Proper tent airflow crucial for indoor growers
After I finished my second grow, I purposely took a break from documenting my entire grow for News Joint Grow Journal. At that time, I just wanted to grow a couple plants without constantly taking photos, selecting photos, and writing up journal entries. Now that I am finishing my third grow, I am finally wearing out and/or upgrading equipment I first started with, specifically fans and other products that help airflow in my tent.
I am always trying to learn more about growing from more experienced growers, so I asked Fred Sanders, Manager at Blooms Brothers Hydro located in The Apple House in Terre Haute, to write up an educational piece about proper airflow and tent ventilation, which is crucial to my personal small-grow area.
By Fred Sanders
As the grower, we are responsible for providing circulation, fresh air intake, and stale air exhaust for our indoor grows. This process provides several important benefits to indoor crops, including disease and pest prevention, clean air intake, and exhausts systems.
Disease and Pest Prevention
Proper airflow within the plant canopy reduces the risk of pathogens such as powdery mildew, bud rot (botrytis), and other fungal problems that thrive in humid, stale air. By proving proper circulation through the canopy we can eliminate these pockets of stagnant air, removing the preferred environment for fungal pathogens. Remember, prevention of a problem is always easier than eliminating it.
Good air movement can also help prevent some of our worst pests from taking hold inside the room. Aphids, spider mites, and fungus gnats all thrive in stale humid spaces. Aphids are by far my least favorite invader within an indoor grow. These tiny pests can establish themselves within our grows in moments. Good sanitary practices, climate controls, and a really good intake filter can go a long way toward preventing these pests.
Spider mites prefer areas with calm, damp air to breed and feed. Good airflow and humidity controls coupled with a strong IPM, take away their preferred conditions, resulting in fewer chances of infestation. As the air within the room circulates, excess moisture from the top layer of soil evaporates, leaving fungus gnats and other soil borne pests to find it much harder to establish within our grow spaces. The use of circulating fans also provides a physical stressor to our plants, encouraging the growth of stronger stems and branches, as well as thicker cell walls, all of which are natural defenses against pests and disease.
Fresh Air Intake
Intake systems are the most effective products to bring fresh CO2 into the space for use by our plants. I am not talking about a clip on desk fan at a duct port in the tent, but rather a true intake system, filter and all. The air we bring into our indoor growing space can be (and generally is) full of contaminants, pests, and other things we would like to keep out of our grow. Those of us with pets or kids know all about the random things that randomly float into our grow spaces. To mitigate these issues, a quality hepa filter should be attached to the intake ventilation system. To conserve grow space within the tent or room, the filter and fan can be placed outside the grow area and ducted into the space to provide fresh, clean air. To maintain a negative pressure within the room, which keeps odors from seeping out, keep your intake system slightly smaller than the exhaust system. Either a smaller system, 4 inch intake to 6 inch exhaust, or an intake fan pulling less volume than it’s exhaust counterpart will provide this differential.
Exhaust Systems
Venting the air from our indoor spaces provides several benefits to our grow. Grow lights, even efficient LEDs, generate large amounts of heat. This heat needs to be removed from the space because a temperature spike of just a few degrees can stress our plants, leading to reduced yields and lower quality products. Excess heat can also result in damaged equipment. Grow lights and other hardware have temperature ranges within which they operate most effectively. Exceeding those limits will shorten the lifespan of equipment, resulting in larger and more frequent out of pocket costs.
Odor control is also a consideration when setting up an exhaust system. If you plan on your exhaust venting into living spaces or into a high traffic area, a good carbon filter will work wonders in keeping the general public from realizing the potency of your grow. If you have the ability to vent thru an existing chimney, the need for a carbon filter may be lessened. Even within the confines of a legal/licensed grow, I would still run a good carbon setup to keep from broadcasting the grow.
Blooms Brothers Hydro is located at 2611 South Harding in Terre Haute, which is only seven miles from the Illinois border. The hours of operation are Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. (with limited hours during January and February). Blooms Brothers Hydro offers several different nutrient lines in house, with others as a special order, as well as growing media, lighting, tents, environmental accessories, grow bags, curing supplies, and more. For 20% off any in-store purchases, use promo code ILNJ22. Blooms Brothers Hydro can be found on Facebook, Instagram @applehousehydro, Twitter @BloomsBros, by phone at (812) 232-1495, or via its website. For more News Joint Grow Journal entries, visit here.

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