Planning Stages -Tent?

Two different models. One has a changeable bulb if it gets broken. One does not. Mine does not and have had it for two years. I’d recommend the calibration kit also.

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I thought my Covert tent was all that but it is showing pinhole light leaks at points in the stitching. Right now not a huge issue as the room it is in I can keep shut up and dark.

Now here is an issue I don’t see addressed or even asked about much and that is the height of the plant. Keep in mind the height of your tent will be eaten up a bit with the light hanging down. There is only so far you can raise it. I grew Wedding Cake fem for my first crop. It is a 70/30 indica leaning “average” height plant. Here the word “average” drives me nuts. I am numbers person. Give me a range of say 90-120 cm and I have something I can work with. Half of my plants expressed their saliva side and got incredibly tall. White Widow is 60/40 indica leaning hybrid and considered “average” so plan on learning, and it is not that scary or hard, FIM, topping, tying down.

An example using my tent: although 182 cm (72” ) tall, taking in account the height of the AutoPot system I use (and you HAVE to account for how tall your container is as I am 99.9% sure the heights mentioned on seeds do not account for what is below the surface) And the space the light eats up, that ONLY gives me 78 cm (30”)of head room for plant keeping in mind at end I want 30 cm to 45 cm (12 - 18”) clearance between top of plant and light at the very end. At 78 cm now I need to decide if the plant can be topped or FIMed. That means I have to pay attention to how much I can manipulate a particular strain or type of grow, i.e., feminized, autoflower, sativa, indica. For me personally, I won’t consider a strain that grows more than 120 cm if manipulated. If that makes sense.

All that to say, be prepared to have fun, and for me it was totally a blast, to learn and try topping, FIM, and I even did super cropping. On a first grow at that.

Things that are indispensable to me:

  1. PH monitor and soil meter (for the ones not in AutoPot)

  2. A journal. I keep details on everything. A quick daily update. Watering, notes, what I observe. I cannot tell you how many times I have referred back to this and able to adjust course if needed.

  3. Coban medical stretch wrap and wooden coffee stir sticks for the times a stem would bend too much or break or split. I would dab with honey if wound open, splint if needed, and wrap with Coban. I swear I never even got wilting if caught immediately.

  4. Measuring tape to keep up with distances from light. Silly to mention but still invaluable.

  5. Sticky fly tape. You will be absolutely amazed at how many little critters you will trap. Mainly gnats. Says nothing about your housekeeping as I truly believe many ride in on the wonderful highly organic soil I use. Also, and I am not crazy or kidding, but if you see bugs on the tape, find a spider and put it in there. I learned in university 101 biology class that a human is never more than 4 feet from a spider so they are not that hard to find. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: I have started hanging the tape higher in the tent to prevent trapping any Charlotte that may have ‘found’ its way in there.

  6. Be brave! These plants are resilient and amazing. The people here on the forum are the best of any cannabis forum I have found yet. Civil, prompt, and helpful. Don’t stress. Mistakes are learning and you get better as you go. And I learned many times my mistakes were someone else’s method.

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Kiki, you are 100% correct that nobody had mentioned the strong considerations I needed to have when dealing with height or if they did, I just breezed past it. I did take it into consideration that I wanted to grab medium height plants, prob not heavy sativa but until early this very morning, I never really thought about the gear over head.

Interesting you mentioned Covert tent as well as that tie’s into my new found information as well. I was looking at it and strongly considering the Covert tent that I found on this site https://hydrobuilder.com/.

It was on this site they had a video on how to set up your tent and I noticed just how much darn space a filter took, not to mention Co2 setup, fans, and lights. (Not that I think I will have all this at start but eventually). So instead of 6’ roof, now I am thinking 7’ and up. I can do up to 90".

So I do GREATLY appreciate you offering up your expertise on this topic that I really had no considerations about yesterday.

I almost pulled the trigger on a tent last night and now I am really glad I didn’t. This thread has paid off 50 times more than I had originally hoped and I am going to give it another week before I make any first purchase decisions. I know I will make mistakes and I am ok with that. I will learn and move on. I just want to try and avoid any costly mistakes that could take me months to recover from.

As far as your Covert tent, “The Pin Holes” , are your only concern? You like the sturdiness, zippers, and vent holes?

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I actually got my tent from Hydrobuilder. If I had it to do over I would have got the 4x5 Or 5x5 Gorilla tent with height extensions. I highly doubt I will ever use the veg chamber feature. Plus, we tested it and as hard as we tried we could not seal it off enough for zero light leaks on the flowering side. The zippers seem to be dragging after about 6 months of use and are getting harder to use. I am sure I should probably use some sort of lube on them.

If you can swing it, an AutoPot system is super easy and fun and makes a huge difference in the plant size and health. I got a 4 pot system on sale from them for $160 but see that it is $220 regular. You can get anywhere from one pot on up.

The three smaller ones are Blueberry X Big Bud cross, all germinated and planted the same time. You can see the size difference. The smaller one is in a 3 gal Soft Pot. It has made watering fail proof and nutrients are pretty easy to dial in. I use General Hydroponics Flora series and add their CaliMagic. I dip out of the reservoir to feed the one in the Soft Pot.