After you purchase a grow tent you will still need a few pieces of equipment to get growing. You will need a light source, a growing medium, and a watering system. These are all fairly cheap to buy and easy to set up.
If you plan on growing hydroponically, then you can automate almost the entire growing process. The equipment needed to do this relatively cheap. Hydroponic growing allows gardeners to program lighting and watering cycles to create the perfect growing conditions. Then they can sit back and relax.
Ventilation Fan
Ventilation is very is important in a grow room. The air can get depleted of carbon dioxide and the plants will not be able to breathe. The air can also get too humid, causing fungal growth. It can also cause the temperature in the room to rise to a level that can harm plants. The best way to ventilate is to use a squirrel cage fan.
Grow Lights
To achieve maximum growth you will want some good grow lights. The best options include LED grow lights, high pressure sodium, and metal halide. LED grow lights are becoming more and more reasonable in price, and they have many benefits over the alternatives. They are durable, energy efficient, produce little heat, are lightweight, and have a long life span.
Water Reservoir
You will need a way to hold the water you that you will supply to your plants. Most people will just use a Rubbermade plastic storage container. Try to find a white one, so the light reflects off of it and returns to your plants. The size of your grow tent will determine the size of the reservoir.
Water Pumps
You will need a water pump to get the water from the reservoir to the plants. A simple fountain pump works great. You can get these is all different sizes and pumping power. I recommend a medium Sunterra fountain pump. This will be sufficient for grow tents, if you have a larger grow room you will want a larger water pump.
Growing Medium
You will need a medium to grow your plants in. Soil is not recommended for indoor growing because there are better options that are more easy to control and clean. Most use clay aggregate inside some sort of container. The clay is great for holding water and providing space for roots. You will want to cover the medium to make sure the roots do not come in contact with direct light.
Nutrients
Since you are not growing in soil, there needs to be nutrients added to the water to enable optimal growth and blooming. You can simply pour the correct amount in the water reservoir, which makes the process painless and easy. You can find hydroponic nutrients on many online stores.
Timers
Timers are very useful in a grow tent. You can automate your watering and lighting cycles, so you can have more free time for yourself. Simply get a plug in timer, and attach your grow lights and water pump to it. Growing indoors is great for the lazy gardener.
pH Control Kit
Having the wrong pH can cause a multitude of problems. It can affect the nutrients that a plant gets. Having the wrong pH can take away the availability of some of these essential nutrients. It will also affect the roots of plants, so they cannot absorb the nutrients. Another problem is fungal growth can occur with the incorrect pH. Get a pH control kit to monitor and adjust the pH to the optimal levels.
Temperature & Humidity Monitor
To know when to run your fans, you will need a temperature and humidity monitor. You can even automate the system so when temperature or humidity reach a certain point, the fans will turn on. This way you can optimize these conditions for whatever plant variety you are growing.
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