If you are fond of hydroponic gardening or love to grow plants indoors, you cannot do without a reliable grow tent. Grow tents do an amazing job when you want to create a specific environment indoors without affecting the outside. For those who grow plants, you will find a grow tent very handy in keeping the strong odor from the rest of the rooms. Overall, grow tents are cost-effective, lightweight, easy to set up, and versatile for those who are fond of indoor gardening. These small artificial homes also enable you to control heat, humidity, and temperature as per your hydroponic needs.
Regardless of your budget or preference, we have selected the most reliable grow tents available in the market so you can find it easy to pick your best.
What Is A Grow Tent?
A grow tent is a large plastic or fabric cover that helps plants thrive by providing an enclosed space in which it will be best for the plant to grow. The best ones have a lot of light, air circulation, and ventilation that will help make your plants strong and healthy!
They are best suited for people who don’t have the space or budget for traditional gardening. They’re perfect if you want to get into production-level farming without investing in a larger property. The best part about these tents is that you can set them up anywhere — just make sure that you have access to a power supply for the best results.
MARS HYDRO 48"x36"x71"Grow Tent 4x3ft 2-in-1 Grow Tents
Features:
MARS HYDRO Grow Tent interior is made of highly reflective diamond mylar. (Other brand’s mylar and the reflective rate is as low as 50%, won’t provide more efficient light. ) MARS HYDRO 1680D canvas(other brands’ are 600D), being double stitched, is tear-proof for perfect light blocking. Mars Hydro’s grow tent keeps 100% lighting beams inside and helps your plant absorb more lights. EXTRA-THICK — No light leaks or rips at all. 2-in-1 grow tent includes 2 small chambers(3'x1'), and 1 big main chamber(3'x3'). You can use the two smaller chambers to start seedlings, grow microgreens or clones, and use the larger chamber for Veg or flower. You only need one grow tent to grow for any stage in plants development from seed to harvest. It’s the best choice for small space perpetual growing.
TopoLite Indoor Grow Tent Kits 2-in-1
Features:
The Topolite grow tent has rectangle vents with mesh for better ventilation and multiple vents for fan and filter output. You can grow seedlings at the 2-tier small tent, and transfer them to the larger tent after they grow taller. Heavy-duty 600D lightproof oxford cloth and diameter 16MM white paint coated metal rods and Large heavy-duty Zippers. 2-Tier 12"x36" Small Grow Tent (Perfect for propagation & seedlings) + 36"x36" Large Grow Tent (Perfect for plant grow taller, flourish & fluorescent). It is an ideal grow tent for indoor plants. It offers one of the best packages you’ll ever get for efficient indoor planting systems. The grow tent is highly reflective as well. It has heavy-duty zippers, along with a 1.5 inches ribbon that prevents light from leaking. As such, the model is 100% lightproof.
How To Select A Grow Tent?
What is it that separates the best indoor grow tents from the riffraff? The answer to this question can be found in the features of the below-mentioned models. Those that sell like hot cakes offer something that meets the requirements of their users. Others that remain unsold don’t.
Here’s how to choose the right grow tent in 2021:
1. Select The Right Size Grow Tent
Choosing the right size grow tent depends on three key factors:
How many plants do you wish to grow
The type of plant you want to grow and the growing method you intend to use
Review the tent size and placement of ports and windows. You want to be able to install your tent and equipment in the exact arrangement you have in mind. Only then should you buy the grow tent you may be looking at.
Most people only look at their room space while selecting grow tent size. That is the wrong approach. Another factor that you must consider when finding the best indoor grow tent is the plant density per square foot, which means how many plants, or specifically, the plants you’re going to place in the grow room.
Small: Small size grow tents are ranging between 2’ x 2’ and 3’ x 3’ and allow more intense reflectivity from nearby walls. You can count on them to store between 4 and 10 petite plants with a density of 1 plant per square foot.
Medium: With their sizes ranging between 4’x4’ and 6’, these grow tents can provide shade to up to 20 small plants at max, assuming you maintain a density of 1plant/square foot.
Large: A Larger tent is almost always larger than 6’. They are best for plant growing when having a large indoor area at their disposal and those who want to grow more than 30 small plants.
2. Choose The Right Material
Those of you who are in the know may be aware that grow tents are made of two different materials. The exterior material tends to be thicker than the inner lining material, whose primary purpose is to provide optimum light and light-proof to the plants.
Exterior Material
Here is the most common exterior grow tent materials:
Weaved Nylon: As is the case with other woven fabrics, weaved nylon also tends to be sturdy and doesn’t shrink or wrinkle after washing. But it is also pretty expensive and tends to have a low absorbency.
