After mastering the art of rolling weed and doing smoke tricks, learning how to grow it is a sort of graduation of the former, signifying your growth (sorry) from consumer to enthusiast with all the bragging rights. While you do have a few options on how to grow your own weed at home, your best bet for both ease of effectiveness of growing is learning how to set up a grow tent.
Climate control along with centralized air, lighting, and perfect temperatures can be achieved by setting up a grow tent (easily the best conditions for new growers), and it can actually be done for relatively cheap, and with minimal effort depending on your starting supplies.
What is a Grow Tent?
If you are unfamiliar with the device or just need a quick refresher, a grow tent is basically a portable and specialized tent for the sole purpose of growing plants indoors. They can range in size from the size of a small cabinet to grow a couple of potted plants to full-on ‘grow room tents’ that act as an indoor greenhouse.
Grow tents are typically made of reflective fabric in the shape of a box so all your plants can grow and thrive in a controlled, indoor environment. Once you have this made and everything is well lit, tempered, and properly ventilated, you can start growing your own weed.
How do I Make One?
For the most part, it depends on how big you want the tent and how many plants you want to grow at one time, but no matter the size, your most crucial supplies would be the special fabric (Mylar is the way to go), 1-2 small fans and simple LED grow lights.
Set Up
If you have an overall familiarity with shapes, you can set up a grow tent. The basic idea is to shape it into an upright, rectangular box so you have room to set up the lights overhead, leaving plenty of space below for fans, venting and of course, your plants.
Theoretically, you can get creative and fashion your tent in the shape of a pyramid (or actual tent): Height for the LEDs and space opens up at the bottom for plants and ventilation. It would actually function and just look really cool, but if you have never set up a tent before, it might be best to keep it simple and do the basic setup.
Most pre-fashioned grow tents have pretty small dimensions, maybe 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide and 2 feet long. This not only makes them extremely portable for even small apartments, but is actually better for 2-3 plants since the smaller size gives them more direct lighting and care.
The obvious necessity to all living things, plants included, are clean air and water. Make sure your plants drink up and that your tent setup makes them easily accessible to do so. Also, you want to ensure they are getting fresh air with good ventilation around the floor level where they stand. Fanning the plants inside the tent is necessary to control humidity but fresh air for your weed plants-to-be needs to come from outside.
Costs
By the most conservative estimates, a basic grow tent of 2-3 small plants, not including carbon filters, can be easily done for less than $100. This again comes down to how big you want your tent to be for how many plants, and how elaborate the set up. If you have the funds and resources to make it a full-scale operation, some grow tents can go up to $4,000 or more.
The actual Mylar tent of this size (for 2-3 potted plants with quality soil), one that is either pre-built or with an easy layout to set up, would only set you back about $60 and a quick trip to a department store will get you your LED lights and fans. In order to control the infamous weed smell while you are growing, you will also need to pick up some carbon filters.
These are not totally necessary but by far the best option to control the aroma (unless your housemates do not mind), and several quality filters do not go over $70. Your filters are basically all that require eventual replacement, but beyond that, the total cost of your grow tent comes down to supplies to set it up and the electrical output for a couple small fans and your lights.
Where to Keep It
Unlike a greenhouse, for the most part, you have many options on where to put your new grow tent since the basic ones are so small. It is not unusual to clear one side of a closet and put it there, or on your patio, the backyard, the garage; pretty much anywhere you have an electrical outlet for the LED lights or can easily run an extension cord to reach one.
When Should I Invest in a Grow Tent?
Really anytime you want, but ideally when you have the time and patience to grow your own strains and have just a little bit of extra space to hold a tent.
What is even cooler about the standard tent set up is that you do not have to worry about in season or out season since the ‘sunlight’ is 100% artificial and your tent is climate-controlled. Translation: you can use your tent and grow weed all year round.
Why would I grow my own weed?
The actual process of growing weed involves little more than seeding your potted plants and letting the grow tent do most of the heavy lifting. It will not simply grow overnight, but in the few months it will take, you will learn so much about keeping your plants healthy and how to make the perfect strain.
When you have the right supplies and the patience to see it through, growing your own weed becomes one of the most cathartic and rewarding experiences for the passionate weed enthusiast, and that includes smoking. Grow tents make this even better because they are generally cheap and out of the way, and most of the work is already done once you set it up.
