Grow Fans and Ventilation
Proper ventilation is often overlooked when running a clean and efficient grow room, even though it's a key aspect. Ventilation issues in your grow tent can cause pests and plagues to dwell in your grow room. This is why it's essential to ventilate your grow room properly to ensure that your plants will be happy and your harvests will be hefty.
Make your grow room as best as possible so that your plants will be free from disease, pest infestations, and stunted growth. This guide will show you what needs to be done to maintain a proper ventilation system in your grow room.
Why Ventilation Is Important For Plant Growth
There are two main reasons why your plants require fresh air circulation.
First, your plants need fresh air for photosynthesis, allowing plants to transform water, light, and carbon dioxide into food.
Second, your plants need to breathe. They respire from photosynthesis to turn oxygen and glucose into energy they need to fuel their growth.
Your plants will starve to death in the absence of fresh air. This is not your only worry, though - lack of fresh air will also create a breeding ground for pests and pathogens in your grow room.
If you don't have a proper grow room ventilation system, you risk building stale, warm air around your plants and establishing a hot and humid environment that invites a lot of pests and plagues.
How Grow Tent Ventilation Works
Understandably, the concept of ventilation can get confusing or overwhelming for lots of beginner growers. But the basic principles are easy to understand, and you will be able to supply your grow room with fresh, cool air from the outside and keep the old, humid air out of your grow room or grow tent.
To start things off, get to know why warm and humid air can circulate in your grow room in the first place.
Your Plants Will Naturally Transpire
Your plants will sweat naturally through the cuticles and stomata in their leaves and their lenticels. This process is necessary for the plants to move nutrients and water from the soil up to their branches. The water transpired from your plants will evaporate naturally into the air and increase the humidity in your grow space.
Your Grow Lights Emit Warmth
The grow lights in your grow space will emit some form of heat. Although there are modern LED lights that can be used (these are cooler and emit less heat), many growers still prefer to use the classic HIDs even though they emit more heat. HID lights, such as high-pressure sodium or metal halide produce more yields. So if you will go for HID lights, you have to work on driving down the temperature in your grow room.
Using an exhaust system is the best way to maintain good ventilation in your grow room. This will push the old, warm air towards the top of your grow tent and push the cool, fresh air from the bottom. If you have a bigger grow space, you can benefit from using simple fans to help move the air around your grow tent.
What You Will Need To Ventilate Your Grow Room
Take note of the essential tools to establish proper ventilation in your grow room.
Extractor Fan
Using extractor fans is necessary for pulling old air out of your grow area. You should install your extractor fans at the top of your grow room or grow tent since hot air naturally rises. Look for reflectors or grow lights that come with attachments for the exhaust system.
Remember that there are different kinds of extractors available, and you need to find one that has enough power to ventilate the size of your grow space. Check for fan speed or performance, and then look at the cubic feet per minute (CFM) of your indoor extractors to see if you have the right one for your grow space.
First, calculate the volume of your grow room by multiplying its length, width, and height. Once you get the result, pick an exhaust fan that fits that calculation. Usually, the fan should have a CFM equal to the volume of your space. Your fan will be able to replace the air in your grow room completely every minute.
Carbon Filter
Carbon filters are made for scrubbing contaminants from the air. These also absorb the terpenes produced by your plants and cleanse the air extracted from your grow room. As carbon is very dense, activated carbon filters are best at dealing with the strong smell in a growing area.
Oscillating Fans
Strategically placed oscillating fans in your grow room will help significantly put efficient airflow in the area. The breeze from the plants will not just make the stems of your plants more potent, and it will also prevent stagnant air from building up around your space. This lessens the probability of pests and plagues ruining your crops.
How To Ventilate Your Grow Room
Most growers maintain their crops indoors and in tents. Now lots of modern grow tents in the market come with ports and vents that will accommodate a ventilation system, which should make things easier for you when it comes to exchanging stale air inside. Here are the basic steps in installing an exhaust system in your grow area.
Set Up Your Exhaust Fans And Filters
Install your carbon filter first, and then put your exhaust fan in. Since setting up a ventilation system can get tricky, you should do this before installing your grow lights.
Install Your Grow Lights
This is done using rope ratchets.
Use Ducting To Connect Everything
Now that your lights, fan, and filter are installed, you need to connect all of them using ducting clamps and hold them into place. Make sure to keep extra duct tape to cover up tears in your system easily. It would be best if you used ducting for the outside of your tent to bring air from your fan to your window or wherever you decide to release the hot air.
Plants require air to fuel the process of photosynthesis- without this, your plants will suffocate, or more accurately, starve to death. Lack of oxygen also leaves space for pests and pathogens to take hold- stale warm air is just the humid environment that plagues look for! Proper ventilation is key, the basic rules are not too complex- rid your grow room or tent of humid, old air and bring in new, cool air from an outside space.
To stop your grow room from getting overheated and soggy feeling, note that there is a process of transpiration which is going on for the marijuana. This sweat is paramount to move the nutrients and water up the branches from the soil, feeding the flowers and foliage. This transpiration occurs through the pores located on the surface of the plant lenticels, cuticles, and stomata in the leaves. These suck up the moisture from the roots into the other areas of the greenery. The water from the transpiration is then evaporated- which is why it gets so humid in your tent or room and requires ventilation.
Another reason for humidity is the warmth of the grow lights. Even LEDs will emit some heat, though they run much cooler than high-pressure sodium or metal halide lights, due to greater yields, most growers go with the hotter light option. Thus proper ventilation is so key to the success of your grow room or tent.
One of the most proven ways to successfully maintain good ventilation in your grow room is by investing in an exhaust system. This will draw the warm, old air from the top of the tent or room and attract fresh and clean cool air from down at the bottom of your room or tent. Most spaces will be sufficiently sized to use a fan such as an extractor fan.
