The best way to set up a grow tent kit

When your grow tent kit arrives and it comes to setting up first thing you should do is make sure that you set up some where close to were you can duct your hot out of and have enough room, as when you unpack there is
a lot of equipment and it does take up a lot of floor space.The fist thing you need to do is set up your tent so leave every thing else in its packaging doing this will help you keep track of all the equipment you have recieved
with your kit. Once you have followed the instructions with your tent and got that set up correctly you can move on with installing the rest of your equipment.

Now you can move on and i would say to set up your fan and filter i would this next because if you set up your light first it could get in the way when installing your fan and filter.
To set up yuor fan and filter correctly i would suggest that you first wire your fan as most do not come pre-wired, now short out your ducting run from your fan to were you will be ducting out of as this is the longest piece of ducting and you dont want
to leave your self short. Now sort out the ducting that will go from your fan to your filter about a meter should do this job. Remember to set up your fan and filter so you pull air through the filter not the other way around,
if you do push air through the filter it will not do the as good a job and will shorten the life of the filter.

The next thing you should put into your tent is the light remember dont put the ballast in the tent place it outside your growing area as they do create a lot of heat and could cause you problems if you dont,
and keep them off any carpets with a board or something similar and give them room to breath do not cover!!!.When you hang your light you should hang it up out of the way until your plants have been added then you can adjust
the light hieght to your requirements. When you have got your light to the required hiehgt lower your filter to a hieght similar to that of the light, by donig this you pulling away the heat given off by the lamp and extract it straight out of your grow room.

Some thing you should take into consideration when hanging all your equipment is what you are going to use many people use string if nothing has been provided with the kit. I dont think that string is a very good idea when it comes to hanging equipment in your grow tent as it
can be very unreliable and if your light falls on your crop believe me it will cause some damage. If your kit comes with light hangers make sure that you have locked them into place before you leave as they have also been known to fail and allow lights
to fall onto plants. THe best solution to hanging all equipment is jack chain as its strong and will last a lifetime and has never let me down in all the years i used it.

Grow tent kits are the easiest way to go when comes to indoor growing and when set up correctly will deliver great indoor harvests all year round giving you the chance to have fresh produce grown in any room you choose.
Follow these few simple steps and you should have no problems and one of the best things about a grow tent kit is that when you have finished your growing it can be taken down in just minutes and stored away till next
leaving no trace behind what so ever

Indoor growers tips

How often should i water my plants?This is a question i get asked all the time and one of the hardest to answer. In my opinion the grower needs to maintain an "eyes on" approach, In my experience you should not be watering your plants everyday as it is beneficial to plants roots to have a slight drying off period where they have to go out in search of water. Alot will depend on your chosen media and the size of pots e.t.c. as to how long you wait between watering. I could easily go 2-3 days without needing to water my plants grown in a coco, clay pebbles mix in 20 ltr pots but this would be different if i was growing in soil in 10 ltr pots. I would say every situation is different and this is something you really need to work out yourself  "if it is already damp or wet it does not need to be watered" thats what i think  any way.

Indoor growers tips

When using HID grow lights you need a ballast to ignite the lamp, the ballast sould be kept out of your grow room as they generate alot of heat and this could effect the final results that you achieve.They should also be kept off of any floor coverings because this may be a fire hazzard, this is especially important if you are using one of the many compact ballast on the market. I would advise anyone to mount all lighting ballasts off the ground so that air can get all around the ballast to help keep them running cooler. By doing this you help reduce the risk of fire and over heating of the ballsts components and there for prolong the life of your equipment. Something that could also help keep your ballasts running that bit cooler its to place an osalating fan that will push air around the ballast.
   Make sure you keep an eye on all grow lighting equipment because if it goes wrong you could end up loosing all of your hard work you have put in killing your crop with your lights failing due to over heating.

LED grow lights

The technology in grow lights is changing as even HID ballasts are even going digital and LED grow lights are gaining a lot more attention from the indoor grower.Why is this ?  because of the recent advancements with LED lighting they are now brighter,longer lasting and a lot cheaper than they used to be. LED lighting allows you to place the light much   closer to your canopy as they do not produce any where near as much heat off the lamp as HID grow lighting.Now dont think you can get away with out using a fan and filter  as heat is still produced and could affect your end results if sufficient extraction is not in place

  As with hid lighting there are different colours in LED lighting that should be used at the right stages of your plants growth cycle. more blue should be used  when your plants are in their growth cycle and red, orange in the flowering cycle.     Early LED grow lights used hundreds of fractional-watt LEDs and these were often not bright enough or efficient enough to even begin to be thought as effective replacements for HID lights.  Now the newer  LED grow lights on the market use high-brightness multiple-watt LEDs that are increasing the power consumption resulting in increased effectiveness of the technology   leading to similar growing results to HID lights.

  LED still cost more to buy than HID grow lighting but do cost that bit less when it comes to the running of the light.With that bit of money saving over the life   time of the light makes them a sound choice that is why more and more people are giving LED lighting a chance to bring down running costs without  losing quality or yields, using LED grow lights could be what we all end up using to grow indoors as the technology gets even better.

