Avoid rookie mistakes and set up your grow room the pro way!

Kyle: Welcome to Grow Weed at Home with Kyle Kushman, where science meets soil in the world of home cannabis cultivation. I'm your host, Kyle Kushman. Today, we're flying solo, no guest, just you and me getting back to the basics. Why? Because every successful harvest begins before you even germinate a seed.

Kyle: We're dedicating this episode to preparation: cleaning and setting up your indoor grow tent or room for a flourishing cannabis garden. If you prep right, you set the stage for your plants to thrive. From scrubbing down your grow space and dialing in equipment to running a test cycle and setting up a cozy germination station. We've got a jam-packed session of tips and tricks. So grab your notepads and let's lay the groundwork for an amazing grow. Get ready to turn that empty tent into a cannabis paradise, one clean step at a time. Sterilizing your grow space—start with a clean canvas. Whether you're growing in a tent or a full room, cleanliness is step one. Wipe down everything. Thoroughly clean the grow tent walls, floor, and ceiling—or the walls and corners of your grow room. Use a mild bleach solution or hydrogen peroxide mix to disinfect surfaces, shelves, and equipment. Electric sprayers are going to work great. No mold or pests invited to this party!

Kyle: Don't forget to scrub out pots or trays if you're reusing them. Sterilize all your tools with a disinfecting solution like isopropyl alcohol. Scissors, pruning shears, water cans—everything that comes in contact with the plants. Everything in the grow space must be individually cleaned. Fans, ducting, appliances, even the lights can be wiped gently with a damp rag to remove dust. If your tent has removable spill trays or liners, don't forget—grime can accumulate underneath them. Vacuum or sweep up any old plant matter or debris. This removes hiding spots for bugs. If you had a previous grow, consider doing a preventative spray of organic insecticidal soap or diluted bleach solution on surfaces to kill any lingering pest eggs or spores. For a grow tent, take it down or unzip it to fully access all crevices. Get those corners and zippers by soaking them good with your disinfecting solution. For a grow room, you'll obviously want to mop the floors and clean intake vents. Every surface must be cleaned. Ensure the space is dry and aired out after cleaning to avoid trapping moisture and creating mold. A clean start means fewer problems later—so put in that elbow grease now.

Kyle: Breath of fresh air—ventilation, fans, and filters. Only if you're very lucky and not hiding your grow, you may be able to utilize fresh air. But most grows try to remain undetected, utilizing a sealed environment with augmented CO₂ and odor control. Install and check your inline fan. If you're in a tent, install your exhaust fan and carbon filter for odor control, very securely. Make sure the fan is pushing air out through the exhaust port. Creating a slight negative pressure and causing the tent walls to suck in a bit. This ensures that stinky air exits, but fresh air constantly gets pulled in through the intake vents or even just the seams. You'll set up a room basically the same way, but you'll need some place for an exhaust. You'll want to put this in an inconspicuous place. Inspect and make sure that your exhaust system, might be just a window fan. Make sure is working and venting to the outside if possible.

Kyle: Oscillating fans are your best friend. You'll want several inside the space creating a light, intermittent breeze everywhere. Keep air moving gently both over and under the canopy. This helps prevent hot spots under the lights, ensures even CO₂ coverage, and will also help discourage mold. Ensure they can oscillate freely. As the plants grow, you might need to make adjustments to the height of your fans. You always want them blowing just above the leaf canopy. Make sure to keep them clean—no dust on the blades. Clip-on fans work great for tents. Wall-mounted oscillators or stand-up oscillating fans work great for rooms.

Kyle: Filter freshness. Inspect your carbon filter if you're using one, or any intake filters. If you've grown before, the carbon filter may need replacing after a couple of grows to remain effective. A fresh carbon scrubs odors like can trap some airborne particles. For intake vents, consider adding a dust filter—or even a piece of pantyhose pulled over openings—to prevent bugs or dust from getting in. Temperature control. Good ventilation also helps control temperature. Now's the time to decide where your appliances will be located. You’ve got your humidifiers, dehumidifiers, heaters, and air conditioner—can all be utilized if needed. Think about the placement of each appliance so they don't work against each other. Like the warm exhaust air of a dehumidifier blowing on your air conditioner sensor. Whoa! Make sure fans are positioned to distribute heat or cool air evenly. Your plants need to breathe, so set the stage for breezy, fresh conditions.

