Investing in a grow room can be an excellent way to expand your gardening capabilities. The ability to fine-tune the temperature, humidity and light exposure levels of your growing environment means you can cultivate a vast array of crops from varying climates. Consequently, you can enjoy fresh, home-grown fruits and vegetables all year round, regardless of poor and unreliable weather conditions. That said, even the highest-quality, sophisticated grow room is not fool-proof. To guarantee your best chance of success, consider the following tips for indoor growers. 

Grow Lamp Positioning

Grow lamps are designed specifically to produce full-spectrum light that plants need for optimal growth. Whether the bulbs you opt for are (LED) or high-pressure sodium (HPS), a set of high-quality grow lamps is a crucial and worthwhile investment for your grow room. However, the positioning of your lamps can make all the difference. For the best results and to avoid light burn/light stress, a grow light or bulb should be placed within a couple of feet of a plant. You could also use a reflector to distribute the light evenly throughout your grow room, ensuring all of your plants receive the same amount of light.

Keep It Clean

Ensuring a clean grow room is vital for the health of your crops as it helps prevent pests and diseases. Regularly cleaning the spaces between your plants using a weak hydrogen peroxide solution and a microfiber cloth, along with promptly removing any dead or decaying plant matter, eliminates potential breeding grounds and food sources for pests, contributing to your plants’ overall well-being and thriving condition. You could also use anti-bacterial wipes and a sulphur-based fungicide to eliminate mould and mildew. 

Pest Control

Regardless of stringent hygiene standards, no grow room is entirely immune to pests and diseases. There are numerous effective pest control measures you can implement in your growing environment, such as spraying your crops with a diluted neem oil solution to help keep fungal issues at bay and kill pests by acting as a repellent. You could also introduce nematodes to your growing matter. Nematodes are microscopic multicellular insects that feed on bacteria, fungi and other pests. 

Carbon Monoxide Levels

Maintaining adequate safety levels in your grow room is crucial, not only for the sake of your plants but also for your own personal well-being. For example, a grow room is a sealed environment; therefore, it can trap hazardous levels of carbon dioxide. Furthermore, carbon dioxide is odourless, so it is advisable to use a carbon dioxide safety monitor, which will help you regulate the amount of carbon dioxide available to plants to maximise growth and alert you should the environment become unsafe. 

Grow Guides

As rewarding and fruitful as a grow room can be, it can be a tricky and overwhelming endeavour, particularly for beginners. If you require guidance, it may be worth following a grow guide. Grow guides, such as the canna grow guide, provide the grower with a personalised schedule based on their unique setup and growing preferences. Grow guides take factors, such as water type and tank size, into account so you can enjoy increased yields and better quality plants. 

Companion Planting

Companion planting is a well-established gardening practice that can also be implemented in grow rooms. This method involves selecting and planting certain plants in close proximity to one another to create a mutually beneficial environment, improving quality, increasing yields and preventing pests. For example, the close-knit relationship between tomatoes is more than just a culinary tradition. Not only do basil and tomatoes share the same growing requirements, but the aromatic nature of basil naturally repels pests like flies and hornworms, which are detrimental to the health of your tomato plants. Here are some more suggestions for companion planting. 

Trial And Error

Learning to grow crops in a grow room is often an exercise in trial and error. Even the most experienced growers make the occasional mistake. Oversights such as overwatering and imbalanced pH levels may lead to stunted growth, disappointing yields and poor-quality crops. However, don’t let any inevitable mistakes dishearten you. Gardening of any sort requires patience and perseverance, so treat your miscalculations and misunderstandings as learning experiences. With enough time, effort and research, you will start to see impressive results.