How to Set-up Your Grow Room

When starting to set-up your grow room, there are a few things that you should think about before choosing the right size grow tent for either vegging indoors or growing 100% indoors. For reference purposes, this how-to is based on plants grown in soil. For hydroponic grows, you’ll need to make minor modifications to your equipment needs.

THE TENT

If you’re just germinating or vegging indoors, you can use a 2x4 to get the seedlings germinated and into their first transplant. For information on seed germination head to the “What are Tiger Stripes?” in the blog.

If you’re planning on growing indoors from start to finish, you should have enough room between each plant so you don’t overcrowd the plants when they grow to full stature and to keep a thinned-out canopy for adequate airflow as well as for pest and mold prevention. The size of the tent depends on how many plants you’re growing. Generally, you can fit up to 2 plants for every 2'x4'.

We recommend Vivosun’s brand of grow tent. This tent is great for germinating and vegging indoors OR for a new grower who is only growing 1-2 plants. Check out the various sizes, Vivosun offers HERE.

THE EQUIPMENT

Airflow

Once you have decided on space requirements, you can incorporate your fans and vents to create an optimal environment for the plants. You’ll want one exhaust fan that will pull air from the opposite side of the room to create fresh airflow throughout the grow chamber. With this method, you can use a ducting cover or bug screen. You can alternatively upgrade from a screen filter to a ‘’dust shroom’’ if you want to spend the extra money. Dust Shrooms are the best choice for pest prevention. Both of these style filters are available anywhere from 6 inches to 12 inches. These filters need to be cleaned periodically, at the very least, after each grow/season. This set-up by Vivosun has you covered.

Determining the CFM (cubic feet per minute) of air movement needed for the room is very important when it comes to temperatures and humidity. Using a dimmer, you can achieve your ideal temperature and humidity range. We recommend a 12 inch oscillating fan above canopy height and a small 6 inch oscillating fan in the under-canopy for every 4’x4’ grow area. If you have a 2’x4’ grow tent, two 6 inch oscillating fans; one above and one below the canopy is great to achieve proper air circulation. Vivosun also makes a great oscillating clip fan for your grow tent. Two of these in your room will help create optimal airflow. We also like the Woozoo 5-speed globe oscillating fan. You’ll only need one of these in your 2’x4’ tent, however, you’ll definitely want two fans by the time you’re in the flowering stage.

Smell-Proofing

If you are using your grow tent from start to finish, you will want to choose a carbon filter that is the appropriate size for the space when the plants are in the flowering stage. Your local grow shop pros can guide you with what you need as this depends on the size of your grow tent as well as how many plants you are growing. Generally, you want a small sized carbon filter for a 2’x4’ grow tent and a small-medium for a 4’x4’.

Maintaining Humidity Levels

After establishing good airflow and circulation, providing the right humidity in the grow tent for each stage of the plants life is important. To achieve your desired “sweet spot,” we recommend using a few hygrometers. These small Hygrometers are very easy to use, accurate, and come in multi-packs. The more, the merrier. Keeping one at canopy height, one under the canopy at soil surface (not directly on the soil), and one hygrometer on the wall in the middle of the entire grow room to monitor the whole space. This will give you the best control over your temperature and relative humidity in the grow room. Ideal ranges below:

Germinating Your Seed

• Temperature - 78-80 degrees Fahrenheit

• Humidity - High - about 90%

Seedling:

• Temperature - 78-80 degrees Fahrenheit

• Humidity - 65% to 70%

Vegetative

• Temperature - 76-82 degrees Fahrenheit

• Humidity - 60% to 70%

Flowering

• Temperature - 72-80 degrees Fahrenheit

• Humidity - 45% to 55%

We also recommend the Govee hygrometer for it’s bluetooth feature that syncs with it’s own app.

To dial in the humidity in the room, you will want to use a humidifier. You can get a standard humidifier online or at your local grow shop. You can use a cheaper humidifier in smaller grow tents. Monitoring your relative humidity is important to prevent PM (powdery mildew).

Lights

In the past, growers would use an MH (Metal Halide) light to toughen up the cell walls of the plant leaves and it often would provide the best results. However, digital lights are typical these days for energy saving and temperature regulating benefits. The Spider Farmer Dimmable LED light is great as it is small, easy to hang, light-weight, came with the rigging accessories to adjust height, and the ballast is on the light itself. This light is best for your seedling and into the late stages of Vegetative. For indoor lighting during flower, you’ll want to change your light to a 400-600W HPS light in a 2’x4’ grow tent.

Always use the hand test to ensure the light is not too warm to prevent burning of the leaves. Seedlings are super sensitive to heat and will shrivel and die quickly when they are placed under a light that is too intense. You can reference the Tiger Stripes App for more information about optimal lighting.

Additional Equipment Needs:

• Drip trays - You can buy these at your local grow shop or online. The super sprouter trays are great. They are durable and compact and are perfect for germination to late vegetative stages. They also have trays with holes for water runoff.

• Felt pots - Affordable and reusable (LESS WASTE!) Felt pots are the most ideal for your plants as they will never become root bound. We like GeoPot for their felt pots equipped with velcro that makes transplanting easier.

• Seed mats for germination or young seedlings.

FULL SET-UP OFFER for your convenience

Vivosun offers a full set-up with all of your equipment needs. If you don’t have specific brand preferences for your fans, filters, and tents, you can opt to purchase one of Vivosun’s complete kits which are great for first-time growers.