By Scott Misener

So we've covered everything there is to know about ventilation, right? Not so fast. Immerse yourself, if you will, in the very concept of air movement. By all means, step outside and consider what is going on with the air out there. Massive wind currents push and pull air across the surface of the earth in ever-changing, unpredictable patterns. Something you need to simulate indoors if you want to keep your plants happy.

There is a very generic way to gauge the atmosphere of your garden without using the latest digital gadgets and fancy hygrometers (although they are worth the money spent). Just stand in your garden and see how you feel. If you stand in your garden area and it feels hot and stuffy, then your plants are feeling hot and stuffy. I consider myself to be a pleasant, laid back individual. But when I'm hot and uncomfortable, I get cranky, nauseated, and I feel unmotivated. Your plants are living organisms that react to temperatures and humidity levels like you and I do. The last thing you want on your hands is a pissed off, stressed out plant that spends more time just maintaining itself in those stifling conditions than it does producing those fruits and vegetables you and your family are counting on. Those plants need to keep working if you want success as an indoor gardener. If you have a problem, acknowledge it and then fix it. Even if you've set up your intake on the floor and the exhaust on the ceiling opposite from each other, you need to help push and stir up that air. Oscillating fans take care of the job.

First, visualize how the air flows through your garden. Think of how the air enters the room, rises as it warms in the light, and vents out of the area. Then simply place your oscillating fans in an arrangement that assists the airflow. Position your fans to help the fresh air move from point of intake towards the exhaust fan moving air out of the garden. If you have a corner or an out-of-the-way wall in your area that doesn't seem to be in the direct airflow, put that oscillating fan in that corner and blow out that dead air. Get it out of there! Don't fight the natural airflow. To set up a fan that blows against the natural flow of the intake defeats the purpose. You want to move that blanket of hot air sitting on the ceiling out. Fighting the airflow only stirs up that hot, stale air sending it down onto the canopy of your garden. To experience efficient airflow, sit in your garden with a few oscillating fans. Experiment with different fan positions and configurations, keeping the natural flow of your ventilation system in mind. When you get the fan positioning right, you will feel it. The room should literally drop ten degrees or so. Your plants will thank you with a bountiful yield.

Another use for oscillating fans is to cool off the plant canopy. When high-wattage HID lights hover over the tops of your plants, the plant tissue gets hot. Just like the skin tissue that covers our bodies, plant tissue is susceptible to sunburn. At the same time, in order to maximize the light you are spending your hard earned money on, you need to have the lights three feet or closer to the tops of your plants. The indoor gardener always walks that fine line. As you can imagine, it gets pretty hot under those bulbs. Oscillating fans will help with the heat. By training the path of the fan to blow through the space between the bulb and the tops of the plants will keep those plants from burning. Depending on the flair of the reflector you are using, heat problems will vary. If your plants continue to burn up even with a fan, raise those lights. Always monitor the temperature under the lights. That's where the plants are growing! Not off to the side in the secondary light were you're standing!

There are many other benefits from oscillating fans. Plants can simply breath better. Don't you feel better in front of a fan when temperatures climb into the nineties? Look at the vegetative growth in your garden. Are your leaves moving consistently across your garden? If the answer is no, then you are not exchanging the air around the leaf surface. You want all the leaves on all your plants moving slightly in the air current. On the other hand, you don't want to hammer the plants with harsh winds. The stress of intense wind will cause the leaves to curl and fold into itself in an attempt to protect those delicate stomata on the bottom of the leaves. When plants are huddled together, a lush canopy will restrict air movement. A lot problems can and will develop underneath that thick canopy. Your plants' precious fruit and flower sets will sit in a cloud of humidity. Such conditions invite mold and mildew, and there's nothing worse than putting time and effort into your garden only to have your produce consumed by mold in the ripening stage. The sight of fruits and flowers consumed by gray mold is enough to make an adult cry like a little baby. Create holes in the canopy for air to move throughout the foliage by removing large fan leaves. This coupled with fans stirring up the air will prevent mold and mildew from even starting. Now, I'm not saying take off all the leaves by any means. The leaves are what feed the plant. Stripping the plant of all its leaves will only shock the plant. Just remove a few large leaves here and there.

Fans are also used to control pest populations. Spider mites, for example, run rampant in the great outdoors but you don't see plants mummified by mite webs like you will inside if you neglect an infestation. That's due to air movement. Mites love still, hot, dead air. Conditions commonly found in your average indoor garden situation. Wind currents will actually blow mites and other pests right off your plants. And mites, being about the size of a pinhead, take a long time to crawl back up on your plants. It all comes down to creating a hostile environment for an infestation. If you have ever battled mites before, chances are the mites took a foothold on your garden on a plant that was stuffed in the corner out of any kind of air movement. By keeping your garden temperature in the mid seventies, or low eighties at the very least, you can dramatically slow down the rate of reproduction of pest populations, giving you a chance to hit them with a pesticide spray. Bugs won't stand a chance. Keep in mind that spider mites can reproduce up to ten times faster when temperatures rest in the nineties.

So turn up those fans and cool off your room. Your plants will perk up in the wind and you'll make life miserable for all those bugs. A price they'll have to pay for invading your garden! Until next week, breath easy.

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