Active Grow Walden White Grow Tent 2' x 4' VS Goliath Grow Tent 2' x 4' x 6'11" Hydroponic Grow Tent

At first sight, a grow tent can look like one of those growing supplies, of which you get the first one you can find, and then forget about…

…until you realize you just wasted your money on a grow tent that can’t even correctly handle equipment like a heavy grow light.

For growing plants, your tent should have 2 essential characteristics:

Have a sturdy enough frame to handle heavy equipment, and;
Provide a (close to) light-tight seal.
And better yet: will also last you at least a few years and come with nice growing conveniences, that you’re all going to learn about today.

Sounds good? Let’s get started.

Why Use a Grow Tent?​

Simply put, controlling your indoor growing environment is crucial to getting the yields that you want. The first line of defense in environmental control is containing your garden in a confined space — which is what a grow tent is for.​

After you have a grow tent, you can move on to other factors that influence your growth like indoor grow lights, growing media, system, nutrients, and ventilation.​

How tall of a tent should I buy?

The answer to this question depends on a few things: your lights, your plants, and your own height.

If you are growing with powerful, hot lights like HPS or MH, you’ll need to place them further from the plant canopy and will require more height. On the other hand, if you’re growing with LEDs or CFLs, you can place them closer and get away with a shorter tent.

Some plants also require more height. If the height is an issue for you, you can either grow a dwarf variety of your plants or simply spring for a taller tent to make sure they have enough room to grow.

Lastly, you will likely be inside your grow tent at one point or another. It’s nice to have a tent that you can comfortably fit in. Some of the shorter tents can be difficult to maneuver in.

Active Grow Walden White Grow Tent 2' x 4'

Features:

The Active Walden Grow Tent is designed to give professional home growers a tent that meets their needs in both function and form. All Walden Grow Tents are manufactured using industrial-strength zippers and 100% EcoWhite PEVA material. This toxin-free material creates a clean look for a grow space and emits no hazardous chemical gases, allowing these tents to be safely placed in communal settings without posing any health risks to friends or family. The triple-layer design is composed of a 600D canvas exterior, a vinyl light-blocking center, and a white vinyl interior that is 10% more reflective than even the most reflective mylar tents. The double-wide front doors allow growers to easily access plants or to put them on full display. The Infinity View front windows help growers observe and assess their entire garden without disturbing humidity or temperature.

Goliath Grow Tent 2' x 4' x 6'11" Hydroponic Grow Tent

Features:

Professionally designed Goliath Grow Tents are ideal for experts and beginners alike. Expert configuration puts ducting ports in their ideal locations. Large Easy-View windows offer progress view access without compromising your growing environment. Doorways offer 360-degree access. The large configuration provides obstruction-free maneuvering. Maintaining an ideal growing space is a breeze with its thick material and large double cinching duct ports. Diamond Reflective Walls redistribute up to 30% more lumens, making the most out of your growth. Constructed with 1680D thread density fabric that is up to 9x denser than other grow tents on the market. Each tent comes with a height extension kit that allows you to increase your growing height by 12.

Features to Look For in a Grow Tent​

The world of grow tents can be confusing if you’re just relying on an online shop or your local hydroponics store. These days there are hundreds of grow tent manufacturers, all with different features, sizes, and price points.

It’s hard to narrow down not only the best brands but what all of the different features actually mean. Too often grow tent manufacturers make up fancy names for their features instead of just calling them by their standard names.

To make it easier, here are the features that you should be on the lookout for when choosing the best grow tent for your garden.​

Heat and Rip Resistance​

Hopefully, you’ll never need your tent to hold up to extreme heat, but it is something to look for. After all, you’re dealing with hot lights that are hanging in an enclosed space, as well as other electrical parts that are close to water. Accidents can happen, and you want your grow tent to be able to hold up to them.​

Fabric Density and Strength​

An integral part of the rip resistance of your tent is how dense the fabric is. The fabric density is typically measured in “denier”, which means:​

a unit of weight by which the fineness of silk, rayon, or nylon yarn is measured, equal to the weight in grams of 9,000 meters of the yarn and often used to describe the thickness of hosiery.​

The densest grow tents are upwards of 1680D, while the average grow tent comes in anywhere from 120D — 600D. As a general rule, buy the strongest fabric that you can afford. It keeps noise and smell in your tent, and it keeps any airborne spores, pests, or diseases out of the tent. It’s also harder for light to leak through a denser fabric.

Quality Reflective Material

One of the biggest advantages of using a grow tent is the reflective properties of the interior walls. It ensures that you’re getting the most out of your indoor grow lights. However, not all reflective material is created equally. You should look for tents that offer reflective mylar with as close to 100% reflectivity as possible. Some manufacturers also offer mylar with different patterns. Diamond patterned mylar seems to have the best reflective quality and some of the top grow tents offer it standard.

No Gapping in the Fabric​

One of the main reasons to buy a grow tent is to use your indoor grow lights effectively. The best grow tents are completely light-tight, meaning that when you have your system up and running, absolutely no light should escape. The features to look for here are overlapping velcro flaps to seal off corners and edges, along with zip-draws for any ventilation or cord ports.​

Zipper Durability

The zippers on your tent are usually the first point of failure. Because they’re used every single day, wear and tear can build up fast on poorly constructed zippers. They should be easy to zip up, with a large area for your hands for ease of use. The harder they are to zip, the more likely you’ll make a mistake and damage the zipper, letting light leak out of the tent.​

Corner Construction

Many grow tents have a plastic, three-prong corner that accepts the framing poles. While these are OK, top-of-the-line tents will have metal corner pieces. The absolute best tents will use corners that have an interlocking snap piece to secure the poles in place, ensuring they don’t wiggle out while moving the tent. This prevents a catastrophic frame failure.​

Frame and Pole Strength

Grow tents are almost always constructed by assembling interlocking poles. Some manufacturers offer tents with height-adjustable poles, meaning an extra set of 1’ or 2’ poles that can be attached the vertical supports. These are a great choice if you’re growing plants that require a lot of vertical height.

The poles can be made of plastic, steel, or weaker metals. When in doubt, go metal over plastic, and steel over any other type of metal. Look for poles that have a snapping mechanism to lock them in once you assemble them. The rotation of the poles over time can cause degradation and in the worst cases, a structural failure.​

Number of Ventilation, Exhaust, and Cord Ports

There are three types of ports on a grow tent: ventilation, exhaust, and cord ports. Ventilation ports are typically flaps secured by velcro that can be lifted to help vent out hot air. Make sure there is at least one of these on your tent.

Exhaust ports are for more heavy-duty ventilation, including ventilating your grow light. There is typically at least one intake and one outtake port, although larger tents will have more than one of these.

Finally, cord ports. It sounds like a small detail, but having well-placed cord ports is the difference between running extension cords and simply plugging in your growing gear.​

Conclusion

I hope this grow tent buyer’s guide has given you every bit of info you need to choose the right grow tent for your unique situation.

Here’s a good way to decide which grow tent is best for you:​

Decide how large of a growing operation you are going for
Decide which features matter the most to you
Decide what you’re growing, the lights you’ll use, and how high your plants will grow

No matter what you decide to grow or how you decide to grow it, a grow tent will make your life a whole lot easier — and you’ll have better yields as well! It takes a little bit of time to get used to growing indoors, but after you’re past the learning curve the rewards are too good to ignore.​

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