I Have a Small Tent: How to Discreetly Grow in an Apartment
As the song says, not everyone is lucky enough to have a balcony. Some are even unlucky enough to have a tiny flat and curious neighbors. Even they need not lose heart or give up hope for the wished-for three plants. Higarden advises how to grow indoors discreetly yet effectively.
If we talk about discreet indoor growing, we certainly don’t mean a few pots hidden on a balcony or windowsill. We mean cultivation under artificial light in a special grow tent – a growbox. You can hide not only the plants in it but also most of the equipment, and if you want, you can arrange it so your mini-grow room looks from the outside like a wardrobe. The important thing is that no light or smell escapes and that the operation is as quiet as possible.
Which growbox to choose and where to place it
How big a growbox do you need? It probably goes without saying that the smaller the grow tent, the easier it is to hide from curious eyes. However, if you don’t want to grow only herbs and have your eye on something more aromatic, you’ll need a tent with a floor area of at least 40x40 cm and a height of 120 cm. One smaller plant, for example an autoflowering plant, fits comfortably into such a tent. If you want to grow more plants, you will need at least one square meter of cultivation area. Remember that the larger the tent, the noisier the grow operation will be.
If you want to grow discreetly, you may have to pay a bit more for the growbox. Cheaper grow tents do fulfil their purpose, but they often let light through at the seams. Premium brand growboxes are made so that not even a ray of light escapes.
And where to put the grow tent? The ideal place is a well-ventilated dark room, for example a storage closet. If you cannot choose and must have the growbox, for example, in the bedroom, you can disguise it as a wardrobe. Just make sure to leave openings for the exhaust fan and air intake.
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How to keep your growbox quiet
Even the hum of a refrigerator can disturb some sleepers, and the buzzing of fans in a grow room can be just as annoying. Quiet and reliable fans are essential and are not worth skimping on. Modern fans with EC motors are a bit more expensive than older AC types, but their operation is incomparably quieter. Advantages also include low power consumption and easy speed control.
An essential part of a really quiet growbox is a noise attenuator, which is mounted on the exhaust duct immediately after the fan. It’s a good idea to hang the exhaust fan on rubber straps to reduce vibration transfer. When installing the air duct, remember that every bend increases the noise of the flowing air – therefore try to keep connections as short and as straight as possible.
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Odor under control
Besides noise, the pleasant scent of flowering plants can give away your grow room. Current medicinal varieties can have aromas that travel through three doors, so when cultivating them it’s essential to use a carbon/odor filter. It cleans the air leaving the cultivation space and neutralizes the characteristic smell.
The filter must match the capacity of the fan and all connections must be well sealed. Remember that carbon filters wear out over time and should be replaced with new ones after two cycles. A few hundred crowns is a small price for a peaceful night’s sleep.
In the period just before harvest and during drying, the plants will give off their full aroma and mere air filtration may not be enough. Make sure to stock up in advance on odor-neutralizing gels, which provide an additional layer of defense against unwelcome noses.
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Suitable varieties for small tents and how to tame them
Although almost anything can be grown under artificial light, if discretion is your goal, leave tall, vigorously growing varieties to greenhouses. In a small cultivation space, compact, bushy plants and autoflowering varieties perform best. These usually don’t grow taller than a meter and have a short cultivation cycle.
Small space has its limitations, and if you want to get the most out of your plants, consider the plant shape in advance. During the vegetative phase, try to train plants to grow more in width than in height so they fill the entire cultivation area. Remember that after switching to flowering the plants will quickly stretch in height. To prevent them from reaching the grow lights, you can trim them, or bend and weave them into nets.
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If you are just starting out with growing and don’t know how to match all the components, visit us at Higarden.cz. We will help you choose a quiet fan, a light-tight tent and other equipment for discreet cultivation. Useful tips and advice on indoor and outdoor growing can be found on our Higarden blog.