Grow Room Environment & Climate Control
Proper grow room & tent climate control is mandatory to harvest a heavy, top shelf yield. Hydrobuilder.com has a large selection of grow room controllers to dial in your temperature and humidity as well as grow room CO2 controllers & generators to help keep your plants breathing freely. Hydrobuilder.com also has the industry leading grow room dehumidifiers and grow room air conditioners.
Grow room odor control & ventilation kits ensure that nobody on the outside can smell the sticky icky you're growing on the inside. Our carbon filter / fan combo setups will suppress the smell of your plants along with any airborne pathogens that would be harmful to your indoor garden by purifying the air. The activated carbon in our Carbon Air Filters attracts and removes the offending odor molecules.
Grow room climate control is an ongoing endeavor for any grower, new or experienced. There are so many factors that contribute to your growing environment, with the most important being temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide, and ventilation. But when it comes to indoor growing, the environment is everything.
You can implement the best grow lights and feed your plants the highest quality nutrients available, but if your environment is not in sync, you will suffer an unsuccessful harvest.
Why is grow room climate control so important?
Plants can be very fickle organisms. If certain aspects of your climate are out of the ideal range, a number of problems can arise. Growth will slow, plants will become stressed, and the quality and weight of your yield will suffer.
Trying to control all of the components in your indoor garden can be very stressful if you don’t have the right grow room environment equipment, but it doesn’t have to be.
Once you understand the ranges of these measurements that plants function best in, it can be simple. Using environment controllers in your grow room will automate your entire grow, which we will cover more in depth later on.
What are the different areas of grow room climate control?
We can boil down grow room climate control to just four different areas you need to monitor and maintain: temperature, humidity, CO2, and air flow.
We have the know-how and products you need to keep each and every grow room atmosphere metric dialed in. Let’s cover each in depth now.
Controlling grow room temperature
One of the more important, yet difficult to control, considerations of a grow room environment is the temperature.
If your indoor garden is too cold, plant growth will slow. The plant will think the growing season is over, and will start shutting down. If temperatures drop too low for too long, the plant will die.
When temperatures in the tent or room raise too high, growth also slows. Excessive heat can contribute to pest and mold development as well. During flowering, too much heat will reduce potency and smell of buds, and they’ll end up crispy.
What temperature should I keep my grow room?
Plants grow best when temperatures are warm, but not too warm. Your grow room should be between 70-85 degrees Fahrenheit. During flowering, you can drop this slightly to 65-75 degrees, simulating the changing of seasons.
Certain climates will inevitably run into temperatures not ideal for plant life. Growers who live in regions with harsh winters and summers do not have to stop growing, they just need to make adjustments!
To combat heat, consider a grow room air conditioner. These come in a number of sizes, and are generally portable.
Likewise, during the winter, you may need a greenhouse or grow room heater. These are bigger and bulkier, but will raise the temperature so your plants can continue growing regardless of the season!
Want more ideas on how to manage heat in the grow room? Check out this full guide!
Controlling grow room humidity
Humidity is one of the areas expert growers suggest never skimping on. It can go hand and hand with temperature in your grow room. The higher your temperature, the more humidity you will experience, and vice versa.
Like temperature, there is a specific range in which plants thrive. Too much humidity can result in the dreaded condition known as bud rot, resulting in an entire plant life cycle wasted. Molds will also develop from too much moisture.
If humidity falls too low, plants will still suffer. Without moisture, growth will slow to a halt, since leaves and foliage are dry. Nutrient burns can also arise, as plants start up taking more water and nutrients through the roots.
What is the best humidity for a grow room?
The ideal humidity ranges will vary between growth stages.
- Seedlings/clones- 70-75%
- Vegging- 50-70%
- Flowering- 40-50%
- Harvest- 45-50%
Adjusting humidity in the grow room is very simple, so there is no excuse not to carefully monitor it.
Humidifiers add humidity, and dehumidifier reduce humidity. It really is that simple, and these devices are even further simplified with the use of a humidity controller which will automatically adjust and turn these on and off.
If you need a specific recommendation for your grow room or tent, our yearly review of the top grow room dehumidifiers & best grow room humidifiers are great resources, serving as buying guides!
If you are struggling with grow tent humidity in particular, you can check out our complete guide on how to restore balance and keep your plants healthy and happy!
