I Have An Indoor Grow Tent But I’m Having Trouble Growing Anything In It. Can Someone Give Me Hints And Tips To Be Successful?

Question

I bought a Viagrow tent that’s about 34″ x 35″ x 6.5′. The light I bought was the one next to the display at Home Depot. I bought the light after talking to a helper who had one at rural home growing up. I’m able to grow cat grass and get other plants started but I can’t keep them growing. I have played around with lighting distance and the plants, how much light they get and how many hours the plants get.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, without knowing anything about the light, the soil, the food, quality of water, the plants, and your care routine, I am not able to offer a whole lot of assistance on what is going wrong.

Indoor gardening can be very complex, unfortunately.

I can offer a few pointers on how powerful your light should be, though. For that space, you won't want any more than a 315 watt Ceramic Metal Halide lamp. You, also, don't want anything less than 200 watts. This includes actual draw from an LED, not output equivalence.

Another thing to consider with LED will be spectrum, should you light happen to be one. It is OK for a panel to exclude Infrared light, but Ultraviolet is necessary for many plants to function properly. An LED with a 9 band spectrum is what you will need at the very least. A 12 band LED will cover MOST of the spectrum a plant requires. Unfortunately, even decent LED's will run 600 dollars or more.

Light hanging height will depend on the type and power of lighting that you choose. generally, you will try and set it up to where a PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) meter reads about 1000 at about halfway down your tent. Typically, with the proper light power, this will be hung as high as it can go in your tent. This will give you the proper strength with a quality plant lamp.

Watering is based on each plant in question, but a general rule is to let the container dry out about halfway down between waterings.

Soil type will depend on each plant, as well.

What I can do in the meantime, is point you toward some articles that will offer information on indoor gardening. These can be found here:

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/design/lighting

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/environmental/how-light-affects-the-growth-of-a-plant-problems-with-too-little-light.htm

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/special/greenhouses/grow-light-terminology.htm

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/houseplants/hpgen/fluorescent-lighting-for-indoor-gardening.htm

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/special/greenhouses/using-grow-tents-for-plants.htm

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/special/containers/growing-vegetables-in-basement.htm

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/eggplant/growing-eggplants-inside.htm

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/special/organic/indoor-organic-gardening.htm

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/projects/an-indoor-garden-how-to-diy-indoor-garden-room-ideas.htm