CO2 Controls

Plug'N'Grow Horticultural CO₂ controllers are precious and accurate tools for your indoor gardening.. They use the NDIR ("Non Dispersive Infra Red") technology to measure CO₂ without influence from the other air gas components like oxygen, nitrogen and rare gases. Plug'N'Grow Horticultural CO₂ controllers are well known to many indoor gardeners in North America since 2002.

After adequate control of the temperature and humidity climate conditions, the carbon dioxide or "CO₂" concentration is the environmental variable that mainly promotes growth in plants. In indoor or hobby greenhouse gardening, plants are not getting enough carbon when CO₂ concentration drops below 300 ppm, thus making this gas a limiting factor to growth. Also, a CO₂ concentration in excess of 2000 ppm may cause plant transpiration to stop. Then, in both cases, nutrients are not fully used, light is not used in the photosynthesis process and growth results are average at best. Carbon dioxide is only "breathed in" by the plants during photosynthesis, meaning CO₂ is only useful when there is light. In the dark, a high CO₂ level may impair the plants breathing out of waste and unused materials and should rather be reduced in the garden atmosphere.

Plug'N'Grow CO₂ controllers activate the concentration enhancement equipment as soon as there is light. That's when the plants need the CO₂! Such CO₂ enrichment equipment may be a bottled CO₂ system or a gas combustion generator.

Plug'N'Grow CO₂ Controller Comparison

Plug'N'Grow CO₂ Controllers Comparison

* CO2 concentration varies in outside air depending on location, time, surroundings and altitude. It is recommended to calibrate the CO2 sensor with a certified concentration calibration gas.

** CO2 NDIR sensors loose their precision with time and "drift away" from calibration. Drifts of 100 to 200 ppm below the real value over 3 months use have been observed. It is recommended to calibrate the CO2 sensor at the beginning of each cultivation.

*** The marked CO2 controller has only one output and can only serve one purpose at a time, enrichment OR ventilation.