August 19, 2020
Looking to set up a medicinal plants grow room? If so you have probably bumped up against the fact that there are a lot of things you need to learn before you can get started on your first 420 friendly grow. It can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Today we are going to go over several tips that guide you in setting up your grow room.
Here's what you should think about with every grow room setup:
Is It Big Enough?
Almost any space can be used as for grow room setup. You can either convert a whole room or cupboard into a grow room, or use a indoor grow tent.
Are You Near A Power Supply?
For a one light or two light set up, a couple of normal double wall sockets will be fine. You can always use an extension lead if you need to.
Are You Near A Water Source?
You should never use unfiltered rain water - you never know what you're feeding plants. The best water you can use is pure, filtered water. Read more on the importance of water here.
Will Noise Be An Issue?
Lights, pumps and your fan can make some noise. Bear this in mind with your setup.
What’s The Flooring Like?
Don't grow straight onto carpeted floors. They hold moisture (spillages!) and harbour bugs and bacteria. You can put reflective sheeting down, or grow in a tent.
When it comes to planning your grow room setup and design, there is nothing quite as important as the lighting you will use to grow you little seedlings into full-grown behemoth plants.
Here you’ll see three main types of lighting options.
Fluorescents
Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs)
Fluorescent lights are best for their blue light spectrum range and lack of off-put heat. The T5s are very popular when cloning or boosting growth in the vegetative stage. They are larger than the typical CFLs and usually in panel form with multiple lights in one base. Their quality is great and you can keep them inches away from your plants without burning them.
High-Intensity Discharge (HID)
Metal Halide lights are best used in the vegetative stages. These type of HID grow lights provide high amounts of blue light hues. These wide ranges of blues cater to the exact types of lighting that are needed for root growth and vegetative growth.
High-Pressure Sodium grow lights are best used in the flowering stage of the growing cycle. HPS lights are much different than MH lights because of the different hues they emit in the spectrum.
High-Pressure Sodium lights emit a yellowish, orange hue that perfect for bud production. These type of lights often yield larger grows that any light during the flowering stage.
LED lights have the ability to switch between multiple hues in the spectrum. YOu can enable blue lights, reddish hues or both. Most full spectrum Led grow lights have fans and cooling systems built into lower the temperatures.
LEDs are energy efficient and have long-life space anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 hours of operations time.
Remember, LED grow lights produce heat, and if you are not up with your cooling techniques, your plant is going to burn. YOU don’t want that. How to maintain heat? With the help of fans. If you are having a good budget, then you must buy a indoor grow tent kit, which already has a cooling system.
Although some grower don’t use a carbon filter, they can unintentionally be making a trail that leads straight to their grow. Carbon filters ensure there are no smells whatsoever getting where they aren’t supposed to be in addition to providing peace of mind!
Just like the exhaust fan, I recommend hanging your carbon filter with rope ratchets because a carbon filter is surprisingly heavy and rope ratchets make it a lot easier to make adjustments!
It’s important that there is an air-tight line from the carbon filter to the fan (without any air leaks) in order to prevent smells from escaping the tent!
Grow room setup and design matters, but so do the conditions within the grow tent. The ideal climate helps medicinal plants develop into giant individuals. If you can ensure that, your medicinal plants will grow at great speeds.
In the initial stages of growth, your medicinal plants seedlings will benefit from a temperature range of 72–80°F. You can place seedling heat mats or heaters to maintain the temperature. Watch out for symptoms of heat stress!
Another element of indoor climate that has to be monitored is air circulation. A ventilator ensures good movement of air and moisture both. Air circulation will stimulate stem growth and make them grow thicker and stronger. It will also result in a bigger yield. Connecting a thermostat to the ventilator will also help in maintaining the temperature. When the temperature rises above the recommended range, the ventilator’s exhaust will kick in and bring it back down.
Excess moisture isn’t good for the plants, which is where a good quality dehumidifier will come in handy.
A clean grow room makes for healthy plants. As a beginner, it can be easy to get overwhelmed with all there is to do and, as a result, forget to prioritize your cleaning. However, if you want to keep everything going as good as possible, you are going to have to remember to clean up after each watering and trimming session.
Keep in mind that your plants will also create waste. Stray leaves may not seem like a big deal, but they can also foster bacteria and disease. Picking up leaves as you spot them and taking off yellow wilted leaves will ensure that you don’t have to deal with unpleasant build up and the consequences that can arise from that.
Now that you’re all set up, the major work is over! Here’s a very quick summary of what’s next: