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Closets have always been a close ally of the clandestine grower. People have grown weed in closets since the early days of indoor cultivation in the 1960s and 1970s, so we thought this topic is something we definitely needed to include in our series of articles dedicated to growing cannabis indoors. If you’re looking for a low-key area to house your small-scale grow, you can’t beat a closet. In this post, we’ll outline some benefits, pitfalls, and best practices related to growing weed in closets.
Benefits Of Growing Weed In A Closet
There are plenty of pros to growing weed in a closet. First, it’s one of the simplest ways to get a grow up and running. When you grow weed in your closet, you already have an enclosed space that’s perfect for keeping out light and controlling your environmental conditions with minimal effort.
Second, growing weed in a closet helps increase the overall stealth of your garden. A marijuana closet grow doesn’t draw the same amount of attention that growing weed in your yard or even a grow tent does. You can also manage the smell from your closet grow fairly easily.
Turning Your Closet Into A Cannabis Grow Tent
To convert your closet into a cannabis grow, you’ll need some equipment. Below, we’ll cover what gear you’ll need, and have also included a step-by-step guide detailing how to grow weed in a closet.
Equipment
Before you start growing, you’ll need the following gear:
- Lights – LED lights are longtime favorites for indoor growers because they generate low heat, which is simply perfect for such a small space as a closet.
- Light timer – An analog or digital timer is the easiest way to control when your lights turn on and off. This is especially important if you decide to grow photoperiod strains. Get a timer and don’t risk re-vegging!
- White paint or Panda Paper – This is to cover the inside of your closet. A closet that’s white inside will be especially effective, as the surface will reflect much more light that can be used by the plant.
- Growing medium – Soil, coco coir, rock wool.
- Carbon filter – This is to control the smell and not let it out of the closet.
- Containers – Pots for your plants.
- Tray – For drainage.
Process: How To Turn Your Closet Into A Cannabis Grow
Once you have all the necessary gear, you’re ready to build your closet cannabis grow. There are three crucial components to this process. First, you’ll need to get your closet ready. Then, you’ll need to set up your lights. Finally, you need to install proper ventilation.
Step 1: Pick And Prepare The Right Closet
Before you can get started with your closet grow, you need to pick the right closet. You’ll want to choose one with as high a ceiling as possible. This will give your plants room to grow vertically, which is especially important for Sativa strains.
Next, you need to prepare your garden before you can put marijuana in your closet to grow. Your main goal here is to make your closet as close to a grow tent as possible. Therefore, you have some work to do. Paint the inside of your closet white (or line them with Panda Paper) to reflect all of the light inside it. You’ll also want to eliminate any light leaks that allow light to pass in from outside your garden.
Step 2: Pick And Set Up Grow Lights
Now that you have your closet weed grow set up and ready to go, you need to install your lights. Generally, LED lights are the best option for indoor growers. For one, they’re particularly energy efficient. As a result, LED lights are the best bang for your buck.
More importantly, LED lights give off significantly less heat than other commercial grow lamps like HPS and CMH bulbs. That makes it much easier to control environmental conditions using LED lights.
Installing LED lights is simple – just place one LED light above every plant in your grow. Many LED lamps come with their own installation instructions, so make sure you read any documentation that came with your lights.
Step 3: Install Ventilation
It’s impossible to understate the importance of proper ventilation in a closet cannabis grow. Every grow needs good ventilation, but it’s especially true for closet grows. Since space is limited in these kinds of growing environments, you need to choose your tools wisely.
Ventilation has one main job: to get air out of your garden. All you really need to do that is a small fan and maybe some tubes for airflow. One super helpful tool for ensuring proper ventilation when closet growing is a carbon filter. Carbon filters help eliminate the odor that the plants in your grow will generate. As a result, they can be the difference between successfully nurturing your garden through harvest day or getting caught. If you do some drilling, you can also install an exhaust fan in your growing closet. If you want to get your grow closet ventilated with the least effort, simply open its doors and windows in the rooms once a day.
How To Grow Weed In A Closet
There are a few things to remember when you’re growing in a closet garden. First, space is at a premium. Therefore, you’ll need to make the most of every vertical inch or centimeter. Use training techniques to keep your plants from stretching upward too much. ScrOGging, SOGging, and low-stress training (LST) are all ways you can encourage your plants to grow wider, not taller.
Another tip for successful closet growing: check on your plant at least once every two days. If possible, check once a day – this may even become necessary as your plants mature. Checking on your garden regularly is the best way to avoid common problems like underwatering, infections, and nutrient deficiencies.
Strains Suitable For Growing In A Closet
One last thing you’ll need to consider when designing your marijuana closet grow setup: strains. Choosing the right strains will make the difference between success and failure. We outline some of the best strains to use below.
Compact
Choosing strains with low headroom will eliminate the headache from closet growing. Indica strains grow small and bushy, giving you plenty of vertical room to grow. In addition, autoflower strains can help new growers successfully navigate their first few grow cycles. Learn more by checking out our collection of compact strains, all ideal for indoor growing.
Low Odor
Aside from space, smell is the biggest problem facing your closet cannabis grow. Even if you grow your weed perfectly and design the perfect closet setup, smell can blow your cover. When that happens, all your hard work results in nothing.
Don’t let a nosy neighbor bust your closet grow because of its aroma. Low-odor strains can help indoor growers manage the smell of their gardens. We’ve compiled a collection of low-smell strains here that, when combined with a carbon filter, can significantly reduce the aromatic footprint of your garden.
Easy-To-Grow
The best way to determine what strains will work best for your closet garden is experimentation. However, there are some strains that are just naturally easier to grow than others. Luckily, we’ve already done the searching for you. Check out our list of easy-to-grow strains to help get your closet cannabis grow off on the right foot!
Perfect The Practice Of Growing Weed In A Closet
This is just a brief overview covering the basics of growing weed in a closet. You can use this knowledge to set up your own garden. However, the only way to perfect it will be through trial and error. Trust your instincts and the information in this post, and you’ll be harvesting your own closet weed in no time.
Herbies Head Shop expressly refuses to support the use, production, or supply of illegal substances. For more details read our Legal Disclaimer.
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