normal conditions. If the flame is yellow or orange, it means that the generator does not burn fuel properly and dangerous release of carbon dioxide into the environment. If you notice yellow or orange flame, turn off the generator of CO2 and have studied and determined by a qualified technician. Finally, it is necessary to say that the only generators of CO2 and other devices for quality control of CO2, designed specifically for horticultural applications should be used indoors.
There are other ways to act on CO2
If you're not ready for use bottled CO2 or CO2 generators, there are still many opportunities to provide CO2into your environment for growth. Most of these techniques are manual, so it can be quite challenging to determine the actual concentration of CO2, but in the hands of others, is likely to exceed the limits of CO2 emissions, while using such methods, even tiny .
One of the alternatives that CO2 is a composting organic matter such as leaves, sawdust, straw, manure, etc. During their decay, certain amount of CO2 generated. This method is simple to use and requires little or no cost. However, you must be aware of any diseases or fungi that can develop in decomposing materials.
A certain amount of CO2 can also be received during the fermentation process. For example, mixing water, sugar and yeast fermentation performance and the production of CO2.
Dry ice is another source of CO2for your indoor plants. In reality, nothing but the dry ice is compressed into a solid mass of CO2 gas. Among other things, will never CO2 in liquid: it is solid or gas. So if you add a block of dry ice in your garden, it evaporates slowly and the release of CO2 gas. The disadvantage of dry ice is that this is a rather expensive material.
Another method to produce the CO2 coming from the kitchen dripping a small amount of baking soda with vinegar, will result in an active CO2 emissions.
Indoor Air Quality Meters
