In this article, we are going to go over the basic grow tent setup for cannabis or any other vegetable or plant. Growing your own cannabis is an amazing experience, and using products like Big Plant Science fertilizers can make it much simpler and foolproof.
Build Your Grow Tent Setup for Cannabis
Your grow tent is the first thing you need to set up. A grow tent usually consists of a metal frame and a outer cloth. The inside of the tent is covered with reflective material, which greatly increases the efficiency of the lights in your tent. The cloth also prevents light from leaking out. The tent will also have sealable holes for ventilation and wiring. A good quality tent will last for years. Setting up a grow tent is not much more difficult than setting up a tent for camping.
Recommendations for grow tent sizes;
- 1 plant: a 60cmx60cm grow tent will be sufficient if you do some cropping and low-stress training.
- 2 plants: An 80cmx100cm grow tent will fit two small cannabis plants, like autoflowers. Grow tents with a rectangular footprint might be a better fit for two plants, if you can find one.
- 3-4 plants: 120cmx120cm should be good for 3-4 plants.
- 5-6 plants: 120cmx180, 120cmx240cm, or 150cmx150cm sized grow tents will hold 5-6 plants.
- 10-12 plants: If we say that the average full-grown cannabis plant takes up about 0.4m2, you’ll want 4-5 square meter for plants plus equipment and access room. If you want a square tent, look for something 200cmx200cm or larger.
Draw up a diagram and think about how you want to arrange your plants inside the tent before you make a decision! Keep in mind this recommendations is given by “average plant size. You can grow a few big plants or more plants with smaller sizes. Lets look the difference!
Advantages of a Few Large Plants:
- Maximum Yield: If you’re only allowed to have a few plants legally, growing them as big as possible will give you the most amount of cannabis.
- Less Effort: Taking care of one or two large plants is easier than managing ten smaller ones, even if they’re bigger in total size.
- Potency: Bigger plants tend to produce larger buds, resulting in a more potent final product.
- Cost-Effective: Cannabis seeds can be expensive, so growing each plant as large as possible can give you better value for your money.
Advantages of More Small Plants:
- Quicker Harvest: Smaller plants have a shorter growth cycle, allowing for earlier harvests.
- Space Efficiency: You won’t need as much vertical space to grow smaller plants.
- Less Pruning: Managing more small plants means less pruning and trimming work for you.
Must Have Equipment’s for your Grow Tent Setup
You will also need space in your grow tent for other equipment’s.
Grow lights (with enough distance between the lights and your plants canopy that the plant doesn’t get burned), ventilation equipment to keep air flowing and smells under control, and the tools you use in the grow room. Consider what you need to put inside the tent before deciding the correct size for you!
Fan Kit for Your Grow Tent:
When you’re setting up a grow tent for your plants, you’ll need a fan kit. These kits usually come in three sizes: 4 inches, 6 inches, or 8 inches. They are measured by how much air they can move, and this measurement is called CMM, which stands for Cubic Meter per Minute.
Picking the Right Size:
The size of your grow tent determines what size fan you need. To keep your plants healthy, you should basically replace all the air in the tent every minute. So, you need to calculate the volume of your tent to find the minimum CMM (Cubic Meter per Minute) rating you need. (Tents length x Tents width x Tents height)
A 4-inch fan is rated around 5 CMM.
A 6-inch fan is rated around 12 CMM.
An 8-inch fan is rated around 20 CMM.
For example, if your tent is 120cm by 60cm by 150cm, the volume is 1.08 cubic meter. In this case, a 4-inch fan would be perfect.
Why Fans Are Important?
Air Exchange: The fan not only moves air but also helps cool down the environment inside the tent. This is crucial because grow lights produce heat. A strong fan helps blow out the hot air.
Carbon Filter Efficiency: Your fan will be pulling air through a carbon filter inside the tent. This makes the fan’s job a bit harder, so having a strong fan is important for efficient air circulation.
Temperature Control: Many fans have speed controls, allowing you to adjust and control the temperature inside the tent. This is important for creating the right conditions for your plants.
Air Movement: You’ll also need a blade fan to help move air within your grow tent setup. This helps in distributing carbon dioxide (CO2) to your plants. Plants absorb CO2 through their leaves and release oxygen from the bottom of their leaves. Using a fan ensures that more CO2 is available to your plants.
