Growing cannabis indoors requires the creation of a microclimate where every parameter, such as temperature, humidity, light, etc., is carefully balanced. Airflow is one of such environmental factors requiring attention. Ensuring proper ventilation in the growing facility helps keep plants healthy, prevent the development of diseases and mold, and maximize the yield. Let’s discuss how ventilation helps stimulate cannabis growth and how to set an effective ventilation system.
How Important Is Ventilation When Growing Weed?
Newbies in the cannabis cultivation world often overlook weed ventilation. However, it plays a crucial role in keeping the plants strong and healthy. Marijuana plants need fresh air to photosynthesize, transforming light, water, and carbon dioxide into nutrients to sustain life. They breathe to convert glucose and oxygen into energy, so they can die without constant access to fresh air. Moreover, stifled air causes a critical humidity increase, which hinders plant growth and delays and reduces flowering. In other words, the absence of effective ventilation may affect your yield.
The benefits of proper ventilation can hardly be overestimated:
- Reduce the risk of mold development
- Distribute heat and humidity more evenly
- Prevent fungus and pest infestations
- Reduce the concentration of dangerous fumes from pesticides
In addition, some growers may dislike the smell of the plant. Enjoying the buds’ aroma is not the same as smelling the plants as they grow, especially in the indoor garden. Ventilation allows the steady flow of fresh air to the facility, which decreases the smell.
Finally, working in a growing site with stifled air is not the most pleasant thing. Since you will spend a lot of time taking care of your plants, you need to ensure that you can breathe freely in the growing room.
Why Growing Rooms Need Air Movement?
You may wonder why you need grow room ventilation in the first place. Isn’t it enough to just set up the lighting and heating system to keep plants nice and warm? Unfortunately, an indoor marijuana garden requires fresh air for the following reasons:
- Cannabis plants sweat as they grow. As they move water from the growing medium to the leaves, some of it evaporates into the air. If you don’t allow the fresh air in, all this water accumulates, increasing the relative humidity in the growing room. As a result, you risk having mold and pests that thrive in the high-humidity environment.
- Grow lights increase the temperature, so it may become too hot for the plants. Ventilation helps cool the place down and ensures that every part of the plant gets an equal amount of warmth.
Choosing the Ventilation System
The complexity of the marijuana ventilation system depends on whether you are an amateur or pro grower. Can you use fans for ventilation when growing marijuana? Sure! If cannabis is your hobby, you can use simple exhaust fans, intake fans, and recirculating fans. For example, you can set the exhaust fan at the top of the growing room and the intake fan on the opposite side, closer to the ground. In this way, you will simultaneously let the fresh air in and get rid of the stagnant air. If you are looking for a more efficient system, it’s possible to enhance an exhaust fan by adding a charcoal filter for odor control.
For macro growers, ventilation is a cost-free action. You can simply open a window near the pots a few times per day. This is also environmentally friendly, as you don’t waste electricity.
However, if you are looking for advanced weed cultivation, you can invest in more expensive and sophisticated equipment, such as dehumidifiers, air conditioners, and CO2 enrichment kits. These tools control the air quality while also helping to maintain the optimal temperature and humidity. In other words, they make it easier to control the growing environment.
To achieve 100% protection from mold, fungus, mildew, and other threats, you can use more expensive options for cannabis growing ventilation. For example, you can purchase a grow room air filtration system. It cleans the air from volatile organic compounds, bacteria, spider mites, fungus gnats, whiteflies, and other dangerous pests. However, if you have a very small garden consisting of a few plants, this option is not cost-effective.
We recommend selecting a ventilation system that does not emit a lot of noise. The problem is that the humming of the ventilation equipment may irritate and distract. Besides, you don’t want to bother your neighbors or attract their attention to the weed. Even when you are growing weed legally, it’s best to keep children and teenagers away from the growing site.
When Weed Tent Ventilation Is Not Needed?
Air movement is paramount during the seedling, vegetative, and flowering stages of the weed life cycle. However, the germination stage does not have strict air quality requirements. You can place your seeds in the dark warm room while you set up the ventilation system. You need to have a ventilation system in place by the time the seedlings emerge and are ready for transplantation.
Summing Up
Cannabis plants rely on fresh air, just like other living organisms. Therefore, allowing air to enter the indoor growing site is crucial for growing healthy plants and increasing their resilience. There are plenty of ventilation options that suit every taste and budget. You can start with the simplest ones and then purchase more advanced equipment as you increase the number of plants and accumulate more knowledge and skills.