Optimizing grow room CO2 levels
Carbon dioxide has been prized as a simple way to drastically increase yields. CO2 is a necessary component for photosynthesis to occur, and without it, plants cannot grow (or even survive).
Grow rooms powered by fluorescent grow lights generally do not need additional CO2 supplementation, but growers using powerful HID or LED grow lights should seriously consider a CO2 enrichment kit.
Do increased CO2 levels affect plant growth?
A plant can only absorb as much light as the CO2 present allows. When more CO2 is present, plants can use more of the light available to them. Some of the noted benefits of Carbon dioxide use in the indoor garden include:
- Heavier yields in shorter times
- The acceptable temperature range on the high end increases up to 90 degrees
- More resinous buds with a better taste
The main benefit is the size and quality of bud production. Growers who have experimented with CO2 supplementation will tell you, CO2 burner or CO2 tanks are now a staple in their grow room.
We have a beginners guide to optimizing grow room & tent CO2, which is a must read for growers looking to increase their yields when growing indoors. We even have a simple, intuitive co2 calculator for growers that are unsure how much carbon dioxide needs to be added to their growing space.
Controlling grow room air flow with ventilation
The ventilation system is probably the most important aspect of your grow room environment. Without a good ventilation system, the other facets will suffer and be tougher to manage, such as temperature, humidity, and CO2 levels.
Are you concerned with the smell of your garden? Most growers are, and a proper ventilation system eliminates odors while improving the environment.
How do I ventilate my grow room?
A ventilation system can be as simple or complicated as you want to make it. If you just want to scrape by, you can simply add an intake fan and an exhaust fan into your grow tent or grow room. This will be used in conjunction with ducting to bring in fresh air while expelling old air, which we want to do at least every three minutes.
The next step in improving your ventilation system is adding another fan or blower. This one is responsible for circulating the air in the tent or room, and lowering temperatures. There are a number of fans than can accomplish this.
Managing odor in the grow room
Using intake and exhaust fans in conjunction with an oscillating fan or clip-on fan will drastically improve your environment, but we are still left with a pungent odor. To combat the smelly smells of your grow room, use a carbon filter.
Carbon filters attach to your exhaust fan. Since the exhaust fan pushes dirty air out of the grow room, it will pass through this carbon filter on its way out. The activated carbon in these filters eliminate odors at an incredibly effective rate.
For more information on this component, check out our definitive guide on grow room ventilation! We also have a complete guide specifically on how to control grow room odor if you are looking to keep your indoor garden discreet, and under wraps from your neighbors.
Automating your grow room climate
I know what you are thinking: This is a lot to take in, and a lot to monitor. Thankfully, technology has evolved to the point you don’t even have to monitor these things! Implementing environment controllers will automate your entire grow room.
Multi-function grow room controllers program your fans, CO2 devices, humidity devices, and air conditioners or heaters simultaneously.
These not only reduce human error, but they grant you freedom from the grow room! Gone are the days of having to constantly return to your garden throughout the day to check on things or turn them on/off.
Want to learn more about controlling your environment? Check out our full guide to grow room automation!
If you want a quick, heavy harvest, you need to dial in your environment. This can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be, but you will get what you put in. If your goal is to cultivate the strongest, healthiest, best tasting plants possible, the grow room climate is something you really should not skimp on.
Buy Grow Room Climate Control Supplies & Equipment Online at Hydrobuilder!
If you’re looking to invest in your crop and keep your plants healthy, you’re making the right choice. They’ll reward you with a quality, potent harvest - free of environmental problems like powdery mildew, bud rot, etc.
But, with so many options online, where is the best place to buy grow room climate control supplies & equipment?
There is no better place to grab all your indoor growing essentials than Hydrobuilder.com. We carry the top brands in the horticulture industry, offering solutions for growers at every level - from small scale hobbyists with less than 5 plants all the way up to multi-state commercial cultivars.
We offer industry leading service that has the top growers in the world working with us crop after crop for all their needs, from lighting to nutrients, climate control to harvest, and everything in between. We are the complete one-stop-shop for all things growing - both indoors and outdoors!
As always, do not hesitate to reach out to our expert growers at 888-815-9763! We are happy to answer any of your questions, and help you become the best grower you can be.