Grow Tent Setup for Hoyas – Carla’s Hoya Haven

Grow tent setup with gridwall panels.

I chose to set up my grow tent with gridwall panels hung from S-hooks with nylon cord. I then zip tied the panels to the frame for further stability.

Let me just start off by saying that the extension poles were not necessary for my purpose. This is a really tall grow tent. It’s about 8′ high with the extension poles and barely slid under the drop ceiling. I knew before I put the canvas up that it was a bit too tall but I was too tired of working with the frame and ready to move on. First I forgot the poles. Then I added the poles in without completely disassembling the top piece of framing. Then I decided the extension poles were too much. Ah, to heck with it. I decided to put the canvas up and think about it later.

I managed to do all this without any help. I’m 5’6″ and if I were any shorter I would have needed help or at least a taller ladder. There are a number of good videos on YouTube for assembling the tent so I won’t get into too many details. Overall, it went together easily. It was a bit of a struggle to start the zippers between the top cover canvas and the back wall canvas. Here’s where two sets of hands would have been helpful. The interior bottom insert is a nice feature. So far, my tent has been waterproof. I’ve used a garden sprayer in there and a little water drips behind the insert but the bottom below the insert mostly stays dry with just smattering of water droplets around the edge.

After that came gridwall panels. My grow tent is 2′ x 4′ x 8′. The gridwall panels I chose are 2′ wide. I debated for some time whether to buy 5′ or 6′ tall panels and then decided on two 5′ panels for the sides and two 6′ panels for the back. This makes no sense but I wanted to see what the paneIs would look like in the tent. Now that they’re up I see that four 5′ panels would have been just fine. Because the tent is 8′ tall I needed to drop the panels down. I hung the grow light temporarily so I could measure how far down to hang the panels.

I was going to use bungee cords to hang the panels but a guy at Lowes recommended nylon cord with a safe working load of 110 lbs. Excellent choice! I purchased the orange bungee cords (36″) anyway to help hold the panels up while I worked with the cord. This worked out well as I would not have been able to hold the panels up with one hand while securing the rope with the other. I chose a figure 8 loop knot which was easy to tie, untie and retie until the panels hung evenly. The cord was cut to about 40″ and I made figure 8 loop knots at each end. I hung one end a cord from a 2″ S hook I hung on the top bar of the frame, pulled it through one of the top grids of the panel and hooked the other end of the cord to the same hook. There are two S hooks and two cords per panel.

After the gridwall panels were hung I used zip ties to secure the panels to each other and to the frame. They are there to stay. I had hoped to drop the panels down 14″ but by the time I was done messing around and the rope pulled tight the panels were hung 18″ from the top frame. This is where the extra height came in handy. There was plenty of room above to hang the light and still plenty more room to drop the gridwall panels a few inches below the light with 15″ to spare between the 5′ gridwall panels and the bottom of the tent. There’s plenty of room at the bottom to add plants I don’t want to hang on the wall.

If I had to do it again would I still add the extension poles? Probably. I like having the extra space.

Once the gridwall panels were done I rehung the grow light. I sprung for the Mars Hydro grow light with a dimmer switch. It shipped FedEx and arrived in 3 days. I was happy about that. I added two small fans for air circulation. I have them on a digital timer. They run 10 minutes on and 20 minutes off. The grow light is on a basic manual timer and runs twelve hours on and 12 hours off. I use the dimmer switch and have it as dim as I can get it without turning it off. I added a humidifier which sits outside the tent and is only needed after I’ve had the tent open. I repotted most of my hoyas in orchid pots. I’ll talk about the potting mix and pots in another post. The larger pots I hung on the gridwall using 2″ S hooks and for the smaller pots I used small clips with hooks. I used two hooks or two clips for most pots for stability. Pots under 4″ hang fine with one clip.

Because my potting mix has very good drainage I water once a week. I use a garden sprayer for 1-2 weeks and then I pull all the pots out of the tent give them a good watering, drain them off and put them back. I tend to rearrange a lot depending how well the plants are doing. I move them up closer to the light, farther away, out of the shadows, into the shadows, out of the corners, into the corners. I think my plants would do better if I’d leave them alone but I’m having too much fun messing with them.

Below are some photos of my assembly. I’ll add a separate post with links to some useful videos and supplies.

I love my grow tent!! Love it! Love it! Love it!

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