What do you need for a small grow tent?
A cultivator who wants 4 large plants needs to purchase a grow tent that covers an area of 1.4 m² or (48 X 48 X 80 inches). The cannabis crops will have sufficient room to expand horizontally without the foliage hampering air currents from the inlet fans.
A cultivator who wants 4 large plants needs to purchase a grow tent that covers an area of 1.4 m² or (48 X 48 X 80 inches). The cannabis crops will have sufficient room to expand horizontally without the foliage hampering air currents from the inlet fans.
| Tent Size (Width X Length X Height) | Add 5 Feet Duct | Recommended Fan Size |
|---|---|---|
| 4x8x6.5 | 468 | 2*4'' Fan |
| 5x10x6.5 | 731.3 | 2*6'' Fan |
| 8x8x6.5 | 1040 | 4*6'' Fan |
| (Feet) | (CFM) | (Inch) |
In theory, carbon filters are not necessary—you can run your grow tent perfectly without ever needing to use one. But during the actual growing process, our experience has been that a lot of indoor gardeners prefer using filters because they help eliminate smells and keep some balance in your separate environments.
On top of this, it is important to circulate the air within your tent. This will keep temperatures and odors down, strengthen plants, and more. When it comes to indoor growing, its so important that you control your environment. A good ventilation system is necessary to make this happen.
A 2' x 2' Grow Tent also lets you have 16 plants for a Screen of Green and two (2) plants for Low-Stress Training. You can have five (5) plants for Topping, although you might be able to squeeze in one more. But it's better to stay at five (5) and not risk sacrificing the quality of your plants.
A Screen of Green needs about 0.25 square feet of grow space. With a 32-watt LED grow light, you can provide enough lighting for four plants.
For this method, you will need 2 square feet of space to grow one plant. In a 4×4 grow tent you could hold around 4-6 plants.
We recommend one MyCO2 Bloom per 4x4 area or per 4x4 grow tent as a minimum. Two MyCO2 Bloom in a 4x4 area is best, and can be extrapolated to larger growing areas using that unit of measure.
A 2x2 or 2x3 space can grow 1-2 plants comfortably. You'll want to make sure the light fixture you choose provides light to cover the entire canopy of your plants. For example, using a 2x2 sized space growing 1 plant, the Cultivate Tech Growtech 160 would more than meet your lighting needs.
How many lights should I have in my grow tent?
| Grow Room Size | Square Feet | Veg Wattage |
|---|---|---|
| 1' x 1' | 1 | 20 watts |
| 2' x 2' | 4 | 80 watts |
| 3' x 3' | 9 | 180 watts |
| 2' x 4' | 8 | 160 watts |
Seeding stage – How Often Should I Run My Grow Tent Ventilation. When plants are in their seedling stage, they tend to be fragile. At this time, we recommend you run your fan 24/7 to maintain temperature, humidity, and fresh air inside the tent.
Air in your grow area should be exchanged at least every 5 minutes. If you are using a grow tent that is 5' x 5' x 6' this is 150 sq/ft of air. For optimal airflow, you need a filter and fan that can move between 30 and 60 cubic feet per minute (CFM).
There are a few ways you can go about this - setting up the components inside the tent or outside, hanging or on the floor, etc. The ideal setup, however, is to hang your exhaust fan and carbon filter from a beam inside your grow tent.
If you are looking to accelerate the grow cycles of your crops consider adding additional CO2 to your grow room. Plant growth accelerates as you increase CO2 levels up to around 1,500 PPM. Growers have observed up to a 100% increase in grow speed at 1,500 PPM.
Studies have shown that plants achieve optimal growth when CO2 is kept between 1200-1500 PPM (parts per million). Steady levels are most important while the plants are flowering, but plants will benefit at every stage of growth.
Heat produced from lights is generally not enough to ensure your growing space is at the optimum temperature, so secondary heating is usually a must!
While many growers use separate drying rooms for this process, others prefer to use their grow tent to save space and maximize efficiency. Using your grow tent as a drying room can be a great way to streamline your process and ensure the best possible results.
Humidity (water vapor found in the air) in a grow room or grow tent is great: it's a sign that your plants are breathing healthily, and that there's no lack of water throughout your grow. At certain stages of a plants life, different levels of humidity are needed so you can seed, veg, and flower the right way.
As long as you are managing humidity and mould in the walls isn't an issue there will be no problems sleeping above a cannibis grow. You don't want to sleep in the same room as growing cannabis for a different reason: bright light.
How much light do I need for a 2x2 tent?
The 2ft x 2ft or 0.6m x 0.6m grow area is the smallest standard grow tent size available but will deliver a sufficient yield for personal use in a compact grow space. To maximise the potential yield from the space you need about 100 to 150 watts of high efficiency LED lighting.
This is a question we get often. The standard is 36. plants per 4x8 grow tray.
5' x 5' and 4' x 8' Grow Tents - Our most popular tent sizes (4-10 plants) 5' x 9' and 8' x 8' Grow Tent - Great for a spare bedroom, expect large harvests (9-16 plants)
That way you can optimize your footprint to cover all of your plants optimally. Put these three factors together, and you'll be able to determine how many plants can thrive under a single grow light: Figure out the size footprint you'll need for your plants (remember: no more than 8 plants/light).
' plants do require a daily respiration period of at least 6 hours per day (for seedlings) and ideally 8-10 hours for more mature plants. Therefore we do not recommend providing more than 14-16 hours per day of light, even if you are growing long-day-loving varieties and trying to induce flowering/fruit from them.
