Rock salt for humidity control?

[Sir Digby Chicken Caesar]

Read some on rock salt being used as a dehumidifier.
The rock salt is poured into a bucket with drainage holes drilled through the bottom. That bucket is then placed into a second bucket to collect the excess moisture.

Recently realizing I'm fresh out of wattage to run an effective dehumidifier, so looking into snake oil and the like. ;P

Have any of you tried this?

I think I'm gonna give it a shot as it's a cheap experiment. Trying to get high 60's to low 70's RH down to around 50%

[M_C]

I have the opposite RH issues

[Cont3]

You can use a certain type of cat litter to reduce humidity. I had an old car that would mist up in the winter so I had a sock full of the stuff and it stopped my car misting up. Easy fix to raise humidity is a small fish tank water heater and a bucket.

[Sir Digby Chicken Caesar]

I have the opposite RH issues

Thought that was gonna be my issue starting out. That changed quickly.

You can use a certain type of cat litter to reduce humidity. I had an old car that would mist up in the winter so I had a sock full of the stuff and it stopped my car misting up. Easy fix to raise humidity is a small fish tank water heater and a bucket.

Cool, I'll check into the cat liter socks as well. Weird hobby... Could hang them from the parabolic to help stabilize it. lol Thanks.

I'm gonna grab four 5 gallon buckets and some sodium chloride Monday. Figure I'll try one in the room and the tent simultaneously.

Worst case I have some more buckets and buy a cat.

[Cats]

Thought that was gonna be my issue starting out. That changed quickly.




Cool, I'll check into the cat liter socks as well. Weird hobby... Could hang them from the parabolic to help stabilize it. lol Thanks.

I'm gonna grab four 5 gallon buckets and some sodium chloride Monday. Figure I'll try one in the room and the tent simultaneously.

Worst case I have some more buckets and buy a cat.

I'm gonna guess that would be silica cat litter, but not 100% sure. And yes just get a cat anyway

[Farmer Geddon]

I'm starting to miss my RH80% cellar. Plants like RH80% and I've learned to be vigilant and snip out bits of mould during the last few weeks of flower. With my hall cupboard, every time the weather changes it's like starting over in a new grow room. I'm realising the benefit of having a climate that is stable from grow to grow. I don't care much what the humidity is, anything from RH40% to RH80% will do me as long as it is stable. I do care about how much it will cost to have a stable climate though.

Sir D, what would be your leccy spend to get RH50%? When I was doing a 9 plant scrog with 4 x 315w cmh, 3% lost to mould meant a growing cost of ~£20. No way I could reduce humidity down there for only 20 quids worth of leccy.

[Sir Digby Chicken Caesar]

I'm starting to miss my RH80% cellar. Plants like RH80% and I've learned to be vigilant and snip out bits of mould during the last few weeks of flower. With my hall cupboard, every time the weather changes it's like starting over in a new grow room. I'm realising the benefit of having a climate that is stable from grow to grow. I don't care much what the humidity is, anything from RH40% to RH80% will do me as long as it is stable. I do care about how much it will cost to have a stable climate though.

Sir D, what would be your leccy spend to get RH50%? When I was doing a 9 plant scrog with 4 x 315w cmh, 3% lost to mould meant a growing cost of ~£20. No way I could reduce humidity down there for only 20 quids worth of leccy.

Very sorry, I completely lost track of this.

I think i hear what you're saying. I lost around an oz last grow, about 4-5%. I went with a 550W dehumidifier that costs around $50 per month to run full tilt. So I guess the loss to mold was about equal to what I would have paid in electric for the dehum over the whole grow. If it's also giving some insurance against a really nasty outbreak of rot than I think it's worth the cost, if not wasteful.

In extreme conditions of heat and humidity (90F +80% RH) it seems like i can keep the tent RH under 55%. I was pushing nearly 70% at times without it, having to resort to opening the tent and aiming the ac at it to take some pressure off. The AC is on max constantly. I can get the RH down to mid-high 40's at times, but not without raising the temps higher than I'd like from midflower on. I want to aim for 75F/24C 55% max on the next run. More confident on humidity than temps, though.

I feel I'm limited by the climate outside the bedroom that the tent is in. Even without factoring ventilation speed the ac and dehum both pull in untreated air from other rooms at a fast rate, too much of which makes it into the tent too quickly. I think... Like trying to tame a torrent. So things definitely aren't as stable as I'd like for the price, but ditching the dehumidifier and just running at 70% RH....I just don't feel lucky.

I'm hoping that winter will be easier. Maybe substitute AC with a cracked window, and my RH readings last winter (before growing) were as low as 30, so maybe no dehum either. Be nice if the hid's handle the wamth alone.

[Sir Digby Chicken Caesar]

Forgot. The rock salt was a fail. Hardly a fraction of the water uptake that the dehumidifier produces. Maybe with a stronger fan, but it just seems easily overrun.

[CheapHomeGrown]

I have found ways to control humidity, over the years.
The first thing I do is wrap my hole room in dpm, this will stop any damp and oder getting in the walls, next is the airflow, cause a vacuum and the air can hold less water, the next thing is temperature, as the temperature increase the humidity drops, its a balance between the temperature and humidity
Air pressure(intake air pressure vs exhaust air pressure) x temperature = humidity