The invention of indoor grow tents was probably the best thing to ever happen to cannabis growers. Using a grow tent, no matter if it’s for cultivating weed or for harvesting fresh tomatoes, is an easy solution for indoor growers who want to keep things clean and simple.
Whether you’re a newbie grower or you’ve decided to ditch your old grow room setup and invest in a grow room instead, this beginner’s guide to using indoor grow tents can help make your next indoor crop a success.
What Is a Grow Tent?
If you’re completely new to the world of grow tents, you might be picturing a camping-style tent setup. A grow tent looks absolutely nothing like a camping tent, so get rid of that image and move on. Instead, a tent for growing resembles a small square or rectangular (depending on the dimensions) room. It’s got a horizontal ceiling and floors and vertical walls.
Unlike an ordinary room, though, a grow tent is specifically designed to create an optimal environment for indoor plants. They’re easy to maneuver and made out of flexible (yet durable) material and outfitted to handle everything you need for a successful crop, including reflective walls, venting holes, and a secure frame to hang lights and fans.
Why Should I Use One?
There are a lot of benefits to using a grow tent, but it mostly comes down to convenience and ease of use. Grow tents are specially designed to make things easier on a grower, but they’re also designed to create the ideal environment for plants. This makes things a whole lot more convenient, both for the grower and the crop.
Convenience aside, there are actually a lot more reasons to invest in a grow tent, like these:
Enclosed Environment Promotes Healthy Growth
When you fashion a room or closet into a home for indoor plants, there’s a greater chance of problems relating to the environment. Light leaks, poor venting, and just too much space, in general, can result in poor plant development.
With a grow tent, the plants are completely enclosed and protected from light leaks or air holes. This makes climate control a lot easier, especially in terms of temperature and humidity control.
Eliminates the Need to Damage Home
Setting up a grow room usually means drilling holes to hang lights, fans, and other fixtures. It might even mean cutting into drywall to install a proper ventilation system. With a grow tent, you’ll basically eliminate the need to damage the structural integrity of your home.
Reduces Risk of Pests and Disease
The enclosed design of a tent isn’t just helpful for controlling the environment. It’s also a great solution to minimizing the risk of bugs, animals, and diseases from harming a crop. Using a tent has been proven to fend off common pests like spider mites and plant diseases like powdery mildew.
How Do I Choose a Quality Tent?
There are a lot of grow tent reviews and ratings available online, Canadians have many high quality grow tents to choose from. Take a look at this list of top-rated grow tents and you’ll notice that they all have something in common; they’re all built with durability in mind. Durability should be at the forefront of your mind as you shop around for a quality tent.
What Size Grow Tent Is Right for Me?
Quality and durability are crucial factors in choosing a grow tent, but the size is just as important. The first step in choosing a tent size is to consider the area of the space available, and after that consider the number of plants you’d like to grow.
The good news is that grow tents come in a wide range of sizes. There are small 2×2 tents meant for growers who only want 1 or 2 plants, then there are massive 10×20 tents for growers who want to go all out with dozens of plants.
Although it’s impossible to know exactly how big your plants will get, you should have a pretty good idea based on the strain.
How Do I Set Up a Grow Tent?
Before setting up your tent, make sure the area is clean. Remove everything from the intended tent space, give it a good sweep, and then lay out all the tent components. Your tent should come with a set of instructions, so you’ll want to refer to this for setting it up. Most instructions will have you piece together the tent frame first, then drape the tent material over top.
Indoor plants create fresh air, but they need a healthy supply of fresh air to do that, so just be sure to install some sort of venting and air circulation system within the tent. The system should focus on removing old air, replacing it with fresh air, and keeping the air moving.
What Else Is Necessary for an Indoor Grow Operation
There’s a lot that goes into growing indoor plants successfully, so we won’t get into all the details. Just remember, there are 4 main components to cultivating healthy plants: light, water, air, and nutrients.
Plants need light, water, and air to perform photosynthesis and they need nutrients to get big and strong. Investing in a grow tent is just the start, but it will definitely make it easier to manage these essential factors for healthy plants.