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Consider These Points Before You Buy Your First Grow Tent

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What separates the best grow tents from merely good ones? What should you look for in a grow tent? We’ll discuss the benefits of grow tents in general and what you may need to look for in a grow tent when shopping for one yourself.

The Benefits of a Grow Tent

One of the benefits of a grow tent is that it gives you far more control over the environment, whether you’re raising crops indoors or out. If you’re an indoor gardener, grow tents let you contain moisture and heat, maintaining a separate set of environmental conditions than is found in the rest of the house.

Whether you’re heating or cooling the space, the grow tent saves you energy on HVAC costs. The barrier also reduces the risk of damage to the plants, since the tent keeps out curious children or pets. The tent by its very presence provides a measure of pest control.

Grow tents give you the ability to tailor the atmosphere, such as pumping in carbon-dioxide rich air to accelerate the growth of plants. The same trait provides a measure of odor control, so that others don’t smell the plants that you’re growing.

Things To Consider When Shopping for a Grow Tent

 Grow Tent Dimensions

One of the factors that you need to consider when buying a grow tent is dimensions; how big do you want it to be and in what shape? Don’t buy an oversized tent in the hope you’ll use the space. If the tent is much larger than necessary, you’ll use more power for heating and cooling. This is true whether it is taller than necessary or has a bigger footprint than you need.

If you have a tent that is wider than you need, you may end up with a less than ideal setup as you try to fit the rolled up plastic in and around the space. This could create a place where water can accumulate and mold could grow. Conversely, an undersized tent will crowd your plants, whether they’re too crowded now or will be crowded when they are mature. The tent needs to be several feet taller than your mature plants so that you have space for lights, filters and ducts.

Size Matters

What is the right size of grow tent for your application? The answer is that it depends on the type of plants you’re growing. A two foot by two foot tent covers, in general, two mature or four small plants. This type of tent is a good choice for a mother plant.

A four foot by two foot tent covers three mature or eight small plants This size lets you turn many closets into a greenhouse. Yet you can fit many seedlings and micro-vegetables in the same space. And a dwarf tree may fill the entire tent. The four foot square tent is perfect for raising half a dozen plants under a standard 1000 Watt LED grow light.

Five foot square grow tents are very popular as are 4’ by 8’ grow tents. They let you grow four to ten plants, depending on their size. The 8’ square grow tent is perfect for putting in a spare bedroom, since this size gives you plenty of space around the tent for air flow, access and supporting equipment. A 10’ by 10’ grow tent fits in a large bedroom or a small garage.

Tent Access Points

Access points matter. For a small tent covering the rack or table your plants are located on, reach-in access is fine. (Yes, you can find mini grow tents.) For larger arrays, you want a walk-in tent. Zipper quality isn’t as important as this issue, but a brand with a reputation for crappy zippers is something to avoid.

Consider The Weight

The maximum weight ratings for the frames are a consideration. You should probably buy a tent with a much greater weight maximum than you think you need. This allows you to hang a light or tools off the frame as you work without worrying about bringing the whole thing crashing down. Or you have the margin to mount the fan inside the tent if it can’t be mounted outside the tent.

Interior Light Reflectivity Is Important

Interior light reflectivity could be a concern. Too much light reflectivity and you could burn your plants. Not enough reflectivity, and you need to install reflectors or more lights. However, not all plants can utilize reflected light; so a grow tent with interior light reflectivity could reduce the need for supplemental lights for shade-loving plants but it won’t make a difference for sun-loving plants.

Light Control

Light control may be a deciding factor for you. If you want bright grow lamps in a corner of your apartment, tents that keep the light in and features like vent socks and zipper covers may be necessary.

Even a grow tent outside may need light control features, whether you live somewhere that has light pollution rules or you just don’t want an angry neighbor because your grow lights make it hard for them to sleep. Light control is critical for grow tents if the artificial lights put out light that could damage someone’s eyes if they looked directly into them.

Tent Location

The location and number of air vents and ports is something to check. Will the tent have good air flow if you put that tent in its intended location? If the tent is just smaller than the room it will be placed in, your air vents will just blow air onto the walls then gets sucked right back into the tent. This is akin to having an air conditioner surrounded by bushes or dirty vents, causing it to pull in hot dirty air and work harder to try to cool down your home.

If the tent barely fits in a shed or indoor space, you risk the same issue causing the tent to overheat since it can’t exhaust hot air. Conversely, vents for the grow tent that line up with vents for the room may solve this problem entirely.

Tent Customization/Flexibility Options

There are grow tents that let you adjust interior dimensions like its ceiling height; others come with dividers. The value of these traits depends on your application; a divider with reflectivity/light control lets you use one tent for both raising flowering plants and those in the vegetative stage.