Kyle: Choose your medium. Give your roots a healthy home. Before any seed touches soil, you need to prep your growing medium and containers. Decide on soil, coco coir, or another medium. For soil, a quality cannabis-friendly potting mix with good drainage and an initial charge of nutrients works great for beginners. If using coco, I suggest buffering new media with a double dose of calcium-magnesium supplement to prevent nutrient issues. Have your medium on hand and ready for when your plants are ready. Set up your grow beds, pots, or buckets. Make sure containers are clean—if you're reusing, they should have been sterilized in the cleaning stage. Arrange them in the tent or room where they'll be living. Don't overcrowd your space—consider spacing both for plant growth and airflow. All growing containers must have adequate drainage holes—unless you've got a built-in drain in the floor. Regardless, if you're in a tent or a full grow room, you're going to need trays or saucers under the pots to catch runoff water. In a room, you might have a drain or you might need to manually remove runoff. Plan for this now. Elevating pots slightly on bricks or pot elevators will help excess water drain away from roots.

Kyle: If you have multiple plant strains or plant sites, label your pots now. It's easier to stick a name tag in a pot at setup than to guess later which seedling or clone is which. Trust me. I've played "which strain is this?" one too many times. If you plan to use mycorrhizal fungi or other beneficial microbes, you can mix or sprinkle them into the planting hole at planting time. Have them ready to go. Also, if you're amending soil with anything like perlite, worm castings, etc., do it now and mix it thoroughly. You're creating the world in which your roots will live—so make it count.

Kyle: Calibrating equipment. Don't let technology trip you up now. Now that the physical setup is underway, ensure your monitoring and control gadgets are accurate and ready. A faulty pH reading can throw off your grow. Take a few minutes to calibrate your pH pen or meter using proper buffering solutions. You'll want to calibrate monthly at least. If your pH meter isn't calibrated, you might as well be guessing—and guessing makes unhappy plants. If you're into monitoring nutrient levels, verify your electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), or sometimes known as electrical conductivity ppm (parts per million) meter is also working with a standard buffer solution. These meters are tough and rarely need calibrating, but always check them.  First check, then set or program your timers for your lights and possibly for fans or pumps if you use them. For seedlings, clones, and the vegetative stage, I suggest using a 20 hours on / 4 hours off, or use your preferred schedule. It never hurts to double-check the AM/PM settings so the lights don't accidentally flip on in the middle of the night—especially if you're using multiple timers. For example, a heater at night—you’ll want to double-check their settings.

Kyle: If you have a thermostat plug for your heater or a humidistat for your humidifier/dehumidifier, set them now. For example, dial in that you want temps around, say, 80°F (26.6°C) and humidity at around 65%—a warm and humid environment is the best for early growth. If you can't quite get it there, don't worry—they can be just as healthy, even if they grow just a little bit slower. Ensuring that all devices turn on and off properly at those set points will give you peace of mind while also ensuring you don't have an environmental mishap. Simply put, physically observe that your air conditioner, humidifier or heater—every appliance with a set point, including lights—trigger on and off when they're supposed to. The positioning of all your different sensors will have different requirements. The mometer and hygrometer, for example, are best placed in the grow area at plant height—and at more than one place to check for uniformity. Don't place any sensors too close to fans or the appliance that they control.

Kyle: Backup and safety. Check all power strips and cords. Make sure there are no signs of wear or heat—like blackened or partially melted outlets. Please be safe. Elevate all your outlets off the floor. You'll still want to avoid spills. Never, ever overload circuits. The rule is: never go over 75%. Shit gets hot, especially in the summer. It's worth a quick safety look. Just check the amperage rating of each appliance versus the outlet it's hooked up to. Also, test any alarms—like a temperature or water alarm if you use one. When it comes to tech: trust, but verify. A few minutes now can save your plants from a day of incorrect conditions or your whole space from catastrophe.

Kyle: Lighting setup. Height and schedule dialing. We're about halfway through the show, and now it's time for me to introduce a brand-new segment. Parker Curtis is gearing up for a brand-new season at the Homegrown Cannabis Co. garden. And guess what? He's going to have a regular segment on this show, where he shares all of his best tips and tricks on both indoor and outdoor grows. So let’s see what’s growing.

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Parker:  So, spring has arrived, and it's time to prepare the greenhouse for the upcoming planting season. Today, we're going to be focusing on maintaining, cleaning, and upgrading the Homegrown greenhouse to ensure optimal cannabis growth and minimize contamination risks. Over time, the olive tree in my neighbor’s yard has grown back, and now it’s casting a shadow over the greenhouse. With my neighbor's permission, I’m going to get some of these branches trimmed and allow more light to penetrate into the greenhouse. Next—sustainability is key. I’ll construct a makeshift screening table using wooden sawhorses and quarter-inch hardware cloth. By cutting open the soft plastic pots from our last harvest, we can sift and reclaim our coco.  And after screening I’ll flush the coco in 45-gallon smart pots to prepare it for reuse. Reusing coco is both cost-effective and environmentally friendly.

