Cannabis plants are relatively hardy, but like humans, they do “have needs”. One of these needs is for air movement around the plant, which is of course, is not a natural condition of indoor grow rooms. The humid environment that helps cannabis thrive is also a great environment for problems like white powdery mildew and spider mites. If the air is too still, pests have the chance to settle on your plants and grow undisturbed.
Furthermore, cannabis plants need significant amounts of light to grow to their full potential. The lights used to grow cannabis plants heat your grow room no matter how cool the light runs, just because of the sheer amount of electricity running through the system. While cannabis is a tropical plant, too much heat will still kill the plant. So, it’s important to keep your grow room from heating up too much.
These problems are just part of why your cannabis environmental control setup is so important. You can take care of both with a single solution: an exhaust system.
How to Put an Exhaust System Together
The two most important parts of your ventilation system are your intake and exhaust ports. Even the simplest ventilation system requires a place where you’re bringing clean air into the room and a place where you’re blowing it out. These two ports should be as fair apart as possible, so you can avoid pulling exhaust in with the clean air. There should at least be one fan in the exhaust port, but the intake port can be passive.
The next ingredient of a good exhaust system is ventilation fans for inside the room. A small fan pointed just to the side of your plants will keep air moving throughout the room and help you avoid pests. Furthermore, it’ll help keep the temperature consistent throughout the room, allowing the exhaust port to be more efficient at keeping the room cool.
If you have a bigger room, you need to move to the next step…ducting. Ductwork helps you attach fans near the hottest parts of your room to the outdoors, so your exhaust fan doesn’t sit uselessly at the edge of the tent. Duct tape can be used to attach one end of your duct to the fan, and the other end to the exit hole in your tent or grow room.
This is especially effective if you attach ducts to any fans present in your grow lights, allowing you to take the hot air produced by lights directly out of the environment.
Air Filters: Why Are They Useful?
Growing cannabis inside has a lot of upsides, but the smell is not universally considered one of them. If you want to grow inside, and be polite to your neighbors, installing an air filter to your exhaust system is simple and effective.
The scent of cannabis can be largely removed from air through quality carbon filters. A carbon filter works by using the porous and absorbent nature of carbon to snag the scent of cannabis out of any air forced through the filter. If you’re doing a DIY grow room setup, just make sure that there is no way for air to escape without passing through your filter.
These filters do need to be replaced on occasion, but the process is simple. Many fans built for grow rooms have places to insert air filters. You can simply slide your old filter out and slide the new filter in
Exhaust systems and air filters are a key part of any indoor cannabis grow setup. By keeping your air moving, keeping your temperature stable and under control, and preventing your cannabis from annoying your neighbors, you can ensure a great grow with minimal fuss.