We’ve all been there. The weather has changed, and you just aren’t ready to shut her down. Over the winter months, many
gardeners will choose to continue their summer green thumb and dive into the world of indoor , specifically smaller scale indoor setups. That’s why I’m diving into the basics of how to set up a weed grow room.After all, home grown marijuana is worth the work involved, and if you do it right, the proper setup can bring you harvest after harvest of dank nugs. With the ever-evolving world of growing gear, many novice indoor growers are wasting large amounts of money on false claims and downright dangerous gear.
I’ll dive into all the information you need from how many plants to grow and what you need for your grow room setup. I’ll go into my favorite recommendations for grow tents, proper ventilation and the best lighting. After a little bit of reading, I hope you will feel a lot more comfortable with your approach.
Determining How Many Plants to Grow
The very first step in this process is finding out how much room you have to grow in your new indoor weed grow room.
The biggest and most important question one must ask is how many plants do I want to grow? Along with what is your budget; keep in mind that you need to be realistic with your desired plant count. There are several choices from the more budget friendly to more large-scale, facility-type products.
Not everyone has an entire room to dedicate to horticulture, but luckily there are trusted sites and resources to help you get set up with all the proper gear from the get-go. From single plant to a full scale facility, the owner Jake Buchanan at
is someone who has always been a help to me.
Home Grow Cannabis Gear
When you’re first looking to grow indoor weed, many beginners decide to buy grow-your-own weed kits, while others go the DIY approach. For this setup in particular, I’m going to walk you through what you need to consider in terms of which marijuana grow tent will best suit your needs, as well as my recommendations for lighting and ventilation.
Choosing the Right Weed Grow Tent
Whether what you want is a cheap grow tent, DIY grow tent, something big or small, there are plenty of grow tent setup options for gardeners of all levels. Here’s a primer on which grow tents have been tested and given my stand of approval for an at-home, indoor cannabis cultivation.
Typical indoor grow setups are the 4 x 4 and 4 x 8 tent arrangements. Grow tents do come in a variety of sizes, from a small grow tent that holds a handful of plants to a larger tent that can hold many. Overall, you should check the manufacturer to see which sizes they offer.
Grow Tent Size
Ideally unless doing sea of green, we plan for a plant to take up a 2 x 2 space inside a grow tent. That being said, in a 4 x 4 tent, four plants would be grown to term. So, in a 4 x 8, you could have enough space for up to eight plants. There are several different brands from your Amazon special, higher-end like my preferred favorite
, made in the USA.Grow Tent Features: Quality & Ventilation
The main differences between your lower-end, budget grow tents and your premium grow tent lines are thicknesses, tent material, zipper quality, Millar pattern on the inside of the tent for light reflection, structural support bars and material used for clips, as well as number of vents for cables and air movement.
Your tents should include several air vents as well as adequate bars for hanging lights and extraction equipment. This is where Gorilla tents really take the lead in my eyes as they include almost double the amount of bars as per typical Amazon tents. This allows for ease of installation of your lights and extracting equipment.
Proper Ventilation for Weed Grow Room
Now that you have chosen your tent size and features, next up extraction. No I’m not talking about squishing or blasting your flower, we are speaking air in, air out. No matter what exact method or brand you choose, getting proper air exchange inside your grow tent is a must.
You have a few choices here whether you are going with a direct vent out of your house via a window or cut out, or the use of a carbon filter. Carbon filters can be a great way to keep that smell down to a minimum, but you must remember that the actual filter must be replaced every so often as the carbon will absorb all it can.
There are several different brands out there with a few going a little above and beyond with included extras.
comes to mind when I think of extras. The option of probe controlled air extraction means you take the guesswork out of your environment. Simply set the desired temp and humidity and the controller along with direct extraction fan will do its best to obtain desired values. is another brand, which I have been using for years 24/7 with little to no issues. At the end of the day air movement is crucial as it is what brings fresh air in and hot stale humid air out.
Lights for a Weed Grow Room
Next up is lights. I would say hands down the most talked about subject with constantly changing “best practices.” You have several choices here, and with those choices come major differences in price. Not all lights are designed the same, with that being said you must decide on what type you want to go with.
LED, HPS & CMH Grow Lights
Many newer growers to the scene jump directly to LED, while that may actually be your best choice, it’s also best to not buy the cheapest one you find. High pressure sodium (HPS) and mixed spectrum ceramic metal halide (CMH) are definitely beasts and have proven track records no one can argue with, but for many residential tent growers it simply isn’t an easy option.
First off, the heat alone put off by these lights along with hang height are your first real problems — it can be done, but more care is definitely needed. My personal choice is to go with LED for a tent grow. Here are my reasons why: lower monthly running cost, lower running temperatures, custom dialing in of light spectrums, and most importantly to smaller space growers is the much lower hang height before damaging your garden.
For my garden I go to Shawn Lafond over at
. The two EGT – 650s absolutely rock my tent producing nothing but pure fire. Since making the switch, my flowers have never been so beautiful. With many different brands on the market it’s easy to get lost in numbers. The minimum I would personally ever recommend is a 480 watt led for a 4 x 4 tent. That being said moving up to the 650 watt per 4 x 4 space, I have really noticed a serious increase in overall weight.
Wrapping Up
When setting up your indoor garden you just have to remember we are trying to mimic mother nature to our best ability. Temperate, humidity and fresh air all must be taken into consideration. Growing indoors can be very rewarding when done properly and can really lift those winter blues. No matter the kind of day I am having, going home and opening up my garden always brings a bright smile to my face.
Logan Chamut
Canadian Cannafam