I’ve been growing trichs for 5 years or so and have always induced dormancy during the winter (zone 8a) but decided to try growing indoors this winter.

I’ve got two 500 watt LED panels and one 250 watt LED panel (viparspectra) over like 70 plants in a 5x5 closet. There’s a box fan in the corner and a small oscillating fan on the other side. I just added the box fan last week to increase airflow.

My main issue has been with watering. It seems everything dries out much quicker indoors and initially I didn’t water for a month or so and things got really dehydrated. So I started watering weekly (waiting for the soil to dry between each watering) and carried on like this for two months or so. Thought things were going well until I discovered a pretty serious fungal infection spreading through my plants.

I have stopped watering to try and dry out the fungal infection (idk if that’s even logical) so now things are dehydrating again. Sprayed copper fungicide topically and doesn’t seem to have helped; one got worse. Garden phos is currently being shipped.

How do you indoor growers deal with this? I feel like it’s been one problem after another. Granted, my plants are growing and not etiolating, but this fungal or bacterial issue is starting to get bad. Had to toss one last night.

Guess I’m looking for a discussion or advice. Another thought I had, or question, is could I give up on this experiment, dial back the lights and temp, and induce dormancy for the rest of winter?

I know this is a long fucking post and I really appreciate any help. Afraid I’m going to lose my collection. I know people have strong opinions about dormancy vs indoor growth and am just looking for guidance not debate 🙏