Parker: Now we’re going to address cleanliness. Last season, we faced a little bit of a Botrytis issue, so to combat this, we’re going to clear the greenhouse floor and carefully use a torch to sterilize the gravel surface. This method helps eliminate mold spores and plant debris—and if you choose to replicate this at home, use extreme caution. Pest control is vital. So, on the side of the greenhouse against this fence, I’m going to attach some more metal screening to seal the gaps and prevent larger pests like butterflies, moths, and grasshoppers from entering. Additionally, I’m going to replace a temporary door closure with a more secure latch. To further enhance the greenhouse environment, I’m going to install panda plastic along this fence side. This panda plastic sheeting has a black side and a white side. I’m going to position the white side facing the inside of the greenhouse. That’s going to reflect more light to the plants and it’s going to add another protective layer to keep pests out.

Parker: In our next episode, we're going to replace the plastic greenhouse film. But for now, this cleaning will set a solid foundation. By taking these steps, we're setting the stage for a successful growing season. Proper preparation not only ensures optimal plant health but also mitigates potential risks. Stay tuned for our next update, where we’ll dive into replacing the greenhouse film and explore further enhancements. 

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Kyle: Thanks a lot, Parker. We’ll be interested to see what you’ve got going on next week. Also, I’ll be interested to see if you still have a beard after all those flames! And now—back to it. Let there be light but just the right amount, of course. Your grow lights are the engine of growth, but they need to be set up correctly for young plants to thrive—not stress. First and foremost, mount your grow light securely. For seedlings or clones, position LEDs or HIDs higher than you would for established plants. Luckily, there's an inexpensive gadget to take the guesswork out of positioning your lights—it’s called a PAR meter. You can get one for around 50 bucks. It's a handy little handheld meter. Sometimes the sensor is on it, and sometimes there's a little separate cord that has the sensor. You hold it out under the lights, and it gives you a number. This number is in micromoles—it’s easy: 100 to 150 for fresh-popped seeds, 200 to 300 for new clones or seedlings, 400 for good vegetative growth and up to 600 for accelerated growth.

Kyle: Check all the spots in your garden for even coverage. Make adjustments by adjusting either the light height or intensity, if you have the option. By now, your timer should be set as per the tools and tech segment. Let’s do a simulation. Turn the lights on and see that the timer is working. Manually trigger it if it has a test function—confirming the on/off schedule. This is also a chance to confirm that when the lights go off, no other light sources leak into the space. You’ll have to check for any indicator LEDs from appliances, equipment or the window. This is also a good chance to confirm that when the lights go off there's no other light sources leaking into the space. You'll have to check for any indicator LEDs from appliances, equipment or even the window wall or tent seam cracks. Your veg cycle isn’t sensitive to light leaks, but it’s much easier to spot them when the space is empty.

Kyle: Photoperiod vs. autoflower consideration. If you're using autoflowering seeds, which aren't light-cycle dependent, you might opt for an 18/6 photoperiod, since they're going to flower automatically without the need to switch to a 12/12 photoperiod. They can be a little more sensitive and don’t appreciate the 24 photoperiod. Dress rehearsal. Running a full test cycle. Test everything before introducing plants. Now that the space is set up, it’s time for a trial run. This is a crucial step that many skip but we’re not skipping it today. Run your entire setup for a day, or at least a good few hours if you’re pressed for time, without any plants. Turn on the lights, fans, heater, AC, and humidifier—all of it. Just as if your garden was in full swing. This dry run will let you observe the environment in action.

Kyle: Keep an eye on temperature and humidity at various points in the cycle. For example, check the max temperature a few hours after the lights come on. Is it staying in your range? You want to check your humidity when everything's running as well. Are you hitting that 60% to 65% relative humidity sweet spot for seedlings—or does it drop too low or high? Note the min/max readings if your hygrometer records them, especially through the lights-off period. Use this test to tweak your settings. If it gets too hot, you might need to increase your fan speed, add another fan, or maybe vent more. If humidity is too low, prepare to use a humidifier. If too high, increase the exhaust or get a dehumidifier for example.  If the heater kicked on too late or overshot the temperature, maybe you can just adjust its thermostat. It’s much easier to solve these now than when your plants are wilting. If you’ve got full-tilt climate control—some now even have AI learning, then you won’t have to worry much about adjustments.

Kyle: You’ll want to verify that the timers turn the lights on and off for example at the set times—actually see it happen. Ensure the fan is running continuously or on the intended schedule. If using a humidifier on a controller, watch it turn on or off around the relative set point. This is also the time to listen for any odd noises, rattling fans or vibrations and secure them. Remember, you’ll be living with this grow for months. Better to fix that loud rattle or light leak now.

Kyle: Final touches. After the test cycle, you should have confidence that your environment is stable. Top off any devices, fill the humidifier water, etc. and reset everything for the real deal. Now take a breath—your grow space is officially ready for plants. Think of this like a chef tasting the soup before serving. We want to catch any missing ingredients or excess spice now.