Grow Tent, Need Advice

I have many tropical trees/plants. Only a small fraction are in my grow tent. I rotate trees in and out for a boost in growth or to grow surface moss and air roots. And I enjoy my trees when they are in the tent just as much and as often as all my other trees. Visitors even enjoy looking at the jungle too.
 
How often do you actually look at your trees though? This reminds me of when a Protestant pastor tried making a point that there’s no bibles in Catholic pews. The only problem is that even at her Church, with bibles in the pews, nobody actually uses them. I’ll see my trees three or so times every day. What’s important is that I enjoy the hobby, bonsai gardening. Plus there’s the whole concept of controlling nature in bonsai. A grow tent is the ultimate way of doing that. The very idea of having a grow tent, a dedicated space to gardening, is appealing to me.

I don’t know. Just seemed like a moot point for you to make. Like you’re picking on me. But I could be wrong. The only advantage you have is being able to decorate your home, being able to leave them in those same spots. But even I can be Japanese in that sense in that I can buy some bonsai stands, and set my trees on them for visitors to see. Then put them back after they visit.
Just...don't give up heart... if it becomes to much. There are other options. That's all that I was intending to put across.

I don't tend to post often anymore. Only to ones I truly wish success. 😉

Falls under...
***You can't read tone in text. ***

I drink coffee out there every morning. 😉

~Enjoy your journey. I do wish you the best.
 
Tents are fun if you love the process of the science and testing behind it. They aren’t easy-peasy necessarily but they sure are satisfying when you get it right. It’s so cool to have your own little tropical biome when it’s frozen outside for me.

Regarding lights - you will be hard pressed to provide too much light. If your lights are too close you will know. Leaves will tell you. I keep mine as close as possible. Certainly under 12” above the trees I want to really push.
 
Tents are fun if you love the process of the science and testing behind it. They aren’t easy-peasy necessarily but they sure are satisfying when you get it right. It’s so cool to have your own little tropical biome when it’s frozen outside for me.

Regarding lights - you will be hard pressed to provide too much light. If your lights are too close you will know. Leaves will tell you. I keep mine as close as possible. Certainly under 12” above the trees I want to really push.
I have a guy on Reddit telling me that I won’t even need the inline fan, and not just the carbon filter and ducting. Is this true? I can literally save $120 if I return it all. He says his tent is about fifteen degrees hotter than the room. I plan on controlling the temp of the room with a tower heater during winter and a tower AC during the summer. You think I can really get rid of these?
 
I have a guy on Reddit telling me that I won’t even need the inline fan, and not just the carbon filter and ducting. Is this true? I can literally save $120 if I return it all. He says his tent is about fifteen degrees hotter than the room. I plan on controlling the temp of the room with a tower heater during winter and a tower AC during the summer. You think I can really get rid of these?

Every setup is different my friend. Only way to know is to try. Set it up and run it and see what it does. Use your best judgement and take internet advice with a grain of salt.

Mine is built for a garage setup that fluctuates wildly in temps so I need controlled heat and exhaust. You may not need so much.
 
Every setup is different my friend. Only way to know is to try. Set it up and run it and see what it does. Use your best judgement and take internet advice with a grain of salt.

Mine is built for a garage setup that fluctuates wildly in temps so I need controlled heat and exhaust. You may not need so much.
If I position the fan above the light, it’s oscillating, and point it at the light, will there still be plenty of air circulation for the trees?
 
If I position the fan above the light, it’s oscillating, and point it at the light, will there still be plenty of air circulation for the trees?

Short answer, yes.

Set it up and give it a go - there isn’t right it wrong. I modify mine every year. See what it does.

If it’s getting too hot, set up the fan to exhaust air from the top. If it’s too humid/getting fungus/mold get more air movement and fresh air pulling in. If it’s too cool find a consistent heat source, etc etc etc.

That’s half the fun for me. 👍
 
Short answer, yes.

Set it up and give it a go - there isn’t right it wrong. I modify mine every year. See what it does.

If it’s getting too hot, set up the fan to exhaust air from the top. If it’s too humid/getting fungus/mold get more air movement and fresh air pulling in. If it’s too cool find a consistent heat source, etc etc etc.

That’s half the fun for me. 👍
The inline fan is for pumping air out of the tent into the room isn’t it?
 
And if the fan is pointing directly at the trees, they would have to be watered more often?

