How Can I Keep My Grow Tent Warm in Winter

Winter comes with a misty musty morning and colder, windy weather. In some regions, winter is a season with snow, frost, and freezing temperatures. We have plenty of options to make us feel comfortable and snug in winter.

But have you thought about your plants in your grow tent? Would you wrap them up with blankets and jackets to keep them warm? Or would you offer them hot coffees to make them feel snug?

Jokes apart, there are many techniques to apply when you need to keep your grow tent warm during colder months. Using bubble wraps and humidifiers are the most popular options to keep your grow tents warm.

When the temperature of your area is below 18 degrees, your plant’s growth gets reduced drastically. If the temperature is below 15 degrees then you’ll notice your plant’s growth has come to a standstill.

However, if you want to know some ways to keep your tent warm in winter then keep on reading the next section of the article…

How Can I Keep My Grow Tent Warm In Winter

Electric Or Fan Heaters

heater for grow tent

Electric heaters or fan heaters are an option to use to keep your grow tent warm. This system heats up the whole tent evenly.

This is considered to be the safest option as it heats up the room while it doesn’t release moisture in the air.

This heating system will help your plants in a grow tent to flourish even in the coldest weather.

You can also try using aquarium heaters if your grow tent is smaller than 4’ by 4’ and you want an affordable option. You need a pail filled with 5 gallons of water and place an aquarium heater in it.

You have to connect power to the heater when you need it to work. This will also release moisture to the grow tent which your plants will love to have. Make sure you open the windows of the tent when the day is sunny.

Also, there are many kinds of grow tent heaters available in the market. You can choose as per your need.

Let The Sun Do The Job

If your grow tent has south exposure to the sun then you’re lucky. When the sun shines by the window, it actually heats up the room inside. You can keep your grow tent warm so easily with this method.

Insulate the tent so the heat it’s getting from the sun can’t get out of the tent. But don’t leave the heating job to the sun when the days are cloudy. You have to go for other methods these days.

Insulate The Tent

The temperature is already too cold in winter. Now if you don’t insulate the tent kit well then the heat will get out of the tent and you can’t heat it up properly no matter what.

Insulating doesn’t mean only stopping the air from flying outside the space. You can do a lot of other things like wrapping up the plant pots with aluminum foil papers, placing a plastic sheet or rug on the floor to prevent the floor from getting cold.

Another thing to do is keep an object between the floor and the plant. If you have some empty boxes or trays, place it upside down then keep the plant pot on it. This will prevent the cold floor from affecting your plants.

Apart from that, wrap up your grow tent with building insulation that will keep the tent warm. If your tent is warm enough then you don’t have to worry about your plant’s growth.

Change Lighting Period

Let’s assume your plants are in the vegetative stage. At this point, it’s better to keep grow lights on instead of using electric heaters.

Using as many grow lights as possible for 24 hours than an electric heater for 5-6 hours is actually a good idea. Don’t worry about the electricity bill as grow lights use less power than electric heaters.

HID, compact fluorescents and LED lights are one of the best grow lights for winter. LED lights usually don’t produce as much heat as HID would. So, if you live in a colder area, consider buying HID grow lights for your tent in winter.

Add More Lights To The Tent

lights on grow tents

At some point, you might need to add some more lights to your lighting set up of your grow tent. Winter doesn’t fall on us all at once. It gradually creeps upon nature.

So you have to make sure you’re adding more lights to keep the temperature perfect for the growth of your plants. This ensures you to get the most out of your plants.

 

 

Supplement Your Plants with Nutrients

You have to be extra cautious while supplementing your plants with nutrients. While preparing nutrient solutions, make sure you’re keeping the water temperature between 18-21°C. The water temperature shouldn’t drop too low during the supplementing process.

Otherwise, your plant’s roots might go into shock which might cause the absorption to slow down. As a result, the growth of the plants in your tent gets hampered.

However, using too warm water isn’t a good idea either. As it reduces the oxygen level, the growth will again slow down. This will make the plants more vulnerable to problems like pythium disease.

To prevent such problems, you can try mixing the nutrient solution with cold water and then set a water heater into the water tank. This way, the solution will get warmed up and stay at the same temperature all the time.

Also, be wise while using storage for the solution. If your storage is too cold then it might make the salt in the solution get solid.

Hence your plants can’t get the benefits of this ingredient. To combat such a situation, store the solution in a cool and dark place, where sunlight can’t reach and the temperature is between 10 to 19 degrees.

Using A Thermostatthermostat for grow tent

A thermostat is a device that can be attached to electric heaters.

So when your grow tent is way too warm it will turn off the electric heater and when the room temperature drops too low, it will again turn the heater on. This way you can save up some power.

 

Consider Using Horticultural Fleece

When the nights are severely cold, you may want to cover your plants with one or two pieces of frost protection fleece. This will save your plants by providing more heat to them.

Removing the fleece in the day will help your plants to breathe well and get enough light. You can’t deny how beneficial lights and ventilation are for your plant’s growth.

I would prefer using horticultural fleece over bubble wrap because this is much stronger and can withstand the UV LIGHT even more. Make sure you’re choosing the ones with bigger bubbles as they can provide a lot better insulation.

Take Care Of The Temperature

The perfect temperature for grow tents are between 25 to 28 degree celsius during lights are on and 18 to 21-degree celsius when lights are off.

These conditions make it an important task to check the temperatures are accurate all the time. But this tough to sound job can be done easily by using a digital thermometer in your grow tent.

Having grow tents is like a blessing as it allows you to grow your favourite plants the whole year. Though it is much difficult in the winter season, you have these amazing solutions to keep the freezing temperatures at bay.

Use An Oscillating Fan

oscillating fan for grow tent

You can keep your tent warm by using those electric heaters but have you ever wondered if the heat is distributed equally at each corner of your grow tent?

The solution is running an oscillating fan which will distribute the heat in the whole room.

 

 

Ventilation

Ventilation is equally crucial as heating up the tent. Heats produce moisture into the air which needs to be ventilated. Otherwise, molds and fungus can attack your plants which will make all the efforts go in vain.

You can open windows and doors, especially when the day is sunny to allow the moisture to fly out of the grow tent. This is definitely going to make your plants happy.

Place The Heater Carefully

Placing the electric heater at the middle of one end of the tent will allow the heat to get spread out in the whole tent nicely. The heater shouldn’t flow directly on any nearby plant.

Conclusion

We discussed a few methods to keep your grow tent warm in winter. You can choose any of them or more than one at the same time according to the weather condition.

When the weather is colder, you have to go for two or more options. On the contrary, you can leave it to the sun when the days are sunny. Make sure you have a proper ventilation system to keep your plants free of diseases.