Hydroponics Growing Tips:
How To Grow Indoors

Most of us don't live in a climate that is ideal for growing your crop outdoors. Not to mention the fact that you want to keep your plants away from curious passers by.

That's why indoor growing is so ideal. You get to control your temperatures, your lighting cycles, your humidity and the watering of your plants for perfect results.

Plus you get the added security of being able to grow in the safety of whatever building you choose to grow in.

Ways to grow indoors

A grow tent - Grow tents are exactly what they sound like. I tent that you setup indoors so that you can control the environment that is inside the tent. An indoor grow tent should have a way of getting intake air, as well as removing the hot air that is in the grow tent. This allows you to control the temperature and humidity inside your grow tent. In an indoor grow tent you can basically grow whatever you want. You can grow with a high power light (such as a 400-600 watt high pressure sodium bulb) with hydroponics or soil.

Grow tents are easy to setup, but they have no mobility and are not very secure. As you might guess, if someone wants to get into your tent, they can just cut open the fabric to gain access. Also, they are definitely not "Stealth" in any way as it is very easy to spot a grow tent in your home.

A grow box - Indoor grow boxes come in all shapes and sizes. They are the most versatile way to grow indoors because they can be more "stealthy", include locks, have odour removing filters and contain the light from your growing environment.

Many modern grow boxes come with control timers to handle everything from CO2 injection, watering, air circulation and lighting.

Grow boxes also come in a number of different types of materials ranging from basic flimsy steel to moulded plastic or premium medical grade aluminum.

Grow boxes with castors add the ability to move your crop if need be. Imagine your landlord coming in for a "surprise" visit and 1 hours notice. With a grow tent or a grow room you'd be hooped but with a grow box with castors you'd be able to easily roll your crop out of your space for a couple of hours and then back again... no harm done.

A grow room - A grow room is the most serious way to grow indoors. Unfortunately it's also the most insecure. Basically it's how it sounds, you're setting up an entire room for growing your plants.

Depending on the size of the room, you can run as many lights as you need. The same principles apply to growing indoors in a grow room. You need intake air, exhaust air, moisture and temperature control and a way of feeding and lighting your plants... it's basically like a giant grow box.

What is indoor hydroponics?

Hydroponics is a way of feeding plants without using soil. A mixture of water and nutrients is used to feed the plants directly to their root system. There are a few different ways of implementing the hydroponics concept.

BC Northern Lights uses a deep water culture with drip reservoir system to feed your plants. The plants are growing above a reservoir of water and nutrients. The roots of the plants go out in search of nutrients and they find it in the reservoir. Pretty soon your entire reservoir is full of pearly white roots from your quickly growing plants.

Your plants are also watered with a drip system above the roots of your plants. This is controlled by our pre-programmed control system. The watering cycles can be changed to fit your strain and preference.

The nutrient mixture in your reservoir also needs to have oxygen added to it. This is done by using airstones in the reservoir to pump air into the nutrient mixture.

Growing indoors with soil

Growing indoors can also be done in soil. This is like growing any plant in soil, and you can use the same nutrients to feed your plants.

Line up your pots beneith your grow lights and water them by hand as needed. This technique is not as automated or efficient as hydroponics, but some growers prefer it for it's simplicity.

Germinating from seed or cloning

You can grow your plants entirely from seed or by cloning an existing female plant (or Mother Plant).

Growing from seed takes longer because you need to germinate your seeds every time you start a growing cycle. You want to find feminized seeds if you can so that you can ensure that you'll get a crop.

Cloning involves taking a small piece of a plant that is already determined to be a female. You take the cutting and transplant it with a rooting compund to create a new plant. This is the most efficient way of growing your plants indoors because it allows you to get used to a strain. Every plant you grow from this method will be identical, so you will quickly find out the strengths and weaknesses of your strain.

Lighting cycles of your plants

Lighting cycles are very important to the health of your plants. When your plants are in their first growth stage (vegetation) they are growing and will not go to flower.

To control this veg stage you need to provide your plants with around 18 hours of light per day. This will make the plant think that it is spring/summer and time to grow.

When you are ready to flower your plants (at about 1/3 of your total grow height) then you need to trick the plants into thinking it is time to flower by limiting the light cycle. If you change your lighting cycle to 12 hours of light per day, this will trigger the plants to start their flowering cycle.

Generally speaking, your plants will triple in height after you start to flower them. By triggering the flowering stage when your plants are at 1/3 of your total grow height you will be able to maximize your indoor growing space.

Maximizing the light when you grow indoors

When you're growing indoors you want to take advantage of all the light that you produce. In order to do so you can line your growing area with white panels of plastic or painted metal. This will reflect the light back onto your plants and make the most of the light energy that you are producing.

BCNL grow boxes are made from premium powder coated medical grade aluminum. The material is optimized to reflect the most amount of light back onto your plants and also be super easy to clean. After all, the cleaner you keep your growing space the better results you will have.

Equipment you need to grow indoors

Here is some basic equipment you need to grow indoors:

• Large syringe
• Large tub for mixing nutrients
• Measuring tub
• PH pen or meter
• TDS pen or meter
• Nutrients

This and many more great growing tips are available 7 days a week through our growing support team. Give us a call today to find out how you can get started growing with BC Northern Lights.

1-888-236-1266

Have a question about this tip? Leave us a comment below: