If nature does most of the heavy lifting for outdoor cannabis growers, indoor marijuana cultivation requires a far more comprehensive approach. But with the increasing popularity of one smart innovation from recent decades, indoor cannabis growing has become easier in many ways.
Yes, we are talking about marijuana grow tent –a versatile and cost-effective grow space anyone can explore and benefit from.
Nowadays, you can find marijuana grow tent that can perfectly fit your budget, the number of plants you are about to grow, as well as meet the requirements regarding the overall size of your grow space.
Pros of Growing Marijuana in a Tent
One of the main downsides of growing cannabis in a tent is that this method is unsuitable for large-scale operations.
1. Easy Set Up
Assembling marijuana grow tent won’t take much of your time or energy. Anyone can decode and follow the assembly instructions in a breeze. Just dedicate one single afternoon for setting up your grow tent, and you will be good to go.
2. Affordability
Decent marijuana grow tent will cost you about $70 – $120.
Grow tents of this price range come with built-in air-tight vents and light-proof reflective walls, as well as waterproof trays that can catch any water accidentally spilled in the tent.
Meanwhile, fully-equipped marijuana grow tents come with fan filters, lighting systems, hangers, ducting, and even a trellis net, hygrometer and hour timer, ranging from $190 to $290.
3. Convenience
Apart from the affordable price, marijuana grow tent can save you TONS of efforts for turning a spare room or any other suitable space you have available into indoor cannabis grow room.
In a nutshell, it can save you planning, (some) drilling, and time. Plus, a grow tent requires only low maintenance.
Quick Heads Up: Even though a grow tent is fairly effortless to maintain, it is crucial that you approach this process with diligence and care.
For instance, pulling the zippers too hard often leads to horrible tears or seams. Highest quality marijuana tent manufacturers have found a way of preventing such issues, though, as they double stitch seams for extra strength.
4. Perfect Environment for Marijuana Growing
Since marijuana grow tent is well-sealed, it prevents light from escaping the grow space. This helps you optimize the power of your grow lights.
5. Discretion
Indeed, marijuana grow tent helps tremendously to prevent light “leak” from the inside. It also limits light entering from the outside.
More importantly, once the grow tent is zipped, none of the distinct marijuana smell will linger in your house.
Nevertheless, it’s effortless to tuck away your tent. You can place it inside a closet or right in the corner of a room where you don’t typically expect visitors. Simply put, marijuana grow tent doesn’t drive much attention when positioned and equipped properly.
Quick Heads Up: The fact that marijuana grow tent is stealthy cannabis grow space doesn’t mean it’s 100% invisible and/or noiseless.
6. Portability
You can’t simply take your grow space with you if you need to move to another location, that’s for sure. Which means all the planning, drilling, and other settings can go in vain if you need to relocate your grow space for whatever reason.
But that’s not the case with marijuana grow tent. Re-assembling a tent is just as easy and quick as assembling it.
7. Hygiene
If you pay attention to the intake holes of marijuana grow tent, you will notice that these are covered with mesh.
On the one hand, this helps to prevent tiny, nasty intruders such as spiders and other pests from causing damage to your crop.
On the other hand, it helps to keep dust, dirt, and other impurities away from messing up the quality of the juicy buds. Double win-win on that note.
Quick Heads Up: Even though marijuana grow tent is a highly hygienic environment for growing weed, that doesn’t mean you won’t need to maintain it carefully. For instance, zippers can become lodged with dirt and grime over time so it’s imperative that you regularly brush and/or wipe these out.
8. Harvest All-Year-Round
If you want to grow weed perpetually, it can be a fantastic idea to opt for two marijuana grow tents.
One of the tents can be easily tailored into a separate, well-functioning vegetative chamber. The second tent can be tailored into a separate flowering chamber. Doing so will allow you to grow and harvest your green medication all-year-round.
9. Excellent for Growing in Soil and Growing Hydroponically
Last but not least, marijuana grow tent can work beautifully for both traditional cannabis growing in soil and growing cannabis hydroponically.
Keeping in mind that the well-sealed grow tent grants you full control over the micro-climate in your grow space, the results you can get upon harvesting are definitely worth it, regardless of the growing medium you prefer.
Things to Consider when Picking a Marijuana Grow Tent
Most certainly, there are some important things you want to take into account when looking for a marijuana grow tent that will work best for YOU.
1. Size
Size is, by far, the most crucial factor you want to consider as it depends solely on your personal goals as a grower.
A 2’x4’ marijuana grow tent can be an excellent choice for beginners.
You can easily get up to several ounces of bud per month despite the rather compact size of a 2’x4’ grow tent. Best of all, you can start with a smaller light system and upgrade to a more powerful set up later on.
A 4’x4’ grow tent can work wonderfully if you’re looking into utilizing 600W-1000W advanced grow lights. The size is perfectly manageable by a single person.
As a rule of thumb, a 2’x4’x5’ marijuana grow tent is compatible with CFLs, T5, as well as 250W-400W lighting systems.