Carbon Filters
The carbon filter is like a big air freshener for your grow tent. It’s attached to a fan, and together they make sure that the smell of your plants doesn’t escape. The filter needs to be the same size as the fan, and you connect them with tubing. This setup helps keep your growing area discreet and prevents the strong smell from reaching the rest of your living space. Just keep an eye on the filter, and if it’s not doing its job well anymore, it’s time to get a new one.
Get the Right Size:
Find a carbon filter that matches the size of your extractor fan. They need to be the same size for a proper fit.
Connect to Fan:
Hang the carbon filter inside your tent and connect it to your extractor fan. You’ll need some vent tubing for this.
Use a worm clamp or duct tape to secure the tubing to both the filter and the fan.
How It Works:
The fan will pull air from inside your tent through the carbon filter.
The carbon filter cleans the air by removing the smell.
The fan then pushes the cleaned air outside, preventing the smell from spreading.
Grow Lights
There are few options when it comes to light. Three of the most common light sources are fluorescent (CFL), sodium, and LED. They will never come close to the energy of the sun, but they can give plants enough energy for a successful harvest. In order to mimic the day and night cycle, it is necessary to use a timer for your lights. This also eliminates the need to turn the light on and off twice a day. The absolute minimum wattage per square meter is 320 watts, a more optimum level would be between 600 and 860 watts. So let’s say your tent is 120cm x 60cm, its area is 0.72 square meters.
For 0.72m2 = you need minimum 240 watts.
So, a 240 watts light is the minimum requirement for a tent that size. The amount of power your lights are providing will have a direct impact on the amount of bud your plants will produce. The more power you use, the bigger the buds your plants produce.
CFLs (compact fluorescent lamp) for gardening purposes, are like the CFLs you’ll see overhead in a school or office building, but smaller. They’re cheap, efficient, and easy to find, but not powerful enough. You can only use them for your seedlings or your clones.
LED Lights A grid of LED bulbs is much more efficient than other lights, and will save you money on electricity.
They’re smaller, produce less heat, and you can use the same light for both the early and later stages of plant growth. However, the drawback is that they can be costly. But, in the long run, the money you save on electricity can make up for the high initial cost, especially if you grow plants frequently.
HID Lights are lamps that use a hood to reflect light, and bulbs that contain a gas that lights up as electricity flows through it. You can get bulbs that are filled with either metal halide (MH) or high-pressure sodium (HPS).
MH bulbs produce a blueish light and are great for vegetative growth, while HPS bulbs produce yellow or orange light and are better for flowering.
The downsides are that they’re bulkier than LEDs, take a lot of electricity to keep running, and they produce a lot of heat, which may mean that you have to upgrade your cooling and ventilation systems. Since Thailand has a tropical climate, it is not a good idea to use them because they really produce too much heat.
Grow Tent Heat and Humidity Control
Every tent must have a tool that measures the temperature and humidity. Each stage of growth requires to a certain range of temperature and humidity. Monitoring your heat and humidity all the time is crucial to a successful crop. Large temperature changes will slow your plant’s growth and stress them unnecessarily. They like to stay stable.
According to your geographical location, you will either need a humidifier or de-humidifier. You will want to keep your humidity levels at around 50% for your grow. Over the plant’s life, you will want to humidity to go from high to low.
Sprouts like high humidity around 70%.
For growing plants, it should be between 55% and 70%.
For flowering plants, 40% to 50% humidity is the optimum range.
Air humidity levels higher than 50% could facilitate mold or bud rot in the plants that are in flowering stage.
Temperature is another factor that depends on your geographical location. You’ll want to maintain the tent temperature between 19 and 29 degrees Celsius. Keeping it lower at night helps replicate the temperature drop in the evening outdoors. Remember, your lights generate heat too. High-pressure sodium lights produce more heat than LEDs. If your lights are making the air too warm, increase the fan speed to push out hot air and bring in cooler fresh air. If it gets too hot, it can stress your plants, leading to issues like cat-tailing and reduced potency.
Armed with the knowledge shared in this article, you now possess the key insights into selecting the perfect grow tent size, optimal fan and carbon filter specifications, and the ideal lighting strength for your cannabis cultivation. By maintaining the desired room temperature and humidity levels, and harnessing the power of our BiG Plant Science nutrients, you are well-equipped to embark on a successful journey to cultivate your first homegrown cannabis with confidence and ease. Happy growing!