Other grow tents are notable for their portability, as easy to tear down as set up. These tents are ideal for those that don’t know exactly where they want the tent to be for the long term or intend to relocate it based on the season.

Resistance To Damage

Puncture resistance and canvas density are somewhat important in a grow tent. It matters even more if you are concerned about someone cutting into the tent to steal your plants. The best grow tents are durable; they don’t start falling apart as soon as you set them up.

Grow Tents For Beginners

With the above points in mind, below I have listed some of the best grow tents that you can buy now. Whether you are a beginner or a rookie indoor gardener, these grow tents will get the job done and will at least teach you what you need to learn about indoor gardening.

CoolGrows 2x2x4 Feet Small Indoor Mylar Hydroponics Grow Tent

The CoolGrows Grow Tent is an affordable little grow tent is an all in one package. Protect a mother plant or small plants. It zips up to seal in your harvest, and it has a viewing window for checking on plants without having to go in. It is durable and seals light in. It is easy to assemble and take down.

Current price and rating on Amazon below:

Gorilla GGT55 Grow Tent 5’x5’x6’

We recognize that some people are looking for a large grow tent for a significant project. The Gorilla GGT55 Grow Tent is perfectly sized for fitting in a small bedroom or shed, and you can extend the height another foot if necessary using the kit that comes with it.

It is affordable for its class and comes with a very sturdy frame. The complete kit comes with an infrared blocking roof insertion to keep heat within the tent. It keeps the light inside, as well. The reflective materials inside do a good job a reflecting even the most minimal light available.

Current price and rating on Amazon below:

Growneer 4’x4’ 600D Grow Tent

The Growneer 4×4 Grow Tent is perfect for fitting in the corner of a bedroom or a master closet. It has a zip up door and view port so you can see or access the crop as necessary. It even has a floor tray for hydroponic applications.

The built-in grow trellis makes this tent perfect for growing fruits like tomatoes or climbing beans. The Growneer is a very sturdy tent that is also tear-proof and does a good job with competing with the Gorilla Tents like the one I listed above.

I personally like the design and color schematics of this tent. I haven’t used it personally but it looks pretty cool compared to the old ho hum looking grow tents on the market today.

Current price and rating on Amazon below:

VIVOSUN 48″x24″x60″ Mylar Hydroponic Grow Tent

The VivoSun Grow Tent is truly designed for the hobby gardener and beginners, and is perfectly sized for fitting in the average bedroom closet. It has an observation window and floor tray and comes with a heavy duty canvas exterior and light-reflecting interior layer.

Just like most grow tents on the market today the VivoSun is tear proof and nearly light-proof. Of course some grow tents do a better job at being tear proof than others so that is something that you will have to make sure you do your research properly on.

You can check the plants by looking through the observation window instead of opening the door with this unit. As I mentioned above it is a perfect tent for beginners, because according to the manufacturer you don’t need tools to set it up. It also comes with a two year warranty which is more than most grow tents come with now a days.

Current price and rating on Amazon below:

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The Top 4 Indoor Gardening Basics That Every Beginner Should Know

Indoor gardening could mean anything from having a few plants hanging by the windowsill to a full-fledged indoor garden. It really all depends what your end goal is as an indoor gardener. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to concentrate on growing a variety of vegetables.

But, before I learned about how cilantro grows, or how carrots grow or even how mustard greens grow, I had to learn the top 4 basic principles of Indoor Gardening. Keep reading to find out what you need to know to become the best indoor gardener that you can possibly become.

Indoor Gardening 101

 Basic #1 – Indoor Garden Lighting

There are plants you can raise indoors without supplemental light. These tend to be plants that naturally grow on the forest floor or the second tier of the forest – they’re used to shade. African violets, ivy and other common houseplants fall into this category.

There are vegetables and herbs that can grow indoors with natural light from a window provided it streams in for enough hours a day. However, you may need to supplement with grow lights.

For example, fruiting vegetables or herbs do best with 10 plus hours a day of light, and you may not be receiving that through your biggest window in the winter. If you’re trying to get long day plants to flower, those that are programmed to flower during the summer, they need 14 to 18 hours of light.

Another factor to consider is spacing of the plants. If you put all the plants in the window, they’ll be exposed to that maximum amount of natural sunlight, but they may be exposed to colder air leaking in through the window than if you placed them in the corner under a grow light. If the plants are on shelves, there is the possibility the shelves themselves shade lower plants from the natural light.

You could supplement with grow lights or simply put grow lights on all of the shelves. Just make sure the lights aren’t too close to the plants, since light too close could sunburn the plants or simply overheat them. You can read my post on the Top 5 LED Grow Lights of 2018 to get more info on the different brands of grow lights on the market right now.