Water by touch and feel - the small fans won’t change the water needs too much in my experience.

Only water when the soil no longer feels damp on top or the pots feel light. You will get a feel for it. Watering on a set schedule isn’t a good method usually.

Especially Wigerts soil, it’s able to hold a ton of moisture.
 
I never had to use a heater. The heat off the lights was enough, but then again it was in a heated basement.
 
In my limited experience (two winters under my belt), You don't necessarily need a fan, but it is helpful in many ways. Moving air helps to reduce mold growth, provide means for regulating temperatures, and regulating humidity. Depending on the strength of the air movement (through the tent, not just the the air getting pulled by the fan), it can also help strengthen the stems and trunks of your trees.

My first overwintering set-up in 2021 was just a grow light under a dining table. the only thing "trapping" the heat was the wooden table on top and the plastic table runner. Outside of pest issues due to my own learning curve, it did fairly well. The temps maintained around 75-80F (Thermostat for the house is set at just 70F) with a in the wall heater just to the left blowing air through the area. The air movement was pretty interesting to see on this "open air" grow area. The lining would gently wave about as if I had a low powered fan under there with a slightly more powerful air stream flowing up the back wall.
20220428_003650.jpg

My overwintering setup for 2022 was moved to the garage with DIY grow tent. Just a big box store wire shelf, drawer liners, 6mil plastic sheeting, Mylar for the growing area, and lots of duct tape. I set an old duvet on top to help hold in the heat and had a cotton painters tarp for an additional layer incase it got too cold. The garage is unheated with only the garage door being exposed to the outside temperatures (duplex housing, so we share a garage wall). The grow tent maintained 75F-110F while the lights were on (biggest variable was the garage temp which hovered around 55F) and 65F-80F with the lights off.

20221018_071248.jpg

I am working on my new iteration for the winter of 2023, but it will be more or less the same set-up. I have added an in-line duct fan (same model as yours but with an electronic controller) to help keep the high temps more manageable and I moved the shelving around. I plan on building another tent.
 
Found this thread while looking for advice about grow lights. For future readers, I am necroing this thread to give a piece of advice to the OP, re: Pests.

In the ideal world, prior to bringing your trees indoors, you would be waging total war against pests, both real and imaginary. What that looks like for me is as follows: Prior to bringing a tree inside, I first hand-kill every single pest I can find by hand. Although gross, this is an important first step; reducing the population of insects ahead of using any sort of chemical will greatly reduce the likelihood that you end up with a resistant population. I then proceed to completely bomb-blast my tree with Neem, and by this I mean completely covering every leaf and drenching the trunk/ watering it into the soil as required. You can use something else if you like, but I prefer organics because my trees live with me in my bedroom.

Repeat this process every single day that I can get away with it (I may wait a few days between blasting sessions, if I am worried about the overall health of the tree,) until you cannot find a single pest. After that, I put the tree into indoor quarantine, far and away from every other tree that I own. During this quarantine period, I inspect the tree every day, and bomb-blast the tree every 2-3 days. Make sure that, when you are watering the tree, you make a good effort to cleanse the tree's leaves of excess oil. This will ensure that you maintain an acceptable level of leaf health during this time. Also, really water the stuff run into the soil. It will all wash out, eventually, but the whole point of this exercise is to ensure a healthy population of trees. That means killing whatever eggs/ pests might be in the soil, waiting to emerge and infest not one, but all of your indoor trees the very moment you get careless.

Respectfully, simply hoping that a fan will "keep the pests down" is not nearly enough. You need to go into indoor treekeeping with the mindset that the only acceptable amount of pests to have is ZERO. Besides the simple matter of not wanting to have unhealthy trees, the fact is that, if pests are not dealt with, you could completely lose new growth that would have otherwise eventually turned into ideally-placed branches. That may not sound so bad, if your tree is growing well. That said, your tree may never back-bud in that exact place ever again. This is a huge deal, if you have a certain vision for your tree and are intent on following it. Pests can add years to your development time and, in this hobby, where time is everything, that is simply unacceptable. Eliminate every single pest like your life depends on it, give your trees an appropriately sunny window, and care well for your them-- your trees will absolutely take off. Their health will improve so much, that they may even do better than they were doing outside. Yes, they do get more sunlight outside, but that's only one element of the equation, and available sunlight can be supplemented with good lights. On the other hand, you can never get a pest-free growing environment outside, no matter how often you spray them.
 
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