10 Tested Methods To Raise Humidity In Grow Tent
Do you like gardening? Are you a plant lover? Do you also treat your plants like your friends and care for them just like a family member?
Well, in that case, you must have heard about grow tents. Keeping up with its name, a grow tent is a little indoor garden where your plants can grow and flourish with ease. It provides the plants with the right environment for their growth and development.
However, when using a grow tent, you must pay attention to the quality and quantity of water, sunlight, air, and humidity reaching the plants inside. Likewise, a slight excess or lack of any of these things can cause your plants to undergo a period of hindered growth, ultimately leading to their death.
So, if you see the leaves of your plants turning yellow and drying with each passing day, then it’s time you should start looking for ways on how to raise humidity in grow tent.
Importance of Humidity in Grow Tent
Humidity is one of the most critical factors determining the rate at which a plant grows. For their healthy growth, the humidity levels inside the grow tent must be between the range of 45%-75%.
Besides, there are many other reasons why it is essential to maintain the correct amount of moisture inside the grow tent.
This article will help you find out 10 super effective ways to raise humidity in grow tent. But before moving ahead, let me give you 3 reasons why humidity plays a crucial role in the life cycle of plants growing in a grow tent.
1. For Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is the process by which a plant makes its food. The role of Photosynthesis in plants is pretty much similar to that of digestion in humans.
In humans, digestion leads to energy production by utilizing food and water. Similarly, in plants, also Photosynthesis performs the same role. Likewise, less humidity inside the grow tent leads to a lack of water in the plant tissues.
As a result, it causes the stomata of leaves to close, preventing water entrance inside it. Once the stomata close, the entry of carbon dioxide inside the plant cells also stops, ultimately leading to the death of the plant because of food shortage.
2. To prevent Dehydration and Drying
Water is the basic need of all living beings. Just like humans face dry skin and lips problems in excessively dry environments, plants also undergo drying and dehydration of leaves when they do not get enough water.
Moreover, the water that comes to the plants from the air is vital for essential plant processes like transpiration and Photosynthesis, which are plants’ main energy-producing and respiratory mechanisms.
3. For maintaining the plant’s body temperature
During the extreme summers, when the temperature increases to a very high number, the water on the leaves and stem of the plants starts evaporating. Following this, the evaporating water helps cool down the plant in hot summers. Because of this evaporation, the plant can maintain its temperature and release excessive heat.
How can humidity in grow tents help plants?
You must be wondering that what is the need to raise humidity in grow tent when you can just water your plants regularly. But here is the thing, even though your plants can absorb water quickly from the roots, high humidity helps them to absorb extra water through the leaves and stem.
Likewise, the added amount of water absorbed in this way from the surroundings is exceptionally beneficial for plants. It, in fact, works wonders, especially for plants that are in their early development phase.
In short, high humidity in the grow tent contributes to an overall increased water absorption rate by opening the stomatal pores on the leaves.
This causes a significant rise in the speed and efficiency of Photosynthesis, hydration, and transpiration in plants. Finally, leading to the overall enhanced growth and development of the plant.
10 Ways to Raise humidity in grow tent
1. Buy a humidifier
The best and the most effective method to raise humidity in grow tent is installing a good humidifier.
A Humidifier is an electronic device that produces mist to maintain the moisture level inside a Grow tent. They come with customizable settings so you can adjust the direction of mist and the intensity with which it comes out. You can readily buy one at a price as low as $20.
However, there are certain features that you must look for, especially when you are buying a humidifier for your plants.
Some of the most important ones include:
Room Size: There is no need to purchase a big and powerful humidifier if you have a small grow tent. Likewise, they are not only an expensive affair but also produce excessive vapors that may wet your plants.
(Note: Excessive moisture is as harmful to the plants as insufficient moisture)
Noise level: Since you will keep it inside the grow tent; it really does not matter how much sound the humidifier produces. So, it is better to buy a cheap humidifier even if it makes noise while working.
Type of humidifier: Humidifiers fall into two categories: Hot mist humidifiers and cool mist humidifiers. Further, the cool mist humidifiers are of three kinds: Impeller, Evaporative, and Ultrasonic.
Cleaning: Humidifiers function by converting water into steam. As a result, it increases the chances of growing molds and fungus in and around the humidifier. Hence, it is better to buy a humidifier that takes minimum effort in cleaning and does not produce a high amount of unwanted and waste materials.
Other things that you must consider are the size of the tank and the structure and design of the humidifier.
Here are some of the best grow tent humidifiers you can buy.
2. Change the ventilation settings
Although a plant can survive well in the presence of artificial air produced by ventilation fans, it is equally essential for it to breathe fresh, natural air from the outside environment.