    LEDs for me look pretty good when they are on because of all the nice brightly coloured lights but most of the people i have spoken to that have used them never said  that they were getting the same quality or similar yields to that of HID grow lights. I think that grow lights still need to be improved on a bit before i would stop using  my trusty HID lighting.

HID grow lights

If your growing plants indoors one thing you are definatley going to need is a grow light and HID grow lights are the way to go at the moment because in my opinion other lighting technologies
will not get you the results of HID lighting. Hid grow lights offer much higher light intensity in both blue and red spectrums giving you total control of each
growth stage of your plants life cycle. The best way to achieve this is by using two different types of lamp the first being matel halide for your vegetative
growth stage and high pressure sodium for your flowering stage both of which are available in 250 watt upto 1000 watt.

 Metal halide lamps are the best lamps for the vegetative stage of your plants life as there is alot of blue in the specteral output these lamps should be
used throughout the veg cycle when lighting is 18 on and 6 off. Doing this will encourage strong growth in your plants leading to more flowering sites and
increased plant health. Once you are happy with your plants growth and are ready to turn your plants to the  flowering cycle when lighting is 12 on 12 off,
you should stay with your matel halide lamps for a week as this will stop them streching out too much. Now i would advise to swop over from your matel halide
lamps for the high pressure sodium lamps.
  
 High pressure sodium lamps are your best choice for the flowering stage of your plants cycle. The light output from these lamps contains alot of red in the
spectural output which a flowering plant can not get enough of. The hps lamp can be used from start to finish though, and there are alot of dual spectrum
hps lamps on the market with enough blue and red in them to give you a great harvest
 The cost of buying hid grow lights can vary greatly depending on the wattage and make e.t.c. In my opinion and experience you should look for quality lighting products as
grow lights have been known to cause fires, I would go for a ballast that has metal casing/housing rather than the plastic compact style models. The compact
style ballast does get very hot to the touch because the plastic is used as a heat sink from the control gear inside wich i think is a bit silly. In metal cased ballasts
the control gear is kept seperate to the housing allowing air to flow around all components leading to longer product life.
 The cost of running hid grow lights tends to be more than the other plant grow light options available such as the cfl. This is because they are a higher watt rating
to these other options and electricity is charged  by the kilowatt hour. Do not let this put you off! yoe get what you pay for in life
and i think the trade off is well worth it.
 I would recommend using a strong jack chain or a specific light hanging product to hang hid grow lights as the reflectors do get very hot and you woundnt want one falling down believe me so no string!!

The art of hydroponics

  Hydroponics is the art of growing plants without the use of soil. hydroponics has been around for hundreds if not thousands of years with the hanging gardens of babylon said to be the first hydroponic garden on record. Hydroponics has many uses in the horticultural world and is very valuable in countrys where soil quality is poor and water is scarce.

 Many farmers are opening their minds to hydroponics because of the rapid plant growth and increased yeilds compared to standard soil growing.  When plants are placed in their natural conditions (in soil) the soil acts as the nutrient reservoir, so when watered the nutrients in the soil can be taken up by the plants roots. On the other hand when using hydroponics you are adding the nutrient to the plants water supply which is passed directly over  the plants roots so you  remove the need for soil, this saves the roots searching for available nutrients saving energy and time for your plants. Because of high oxgen content in the solution it makes the plants you are growing more resistant to stress factors cuch as heat and disease. 

 Indoor growers have taken to hydroponics methods in a big way and i think the ease of use has contributed to this greatly making it possible for evan the novice gardener to produce high quality crops. Hydroponics takes away any doubt as to when to water your plants and makes  nutrients readily available making it ideal for beginner and expert alike.

The sharp rise in food prices should encourage all of us to try and grow our own, not only are you saving money you will also get better quality produce and as fresh as you like. The whole family can get involved in this activity giving it another angle.

  Hydroponics is in my opinion the best way to grow any type of plant reducing disease and saving water and nutrient, but can be expensive to set up. The positives far out way the negatives on this and i encourage all to try it, get the kids involved in growing their own food they will love you for it.

Growers tips

When it comes to growing indoors or outdoors the old adage "cleanliness is next to godliness"
could not be more true. Simple things like removing any dead leaf matter that falls onto the floor,pots system are critical. Botrytis spores from a decomposing dead leaf are just as active as those from a live leaf. Insects like thrips will descend from the plant in the early afternoon and spend most of their time among the debris below the plants. Old soil and soiless medium left in a pot that is goin to be re used can be a great habitat for any number of fungal and viral diseases, aswell as certain insects. So make sure you clean all your equipment between grows including pots, trays everything and steralise with a 10% bleach solution or a room clean product specially formulated to be non harmful to your plants. These simple sanitation methods will reduce the number of problems in your grow room, and make the occasional problem that does arise easier to handle and as we all know prevention is easier than a cure.