Polyester: Experts tell us that polyester material is ultra-durable, has excellent moisture-evaporating properties, and dries quickly. On the flip side, it isn’t environmentally friendly as polyester material is resistant to biodegradation.
Interior Material
Following are the most common interior materials for grow tents:
Mylar: is made from flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET), this tent material displays high tensile strength, is dimensionally stable, and offers excellent aroma and gas barrier properties.
Gray: Grow tents with a gray interior tend to be highly affordable and therefore won’t leave a dent in your bank account. However, they aren’t known for their sturdiness or quality
3. Ducting Ports, Cord Ports, and Viewing Windows
The best grow tents don’t stop at providing you with an enclosed space where you can grow your plants. They also give you maximum control over the environment of your grow tent. That means letting you decide how much sunlight and air you want to enter the tent at any time.
How do they do that? By offering ducting ports, cord ports, and in most tents you can also find an observation window. The former two — ducting and cord ports — provide space for electrical cables and ventilation ducting. The window lets you control the level of ventilation of the enclosed tent area.
4. Frame
Getting the right frame is crucial for your tent’s stability and if you want your indoor grow tent to last years. That’s because a frame not only holds the cover of the tent in place but also withstands the weight of its ventilation equipment (fans, filters, ducting, etc.) and lights.
That’s the main reason why the poles that hold together the entire grow tent also need to be sturdy. Or else the whole structure’s integrity might be called into question. We’re going to talk about all three popular frame materials here:
Metal
Although metal poles aren’t thicker than 1mm, heavy-duty metal frames can withstand an eye-watering amount of weight. Gorilla tents, for instance, can tout a 150–300lb. weight limit.
Metal poles do have their fair share of shortcomings too. Those that don’t come with a rust-resistant coating — most don’t! — will snap in a few years, leaving you with no options but to buy a replacement for your grow tent.
Plastic
Even though they are much lighter than their metal counterparts, plastic frames still boast respective weight capacities. You can count on them to hold up to 100lb.
While they aren’t susceptible to rotting, plastic frames will bow over time. In the short term, their bending will cause the equipment of your tent to hang lower. In the long term, it will break the frame.
Steel
Most growers think that there’s virtually no difference between steel and metal frames when it comes to grow tents. People who know better disagree. That’s because steel poles are a combination of various metals.
It offers all the advantages that heavy-duty metal offers — huge weight capacity, long shelf life — and none of the shortcomings. But the fact that it’s incredibly heavy is one of the main failings of steel.
5. Zipper
You should pay special attention to its zippers when selecting the best indoor grow tent. Quality zippers help you insulate your indoor garden and are its first line of defense against pests, pathogens, and airborne contaminants. If the zipper is faulty, so would be your indoor plant growing environment. Another point is that zippers and frame selection can affect your tent stability.
Here’s what you need to pay attention to when selecting a zipper for your tent:
Single Vs Multiple Zippers
Single zippers are easy to open/close and therefore provide maximum isolation for grow tents. But they also make it difficult for you to get in/out of your plant growing space.
Multiple heavy-duty zippers don’t have that fault. Still, they may let air in or odors out if not completely shut, so you will need to pay more attention to environmental conditions with them.
Internal Pull Vs External Pull
Do you spend most of your daily time in or outside your grow tent? The answer to this question will determine which of these two zippers will be more beneficial for you.
Internal pull zippers are worth a shot if you spend more than 15 minutes inside your tent at a time, as they’d let you close the tent from inside. Otherwise, go for an external pull zipper.
6. Light
Contemporary grow tents use one of three light sources. They include high-intensity discharge lamps (HID), compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFL), and light-emitting diodes LED grow lights. Here’s how all the three light sources compare with each other:
HID
Available in two types — high-pressure sodium (HPS) and metal halides (MH), HID lights are dimmable and therefore let you customize their output.
But they also produce an excessive amount of light heat, which can burn the plants in your tent if you weren’t careful with their placement. You also need pricey add-ons, i.e., a reflector and a blast, to operate them.
CFL
Compact fluorescent light bulbs are generally inexpensive when compared with LED grow lights. They also last longer and emit light that covers a bigger surface area.
However, due to the spectrum that these lights belong to, they aren’t recommended for use during both the vegetative and the flowering stages of growth.
LEDs
LED grow lights provide numerous benefits for grow tents. They are incredibly energy-efficient, run at cooler temperatures, offer a wide range of color spectra, and require no extensive setup for their installation.
On the flip side, while LED grow lights do have a low running cost, their upfront cost is still several times higher than other grow lights we have discussed above.
Conclusion
We hope you have found all the necessary details you are looking for buy a 2 in 1 grow tent for your indoor gardening. We have tried our best to list features of the best 2 room grown tents. All of the above are great in their function, with differences in the capacity of growing plants. So, you should select whichever needs your requirements.