That is why it is very important to have proper ventilation inside the grow tent to manage their relative humidity effectively,
The best way to do this is by adjusting the fan settings from moderate to a minimum. This is because the speed of the air directly affects the humidity inside the tent.
Accordingly, the higher speed of ventilation fans causes the air to dry faster than usual. Hence, it creates a hindrance when trying to raise humidity in a grow tent. Apart from this, it also causes your plants to desiccate and dehydrate faster.
3. Use wet towels
Have you noticed that when you dry your clothes indoors during the monsoon season, the inside atmosphere becomes more humid than usual? Similarly, placing a wet towel near the air outlets of your grow tent significantly increases the amount of moisture absorbed by your plants by as much as 3 times.
However, you need to properly replace the wet towels frequently as they tend to dry up quickly.
If you don’t want to do this, you can also fill a pan with water and place it near the air inlet. But although it is a suitable replacement for wet towels, it is really not that efficient for maintaining the relative humidity exactly like them.
4. Minimise the temperature inside the grow tent
Regulating the temperature inside a grow tent is not easy. Many indoor gardeners have difficulty maintaining the correct temperature and changing it according to plant needs.
Regardless of the type of plants you are trying to grow, less temperature always helps retain moisture more efficiently by preventing the air from drying. Especially in the case of a large grow tent, you can use an air conditioner to achieve this goal.
5. Propagators
A propagator is a device made by placing fertile soil and compost inside a heated container. It is typically used to increase the speed by which the seedlings germinate.
Accordingly, the propagators help the seedlings absorb more quality and quantity of moisture by retaining the humidity in the growth tent. They work by using a mechanism responsible for forming the correct balance between temperature and humidity inside the grow tent.
6. Reducing the number of fluorescent lights
Young plants don’t need a lot of light to survive and grow at the desired speed.
That is why, when your plants are in their initial stages of growth, you can remove extra fluorescent lights to raise the humidity in grow tent.
Moreover, since light is directly responsible for increasing indoor temperatures, it is essential not to have an excess of it when you want your plants to grow at a higher speed.
7. Water Spray bottles
Regularly watering the plants using water spray bottles is the most underrated yet the easiest method of raising the humidity in a Grow tent.
But let me tell you a secret. Next time when you go to water your plants using spray bottles, make sure you spray some water on the walls of your grow tent also.
By doing this, you make room for the plants to absorb more water from the air as it keeps on evaporating from the walls. This little trick is enough to make a tremendous difference in the air’s moisture levels inside the grow tent.
8. Diversify the water resources
Using just one water resource is not enough to increase the humidity to a large extent. So, you must make use of different types of water resources to achieve the best results.
We have given details about using water resources like spray bottles and wet towels in the above points. Still, there are many more options that you should consider. Some examples of these are damp sponges and water trays.
Useful Tips:
- The water trays must be kept near the air inlets to maximize water evaporation.
- Always keep the damp sponges away from electrical devices like ventilation fans and grow bulbs to avoid short-circuiting.
9. Keep small plants and large plants together in the grow tent
A common mistake that most gardeners (both indoor and outdoor) make is cultivating young and adult plants separately in different places. Opposing to this, when you aim to increase the humidity, it is important to grow them together in one place.
You must be thinking that – Won’t the larger plants consume all vapors and only a little would be left for the younger ones? Of course, big plants have higher moisture needs.
But at the same time, when placed with younger plants, they help increase the overall relative humidity, ultimately helping the young ones absorb a higher amount of water from the air.
Similarly, when these plants respire, they release bigger water droplets into the air. Thus, they become a great source of water for the little ones.
However, make sure that you do not place a large number of big plants in the grow tent. It is vital to keep both types of plants in equal quantities in order to achieve the desired output.
10. Swamp Cooler
The last way to raise humidity in a grow tent is by installing a swamp cooler. The swamp cooler uses the process of evaporation to cool the air inside a grow tent and contribute towards adding more water vapor to it.
It is useful, especially during extreme summers and when the temperatures rise extraordinarily high.
Additionally, you can also use an air conditioner along with a swamp cooler to maximize humidity and minimize the temperature inside the grow tent.
Conclusion
In the final analysis, we can conclude that humidity is not just any other factor determining the growth of a plant. It is one of the most important elements that significantly impact your plants’ overall growth, development, and health growing in a Grow tent.
That is why you must pay special attention to achieving the proper humidity levels for your crops to grow and flourish at the desired speed.
The above given are some of the most commonly used and budget-friendly ways of doing this. Nevertheless, the method you choose totally depends upon the size of your grow tent, the climate of the place you live in, and the temperature of the environment around you.
Lastly, we hope that this blog was able to help you with your query of how to raise humidity in grow tent correctly. Happy gardening!