Artificial lighting becomes critical when you’re trying to maximize certain aspects of a plant’s growth. Red light stimulates leaves, while blue light stimulates the stems. Broad spectrum grow lamps provide both. One such grow lamp that I currently use and highly recommend is the Galaxyhydro 300w LED Grow Light which you can find on Amazon.com right now for a great price.

If you’re trying to delay flowering in plants or maximize leaf production for certain vegetables, advanced grow lights become essential. If you’re growing garlic and mint in a pot, that’s overkill.

Basic #2 – Soil/Growing Medium

The growing medium is simply what your plants are growing in. A pot full of soil scraped up from outside has its growing medium. Or it could be cuttings sitting in water as they grow roots before you transplant them to soil, another growing medium. It is rare that someone actually needs a hydroponics or airponics system.

The ideal growing medium is loose and drain wells but holds moisture so that the roots can absorb it while nutrients don’t drain away. You can create your own or buy it. Note that the ideal growing medium for your plants depends on the plants themselves, since some plants need different soil pH or varying soil qualities.

Most potting “soils” actually don’t contain soil. They’re made from a mix of peat, sand, and perlite (to improve drainage). A few more expensive mixtures contain water-retaining crystals to slow the release of water into the soil so you don’t have to water as often.

You can find specialized potting mixes for hard to raise plants like orchids and cacti, but most plants you’d like to raise indoors can be raised in any sterile commercial mix intended for indoor plants. It’s the soil from the weedy lot outside that could bring in unwanted seeds, pests and fungus that’s more likely to be an issue.

Another issue is the container you put the plant in. Always research how much space the plant needs, since putting a plant that needs 8” of depth in a 4” tray means you’ll fail to raise a healthy crop no matter how well-lit and watered it is. They need adequate space for the roots to grow out and down. The amount of space they need vertically varies, too.

When selecting pots or planters (Link to Amazon.com), look for ones with weep holes so it can drain out extra water; this will happen even if you’re watering it perfectly. Yes, you’re going to want a tray or pad under the plants to absorb this extra water. If they don’t have weep holes, the water-logged soil could suffocate the plant roots.

If you’re doing well, you can tell the plant needs to be moved to a larger pot because the roots are growing out the drainage holes. A plant that has no new growth probably needs to be moved to a larger container as well.

Basic #3 – What About Watering

All plants need to be watered. Whether you need to mist them daily or drench them every other day depends on the species. If you’re growing a mix of plants indoors, learn what their watering schedule needs to be or set up automatic watering systems (Link to Amazon.com) to water them for you. This is where putting the same plant on the same row simplifies things dramatically.

Plants also need a certain level of humidity. And the modern home runs too dry, especially in the winter. Don’t assume that a high level of humidity from misters or dripping from other plants reduces your need to water the plants.

However, you know that the plants are suffering from low humidity if the plants are withered, puckered, turning brown or losing their leaves. Don’t put plants in a tray of water to try to offset humidity, since this may over-water the roots or foster fungal growth.

An indoor gardening 101 note for new gardeners – you can use tap water in some cases but distilled water is better. Don’t use water leftover from cooking or other applications to water the plants, since it probably contains salts and food residue that your plants shouldn’t be exposed to.

Basic #4 – Temperature

Most plants we regularly grow indoors need temperatures of 65 degrees to 75 degrees Fahrenheit. A good indicator that it is too cold for the plants is yellowing of the leaves. This is where grow lights can cause plants to overheat, so be careful as to the right distance of the bulbs from the plants. The right distance varies between species, but too far means they don’t get enough intensity while too close means they get too much and risk overheating.

Sometimes plants are brought indoors after sitting on the deck or windowsill. Even these plants that need to be brought inside need to be acclimated by potting them, letting them spend some time in a shady spot part of the day to get them to thin their cuticle, and then move them inside.

If you were moving plants from your indoor garden to the outdoors, they’d need some time spent in direct sunlight that increases by an hour or two a day. This forces the plant to grow a thicker cuticle and prevents excessive water loss.

They’ll need to spend the night indoors for at least a week regardless of which way they’re going. This ensures that the garden plant that’s adapting for cold fall weather doesn’t get sick when you put it in indoor garden and that the seedlings you started off indoors don’t die when you plant them outside.

Conclusion

Just like learning and mastering anything else, indoor gardening is no exception, but it’s very rewarding. You will be in a position where you are growing your own vegetables, flowers, house plants etc. and also have the enjoyment of seeing a seed that you planted and nurtured come to fruition. For more information about indoor gardening visit the following link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroponics or view the video below:

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