Spring Cleaning

Even though it’s the dead of winter, if you are running an indoor room, you should be doing some healthy spring cleaning every few months.  That’s right, I’m talking about your little personal closet, the tucked-away 8×3 that keeps the “grower’s reserve” coming in…  it gets dirty between rounds, and that’s not good for your stuff.

We’ve talked about what to do with supplier-size operations when it’s time to start over, but today I’m going to focus on the rest of us – the personal farmers.

Small rooms are different than larger rooms for a variety of reasons.  There are pros and cons to both, but both situations can be appropriate, so it just comes down to knowing what to watch out for so your next cycle goes off as well as this one.

Air Flow
Small rooms typically have less air movement than larger ones… why?  Because larger volumes of fluid (air is a gas, which is a fluid substance.. check your chemistry book) produce convection currents (the movement of fluid caused by differences in temperature) more naturally and effectively, and larger rooms tend to have more natural sources of air flow (leaks, basically).   The air in your room makes up almost all of it’s volume, so keeping it clean is very important.  To do this, do three things:

1. Make sure you have a clean room when you start.  A room full of dust mites, allergens, spores, molds, and mildews with only release those pests into the air – where they will come to rest on your plants.

2. Make sure you constantly move and recycle the air in your small space.  For most small spaces, a decent filter/fan setup, an oscillating fan 6-16″ in diameter (depending on the size of your room or closet), and a 6-16″ inch intake hole will do the job.  Remember, in more casual setups, your intake can be the sum total of any source of air that is allowed into the room (basically, all the openings, cracks, holes, crevices, etc).  In my personal closet, a small curtain blocks the light while the door is left slightly ajar to allow for an instant wealth of air intake.  This works fine.

3. After you finish a cycle, make sure you let your room air out well (at least a full 24 hours) before you thoroughly clean it. If you can, let a heater run warmly while airing out so you can dry the moist air left over after flushing your last round.  This is the most important step, because the junk that accumulates during even a perfect grow cycle will only harbor the critters and funk that we don’t want in our air next time.  SO… onto the cleaning.

Surface Area
Small rooms have less surface area for funk to collect on, so funk collects in a higher concentration.  That’s why small contained areas tend to grow little funky mildew patches behind couches and on closet walls.  While the the lights and airflow in your room will prevent those concentrations from building, those critters are still there, in the air, on the surfaces, and all around.  That’s why it’s important to thoroughly sanitize all your surface areas between rounds.

1.  Use a broom and vacuum to remove all the particulate matter, dust, dirt, remnants, and other funk left over.  If you are using beds like we’ve built on this blog, or pre-fab water reservoirs,  or anything else that has collected funk during your cycle, make sure you wipe it down as well and get it as clean as possible.

2. Using a solution of hydrogen peroxide concentrate (or bleach if it’s all you can get), mix about .5 oz. with about 3 or 4 gallons of water, preferrably in a sprayer  (I like the Round-Up brand sprayers the best).  Generously spray your walls, floor, and ceiling, beds, etc.. everything besides your lights, fans, and sensitive electrical equipment.  If it needs it, scrub it with a rag.  Rinse all this material with a hose thoroughly as you want no bleach or peroxide getting in contact with your water, soil, or materials once you are growing again.

3.  Lightly dampen a clean rag with some of your cleaning solution (peroxide/water or bleach/water) and wipe down the in and outside of your light hoods, your fan blades, fan housing, and anything else that shouldn’t be sprayed but has exposed surface area.  Wipe it dry with a dry, clean rag.

Preperation for the Next Round
Now that your room is clean, we want it to stay that way.  If you can, do all your preperation work in a seperate space… do not mix soil, fill pots, mix nutrients, or do anything else inside your space that doesn’t absolutely have to be there.  If you have your beds ready to just roll in, all clean and potted, then you minimize the chance that material will be found laying around that can be colonized by pests and parasites.

Finally, a tip that I’ve used everytime… NEEM your surfaces after you clean and before you start up again.  Neem oil is a exactly that, an oil… it suffocates/starves any mites, mildews, or molds that land on it, and creates a seal over the top of your clean surfaces that makes them an inhospitable enviroment for critters and funk.  To do this, follow the directions on your bottle of neem oil, mix it in a CLEAN (never the one you used for your cleaning solution) Round-Up sprayer, and generously coat any crevice or opening where mites could enter, as well as the walls, floor, beds, sides of your buckets, and anything else with a solid surface from about your knees your waist down.

Voila!
Now your room is clean, sealed, sanitized, and ready to go.  Roll in your fresh, clean beds full of veggies and let the next round roll!

See ya next time.

Posted Friday, December 19th, 2008 | In Guerilla Speeks.
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