Things to know when buying an Indoor Grow Tent

As you begin planning for your new growing operation, whether you’re planning to do it as a hobby, to grow plants for decoration in your house, to prepare for spring, or you’re planning something more industrious, where you decide to grow is as obvious a question as any you’ll face.

What Is a Grow Tent?

A lot of new indoor growers might be considering whether to convert part of a room, a basement, or a garage into a grow space. As you plan to install your lights, ventilation, and heating you’ll run into the problem of how to measure out your space. Do you try to convert an entire room into a grow space? How strong does your ventilation need to be? Will you have some way to divide up the space to section off the plants and to contain the light from the grow lights?

The solution to these issues is already defined if you decide to go with a grow tent. Grow tents isolate the growing space from the rest of the environment while improving factors like light retention, heat retention, humidity, and pest control. The goal of growing indoors is to create the perfect environment for your plant—to replicate so well that you can improve upon nature by controlling light spectrum, air flow, humidity, and temperature, so you can grow plants faster, healthier, with less risk, and that have bigger yields.

There are dozens of grow tent designs and brands available, but of all the brands on the market, VIVOSUN’s grow tents tend have great reviews and wide use because of their reliability and consistent design.

What Features Should You Look for in a Grow Tent?

When picking out your grow tent kits, there are a few features that you need to have, otherwise the tent will hinder performance. For example, the VIVOSUN 4×2 grow tent has 2 pre-filter air vents for equalizing air pressure, 4 ducting ports for wiring and ventilation equipment, a large front door, and two side access doors for quick access into the tent, meaning you can get in and out without disturbing your plants.

Material is another key component to a grow tent. You’ll want to look for tents that have a thick fabric exterior that is tightly woven so light is less likely to escape. The interior of the tent should be a reflective material that is flexible and durable, like Mylar. Mylar works well because it is highly reflective but resistant to heat and punctures and is not water permeable. Using a 98% reflective Mylar in the tent should be industry-standard because it works well enough to encourage even lower canopy leaves to develop. 

The material of the support poles is also important because you’ll need the poles to support the weight of lights and ventilation and any other accessories that you may want to include, so look for poles that are made of heavy-duty material, whether that is metal or fiberglass or a dense plastic, make sure that it is sturdy enough to support a fair amount of weight. In a 4×2 tent, a comparable fan and light for the size will weigh about 15-20 lbs. Most tents on the market are already designed to support that weight. If you are worried about the weight, you can try adding on a second support crossbeam made of cut PVC pipe, it’s a cheap and quick alternative, or you can buy a secondary support bar.

Where do I set up my Grow Tent

There are three main considerations for where you want to set up your tent:

Space: Think about where in your home you’ll have room for a tent. It should be out of the way and in an area that is not highly trafficked. Most companies sell many different tent sizes so you can always find one that will find in your home.

Livability: Livability means having the tent in a place where it will not disrupt your life. Fans can be noisy and if your tent is not high-quality light may leak from the tent, so having it in your bedroom while you sleep may not be the best idea. Additionally, if you’re growing cannabis you may want to add a filter to your ventilation system to remove smells—it will make your family and your neighbors happier.

Environment: Tents are not entirely insulated so if you live in New England and put your tent in your shed your plants will be too cold without an external heat source. Likewise, if you place your tent outdoors your plants will still be exposed to weather changes. The best place to put a tent is somewhere at room temperature (if it is comfortable for you, it’s probably comfortable for your weed), and somewhere that does not have high humidity. In a basement or a side room or even a closet are all great choices.

What Environmental Controls Do I Need for My Tent?

Because grow tents are not insulated the external environment plays a part in the internal tent environment. Depending on where you live, your environment will be hotter or colder than cannabis requires and you will likely need to adjust the humidity level in the tent.

For heating, a normal space heater outside the tent can help or even inside if you are able to situate it so that it does not blow directly onto the plants and won’t be exposed to water. Another solution for heating the tent is to use a High Intensity Discharge (HID) lamp because they produce a lot of excess heat.

If you need to cool your space, a normal air conditioner will do the job. Be aware, air conditioners dry out the environment so make sure your humidity levels stay balanced.

Humidity can be increased with a humidifier or by misting your plants occasionally, or by slightly increasing the temperature as high temperatures hold more humidity. If you have too much humidity in your space, try increase airflow or using a dehumidifier. Airflow is a powerful tool to control humidity in an enclosed space like a grow tent because humidity does not escape easily.

When you’re planning your first growing operation, whether big or small, consider where you will be placing the tent and what environmental factors will interact with the plants. VIVOSUN’s line of grow tents are a great place to look—the 4×2 grow tent is one of the best selling and best reviewed tents on the market because it comes with all of the features you need for a successful grow and more—higher quality material, more considerations towards usability, and even little accessories like a storage pouch and a floor tray for catching dirt or water.