The Advantages of Using a Grow Tent
1. Climate Control
Effectively growing cannabis indoors requires careful control of climate variables like heat and humidity. The plants themselves produce a lot of humidity and the lights that we grow them under creating a lot of heat. Regardless of the space that we grow in, these climate variables need to be managed.
A grow tent helps make managing heat, humidity, and airflow easier for several reasons. For one, grow tents are relatively small spaces, which means there is less climate to manage. Grow tents are also designed to allow good airflow through the tent. The ports in the tents allow you to draw fresh air into the tent near the floor and to exhaust hot humid air near the top. Many growers are able to control the climate in their tents using a simple exhaust system. Be sure to read our guides, "Airflow and Exhaust Systems for Grow Tents" and "Managing Heat and Humidity in your Grow Tent" (Coming Soon).
2. Light Efficiency
In addition to helping to manage the climate, grow tents help to improve the efficiency of the light. The walls of grow tents are both reflective and close to the plants. This means that a larger percentage of the photons that we produce with our lights actually reach the plants. It may seem insignificant, but reflective walls can increase the efficiency of your grow lights by 20-40%. To determine how much light you need for your grow tent see our guide "How Much Light (PPF) Do You Need for Indoor Cannabis?".
3. Control of the Light Cycle and Creating Darkness
Most cannabis plants are photoperiod. As we explain in our article, "Cannabis Light Cycle Fundamentals", the photoperiod means that cannabis plants will only produce flowers when they are exposed to at least 12 hours of complete darkness every day. If light leaks into the grow space it can provoke revegetation (the plant stops flowering) or hermaphrodism (the plant produces pollen and then seeds).
Completely light sealing your grow space is critical when you grow photoperiod cannabis. This can present real challenges when using a closet or room in your house. In contrast, a grow tent easily allows you to create the complete darkness that is required by flowering cannabis plants, even in broad daylight.
Control over the darkness in the grow space allows you to set the light schedule for your growth in a way that is convenient for your schedule or to help manage the climate. In warm climates, we recommend running the lights off period during the daytime hours because it helps moderate the climate in the grow space. This "flipped lighting schedule" is only possible in a completely light-sealed space, like a grow tent.
Control over the darkness also may allow running two or more grows in the same room. Using multiple tents in one room allows you to set up a perpetual grow system where plants are vegetating in one tent and flowering in a different tent under a different light cycle. Without grow tents, perpetual growth would not be possible for most home growers.
4. Air Quality and Smell
Grow tents help us to manage the quality of the air that enters the grow space and the smell of the air that escapes from it. Simple intake filters on a grow tent can help to prevent dust, pet hair, and pests from getting onto your cannabis plants. On the other side, adding a carbon filter to the exhaust system can reduce or largely eliminate the tell-tale odors of growing cannabis. For more details on managing air quality in your grow tent and filtering the exhaust, be sure to read our article, "Airflow, Ventilation and Exhaust Systems for Grow Tents" (Coming Soon).
5. Cost and Convenience
Perhaps the most compelling reason to use a grow tent is they are easy to set up and relatively cheap. Tents can be set up in almost any room of your house, and they do not require making any physical modifications to the room. Grow tents provide the ideal conditions for efficient indoor growing and you can pack them up and return the room to normal after the grow.
