C02 production experiments - Citric acid and Baking soda
By mixing an acid and a base in a pressurized cylinder designed for this use, you can have a supply of C02. Using a valve and electric actuator we can use a C02 metering device to allow the gas to flow into a grow tent or green house.
These C02 generators can be purchased on Amazon and are made for this, explaining how much Citric acid and Baking soda to mix. Using an AC infinity C02 controller we can monitor and meter how much the tent gets. Seems most people are using these for their aquariums, but my use will be different.
It comes in a kit with everything needed besides the acids and bases.
We can see directions on the top of the gas cylinder. Mixing 360G of Citric acid with 400G of baking soda and 600ml of cold water.
More instructions are on the bottle explaining how to use. Good points about adding cold water, if use you warm water the acid and base react faster and you may have a foam over before you can get the cap on...lol
Important to note you must let the reactants settle otherwise they will get pulled up through the valves and possibly clog it. So once you add the mix, you let it sit for 24 hours to build up gases and let the solids settle.
The top has a pressure gauge to tell you once it has built up enough pressure to allow gas flow through the system.
A day later we are ready to raise the C02 in the tent.. Baseline is around 700.
I turn the valve and we can see gases bubbling up through the viewing glass.
A few hours later we are up to 940PPM, well above the ambient.. its working. I had to stop the intake fans to the tent to get to this level, so the temps inside the tent slowly rise as the C02 builds up.
Shortly after we cross over 1000, with the goal of around 1200PPM
Eventually it gets up to 1100PPM but due to the tent temperatures I had to allow air flow in, which quickly dropped the PPM.
I can see myself using this setup during the winter, when the basement temperatures are low. Otherwise it is hard to keep safe temperatures inside the tent without exchanging air flow. I guess a timer would work well to flush out the air once in awhile and allow cool fresh air in. So something that has a timer that will come on after a set amount of time and then turn off in cycles would fix that concern.
I would need to buy a second tank if I was to use this method throughout a grow. As they only last about 24 hours, I would need to have them in rotation. So as one is empty I have a charged one ready to go. Otherwise the downtime of 12-24 hours would occur while I wait for the next batch of acids and bases to build up C02.
Previous posts on this project:
https://peakd.com/science/@solominer/c02-production-experiments-sugar-and-yeast
funny i use something for keeping the c02 low in my house 😂 and you just try to increase it for plant grow .
i use this https://ultimatesensor.nl/en/ with my home assistant installation .
Hehe yeah plants seem to like it much more than us mammals.
Oh cool. I have used home assistant for a weather station. I think I am going to play around with IOT devices more soon.
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Good think but be careful boss
thanks, will do.
Yes...
Interesting method! Does this setup maintain a consistent CO2 output over time, or does it taper off quickly?"
Yeah it sure is pretty cool. The 2L bottle lasts about 24 hours, but if it was used for aquariums I hear it lasts weeks if not longer. I need a lot more of it for the grow tent to get it up to the target PPM.
Hey this is cool. You seem to be getting into the neatest gadgets with the homestead!
I will have to admit I immediately thought how it would be great to create co2 to push our beer and fuel our sodastream side hustle. Impossible to pressurize that though so no go.
I have stimulated co2 in an aquarium to help plants grow but never a greenhouse. I will be following this as I have a tough time growing seedlings for the garden and it may be a co2 thing.
Solid!
Hah yeah been playing around with adding C02 gas to my grow tent for awhile. Figured I would talk about my findings. About the sodastream idea, I did read someone using this generator to carbonate their water.. So maybe it is possible to use it for sodas.
Most people use this generator for aquariums so makes sense. Well if you have a small enclosed space it would be helpful. If its in an open area it wont work.
Never heard of this kind of set up earlier, but increasing CO2 helps plant grow ?
Yep it sure can, up to 25% more I hear.
Is this a new process for you or have you tried something like this in the past? What kind of difference did you see in how the plants turned out? I really find this fascinating.
For the C02 tanks using citric acid and baking soda this is my first time using it. But I have used sugar and yeast numerous times to generate c02 in my cannabis grows. All my cannabis smokes really strong so I can only assume it helped.
Very interesting! I hope this works out well for you too! It's kind of crazy how potent the stuff is these days compared to back in the day. At least where I come from.
I didn't know there were CO2 tanks, which as I'm saying it now sounds a bit stupid because I knew there were oxygen tanks.😂😂
This is a very neat setup. Very impressive...🔥
Well they are both gas cylinders, all depends what gas you put in them.
Thanks much
So cool the experiments you did I hope you are fine there
Hah thanks, its been fun.
I had no clue you could produce c02 this way for growing plants indoors, bag of tricks to grow plants 😁 , I think the rotation idea works but would take some daily work, having plants is like having pets you got to be checking on them constantly, unless its a cat those are more independent, I'm usually a little tired after I clock out from work and less work is always better for those of us who can't devote as much time to plants or are a little lazy in that regard hahahaha , that c02 kit looks geeky too 🤓
Hah yeah many cool things to do to help the plants grow better.
Did you consider mushroom bags?
Did you go down the Mycelium rabbit hole yet?
My next c02 production experiment post will be about exactly that, growing mushrooms to produce c02.
Yeah I have seen those bags you can buy to produce c02. Maybe I will give them a try this winter when I am back to growing indoors in my enclosed tent.
I went full Stamets and grew baskets full of oyster mushrooms.