How Tall Should a Grow Tent Be? (For Weed Plants)
I wrote this article because of my own experience recently with a 5’ grow tent and an Indica plant that is currently about halfway into flower. Five feet sounds pretty high when you’re talking about growing indoors, especially if you perform some light stress training (LST) on the marijuana plants.
A marijuana grow tent should be at minimum 5’ tall. With a 5’ tent, you should train the plants with trimming to allow the buds to grow to their maximum size without outgrowing the tent. A 6’ or higher tent will allow easier growth of marijuana plants without as much topping and training required.
Having a higher grow tent will be the best option for growing as big of a yield as possible. In this article, I’ll talk about my most recent experience growing one Indica plant in a 5’ high tent. I’ll also try to answer any other questions I think you might have when it comes to how tall your grow tent should be.
Okay, let’s begin!
Is a 5’ Grow Tent for Marijuana Tall Enough?
By the way I began this article, you might think I’m against using a 5’ tall grow tent but I’m not. A tent that high is just fine, as long as you are aware that you might have to treat your marijuana plants a bit differently than if they were in a taller tent.
I have a plant currently growing in a 3-gallon pail inside a 5’ grow tent. It’s a few weeks into flower and now the buds have grown up to a couple inches from the LED grow light. I have the light pulled up as high as it can go. Normally, it hangs down about 12’ but now it is about 5” from the top.
That said, I’d never recommend you grow in as little of a pot as a 3-gallon pot. I’d suggest using at minimum a 5-gallon pot. This gives your plant more room for roots, which means bigger buds. The issue you run into is a 5-gallon pot will be much higher than a 3-gallon, so you’ll have that much less space above the plant to grow. Make sense?
I topped the plant twice to maximize the buds as much as possible. It’s an Indica plant so doesn’t need to grow extremely high, which is a good thing. I can’t imagine growing a Sativa in this size tent without doing some sort of plant training.
When I grow my next marijuana plant, I intend to use the same grow tent. However, I plan on doing light stress training along with topping, so the plant stays low and produces many more bud sites than if I had just let it grow naturally.
If you aren’t sure what LST or Topping is, please check out this article.
In my opinion, a 5’ tall grow tent is best used by an experienced grower that applies techniques previously mentioned such as LST and topping.
For someone new to the hobby, I’d recommend going with a taller tent. 6’ to 7’ at least.
Here is a good-sized grow tent for two plants available on Amazon.
How to Maximize Yields in a 5’ Grow Tent
If you stick with a 5’ grow tent, you probably want to do something to maximize the plant’s yields. It doesn’t take much effort to get the most out of your plants. Here are a couple of foolproof methods to help you get those results.
Training your plants when they’re first starting out is imperative for maximum buds in a 5’ grow tent.
Practicing low stress training once the plants are a couple of weeks old helps to even out the bud growth throughout the whole plant. For a more in-depth explanation of this process, check out this article.
Lighting and fertilizers both play an important part in how well your marijuana plants grow in a tent. If you have plants outside, they benefit from the sun’s rays and nothing beats that light source. You can however, provide the best lighting you can afford to replicate the sun as much as possible.
Fertilizer helps your weed plants grow a bit better than they would have naturally without it. You can increase the size of your plants and buds which means more yield for you when the plant is ready to be cut down.
The better your lighting is, the better your weed plants will grow. It’s that simple. I like using LED grow lights in a grow tent as they don’t get as hot as HID (MH and HPS) style lighting.
Your end yield will probably be greater with HPS lights versus an LED light however with today’s technology LED lights are producing excellent results in grow tents. They are also a lot safer than HPS.
Using a large pot will help to maximize your yields in a 5’ or any size tent. The more room your plant’s roots have to grow, the bigger the plant and buds will be.
What Size Grow Tent for 2 Weed Plants?
Now that you know the height of your grow tent matters, you just need to know how much length and width in a tent you will need to grow 2 plants successfully.
I can tell you from my own experience recently that growing one plant in a 24”x 48”x 5’ high tent allows for more than 2 plants, but not sure I’d recommend doing it.
I used that size of a tent for just one plant, a heater, and a bucket of water. If you just had the plants in the tent, you could fit more than 2 however, there wouldn’t be much room for the plants to spread out.
I feel the tighter the plants are inside a grow tent, the less they will produce.
That said, I’d recommend (at minimum) a grow tent that is at least 24” x 48” and 6’ to 7’ high for 2 plants. If there are only 5’ high tents available, then that’s fine, but you’ll want to consider training the plant because of the reduced height.
Conclusion
Just to conclude this article, I wanted to quickly go over the importance of a higher grow tent when growing weed indoors.
Weed plants can get very tall, especially if you’re growing Sativa plants. Even Indica plants can get overly tall when grown in a large pot.
You have to consider as well that your grow light will be hanging down, taking away some of the height area for the plants to grow.
Learning how to train your plant as in LST or topping will help keep your plants shorter while also maximizing the buds that end up growing. It’s a win/win when you train your plants.
If you can afford to buy a 6’ or taller grow tent, I’d recommend it. I know there seems to be an overabundance of 5’ tents available.
Good luck with whatever size tent you choose to grow your next marijuana plants in.
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