The light you use should come with specific instructions. But as a general guide, here's a few tips. To be effective, grow lights really need to be on for at least 8-10 hours a day. This can vary up to 16 hours, depending on the conditions.
| Tent Guide | |
|---|---|
| Number of Plants | |
| 75cm x 75cm | 1 – 2 plants |
| 100cm x 100cm | 1 – 3 plants |
| 120cm x 120cm (XL) | 1 – 4 plants |
A rule of thumb for an enclosed space is one co2 bag per 4x4 area or per 4x4 grow tent. For large-scale operations, growers use tanks of compressed CO2 or CO2 generators in order to automate delivery and send the CO2 gas down through pipes for an uninterrupted supply to your crops.
According to our current data, the average wattage required per square foot is 32 watts (although this also depends on the plant, so we are taking averages here), so a 4×4 tent theoretically requires 512 watts for complete coverage. This number can float between 500 watts and 600 watts.
Slow-release CO2
This is by far the easiest and lowest cost method. You simply hang slow-release CO2 bags or bottles in your grow room. Carbon dioxide is slowly released over time. The bags we sell are Exhale CO2 Bags & TNB The Enhancer Bottles, which are self-activated.
Can you put too much CO2 in a grow tent?
Too much CO2 in a confined area such as a grow room, poses serious threats to human health, sometimes leading to death.
For best results it is important to have some air movement within the growing space to mix in the CO². A small fan inside the tent moving air will do this job easily. The bag can be hung from the roof of the tent allowing CO² to shower down over the canopy of the growing plants if you don't have a fan in the tent.
Intense, direct light is great for some plants, but it will damage (or even kill others). The plant isn't able to convert all of the light into consumable energy, and the excess creates a heat issue over time. The plant might use available water to cool itself, which creates a moisture shortage as well.
If you are using air-cooled HID lights in your grow tent, simply passively cooling your lights will drastically warm your grow tent. Not to mention, de-glassing your hoods will also net you 10-15% more available light for your plants.
In the vegetative stage, LED grow lights should be between 12-24 inches away from the top of the canopy. During this stage, more light is needed for photosynthesis, so the light source should be located closer to the plants. As the plants progress through the flowering stage, their demand for intense light decreases.
Q: If I give my plants light all day, they'll grow faster, right? I figure all I have to do is leave the lights on and they'll become monsters! A: In general, you should not leave grow lights on 24/7. Plants need a light-dark cycle to develop properly.
Cannabis growing experts will offer suggestions/solutions for keeping your grow rooms as close as possible to ideal conditions. The ideal temperature for growing cannabis indoors would be between 62°F to 72°F with lights off and between 68°F to 80°F with lights on.
A standard, well ventilated grow room should be kept between 75-85 degrees Fahrenheit under optimal conditions. Temperature can be raised or lowered according to your plants' needs.
Open those vents. No, you won't get cold with a little breeze. Those vents in your tent are there to help air circulate and can minimise the chance of condensation building up – which can actually make you cold.
The best grow room temperature during the flowering stage of growth is 68-75 degrees during the day and no more than 10-15 degrees cooler at night. If you're supplementing with CO2, daytime temps can be as high as 75-82 or so.
How do you bring fresh air into a grow room?
An air extractor fan system cycles out old air and brings in fresh air, which your plants need if you want them to thrive. Ideally, your extractor fan system should replace the air in your grow room every minute, or at least every three to five minutes. This means that you need to choose the right size fan for the job.
Different Ways To Ventilate Your Grow Room
At the bare minimum, you will need two kinds of fans for a basic ventilation setup. These are: Extractor Fans: you can also call them exhaust fans. These are installed to take away the hot, and humid air from inside your grow room or tent.
Try not to point them directly at plants – this can dry them out and/or cause windburn. If you have any other fan, be very careful to place the fan on the floor and blow air upwards, to ensure the temperatures at the top and bottom of your growing area are more even.
In your typical 4ft x 4ft or 1.2m x 1.2m tent the extract fan, circulatory fan and water or air pumps will consume between 15 to 30 watts each or about 70 watts in total. The grow light wattage to delivery a good yield will range from 400 to 650 watts, depending on the technology used.
- Utilize fan speed controllers to reduce the amount of air intake and extraction.
- Add extra heating such as an oil heater or electric fan heater.
- Insulate your grow room floor, wall and ceiling.
- Use a water heater for large volumes of nutrient solution.
LED lights are much more efficient than other lighting options, like CFLs and incandescent bulbs. According to energy.gov, the average household saves about $225 in energy costs per year by using LED lighting.
| Grow Room Size | Square Feet | Veg Wattage |
|---|---|---|
| 5' x 5' | 25 | 500 watts |
| 6' x 6' | 36 | 720 watts |
| 4' x 8' | 32 | 640 watts |
| 8' x 8' | 64 | 1,280 watts |
A 20W grow light that's on for 12 hours a day costs me 1.15USD/month. A 40W grow light that's on for the same number of hours will cost me 2.3 USD/month in electricity. The higher the wattage, the higher your electricity bill. All grow lights consume a certain amount of electricity.
The ideal setup, however, is to hang your exhaust fan and carbon filter from a beam inside your grow tent. Use tape or clamps to position the carbon filter & fan together, and then attach the ducting.
Better light levels and cheaper running costs
Most grow tents use a reflective mylar interior coating to boost light levels – minimising input costs – so you save money on your bills. Plants need light to give them life, and the more you can give (from every angle), the better they'll grow.
How hot is too hot for a grow tent?
Managing grow tent heat is one of the more difficult, frustrating aspects of indoor growing. Not too hot and not too cold; many of the plants we grow are just like us and prefer similar temperatures - between 65 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
Rather than putting a heater into your grow tent (which is usually not a good idea, depending on the size of your tent this could be a safety concern), have you considered adding more light? If you have not maximized your grow space, ensuring even light throughout, then adding more light is a viable option.