A 4’x4’x5’ marijuana grow tent is compatible with the latest LED lighting systems, as well as 600W-1000W systems.
Always consider the height of the strains you are about to plant because this is the only way to understand whether the height of a grow tent will fit your grow.
Most noteworthy, it’s a wise move to think in the long run. There’s little use of opting for small marijuana grow tent just to switch to a bigger one the next year, right?
2. Fabric
It is a high-quality fabric that makes the HUGE difference between decently-working marijuana grow tent and a fantastically-working one.
Most grow tents are produced with exterior fabrics that range from 200D to 1280D. “D” stands for “Denier” number and it refers to thread or yard thickness. The higher the Denier number, the higher the durability of the fabric. It’s also a good idea to check the fabric’s mildew-resistance and fireproof properties. The inner liner of a grow tent also varies in its ability to reflect light. Some marijuana grow tents feature light reflectiveness of 50% while others reach 90%.
The better the light reflecting the capability of a grow tent, the less energy will be wasted. As a result, you can enjoy sufficient energy cost savings over time. Plus, you will be able to optimize the capacity of your grow lights more efficiently.
At any cost, it’s best to avoid grow tents that consist of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) materials. When heated (or exposed to heat as in the case of indoor marijuana growing), PVC is known to release toxic phthalates, as well as other chemicals that can be quite damaging.
3. Ventilation Openings
Most grow tents are designed with a mind to accommodating a variety of equipment. However, taking into account the positioning of the openings is a big must. For instance, vents openings and access ports should be strategically sized and located based on your needs.
To illustrate this better, some marijuana grow tents come with more than just a single type of vent or port.
Generally speaking, larger tents offer a larger range of ports and vents but that is not as straightforward as it sounds. There are high-quality tents of smaller size that can actually provide a better range of vents/ports openings.
Nevertheless, the openings of some tents can feature added functionality or protection, such as for instance, vent cuffs with double-drawstring closures.
For sure, you don’t want to deal with fewer electrical cord ports or smaller duct openings than needed.
4. Frame Stability
As a rule of thumb, different marijuana grow tents possess a different weight rating. These particular specifications are crucial when choosing a reliable grow tent that can suit your needs.
How to Set up a Marijuana Grow Tent
In a perfect world, setting up a marijuana grow tent looks pretty much like this.
1. Unpack your grow tent
2. Set up the frames and the cover
3. Set up the lighting system
4. Set up the ventilation system
5. Start growing. Woohoo.
But in reality, the process is, unarguably, much more detailed.
However, as we already discussed above, the assembling process isn’t really that much of a big fuss either.
In order to be of your best assistance, we get into some further practical guidelines on how to set up a marijuana grow tent below.
1. Cleaning everything up
Even though marijuana grow tent is an enclosed growing environment, that doesn’t mean you can afford to skip on cleaning carefully space where you’re about to position the tent.
Remember, dirt and grime are your pot plants’ enemies, and they are also related to increasing the possible issues related to pests and mold (mold spores can linger and travel by air!) In fact, mold can even travel through walls.
Also, do make sure you assemble your grow tent in the very room where you are about to place it. You don’t want to end up wasting your time assembling just to see that the grow tent doesn’t actually fit through the doorway, lol.
2. Grow lights positioning
A good rule of thumbs when positioning your grow lights is to make sure that the hanging ropes/chains will be able to support at least twice the weight of your lights. Anyway, that’s only a friendly reminder rather than a MUST but still, it is highly recommendable.
Rope ratchets are probably the most beginner-friendly and inexpensive option for hanging your grow lights. They are easy-peasy to adjust on-demand.
3. Exhaust fan positioning
Usually, hanging the exhaust system inside the grow tent works best as it significantly boosts airflow and circulation. If you want to reduce both sound and vibration emitted by your exhaust system, use ropes to hang the fan from the top bars. Setting the fan outside or anywhere on top of the tent makes it sound much louder.
4. Carbon filter positioning
For a start, you are free to choose to go with or without installing a carbon filter in your grow tent.
But a carbon filter is a truly fantastic addition to any grow room, and that’s why we believe it’s one of the best investments for growing equipment one can make.
Similarly to the positioning of exhaust fans, a carbon filter is best to be hanged with the use of strong ropes.
In order to prevent any smell leaking from the grow tent, make sure you connect the carbon filter to the fan following as straight, air-tight line.
An exhaust system that utilizes a carbon filter is considered complete in the case the carbon filter is connected to the air-cooled hood of your grow lights, and the air-cooled hood is connected to the exhaust fan. Anyway, not every grower will be able to create this complete exhaust system.
Everything you Need to Know about Marijuana Grow Tent: Key Takeaways
Our best advice is that you start with writing down the number of plants you are planning to grow.
Next, consider the basics regarding height/stretch depending on the strains’ specifications to make sure you will choose a decently-sized tent. It can be a wonderful idea to visit your local garden or hydroponic store, too.
“Is marijuana addictive? Yes, in the sense that most of the really pleasant things in life are worth endlessly repeating” – Richard Neville
