DiY Veg Tent Build

[Somatek]

Here’s some quick shots of how I build my grow areas/tents.  This was made from 1×3 clear cedar (clear is just a grade, denotes no knots/defects in the wood) ripped down from 1×6 cedar siding my friend had an excess of.  All holes were pre-drilled before screwing to prevent splitting.  Otherwise it’s pretty straight forward, the first couple pics show the frame assembled to make sure it’s square and true.  Then I took it apart, into two side panels as the back is open to let in light from the window and the front is a door for access (one side as well on the lower section so I can slide planters in and out).  Wrapping the sides as individual panels is easier to create sealed air pockets for insulation I find, makes it semi move-able as you can break it down to get it through doors and is much easier for one person alone to build.  I stretch the plastic out the same way you replace screen windows; start attaching it from the middle and work out to the corners, pulling it tight as you go.  Then I seal everything up with tuck tape (ideally the blue tuct tape which is meant for sealing vapour barriers).

The last pic shows the panels wrapped up and mostly ready to install.

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[Somatek]

Next we have a couple pics of it put together and then installed against the wall.  Like I said it was designed to fit around a window to take advantage of the free, natural sunlight as supplemental lighting to the LED’s.  I may block of the lower section and try it on a 6/2 lighting schedule vs the upper section on 18/6 with supplemental natural lighting to see which gives better growth rates.  That’s a rant for another day though…

The next pic shows the panda plastic trimmed to fit and sealed up.  Finally the last pic shows the door installed with the thrice reused zipper I bought almost 5 years ago now.  Reducing the use of single use plastics to reduce the eco footprint/cost of my grows is always an important priority for me.

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[Somatek]

Finally a couple shots of the finished area without plants and once the girls were finally in a proper veg room after months of being in front of a window while I was waiting for my grow license and figuring out what I was doing with the space.

The table they’re sitting on was a collapsible table I made for a friends tiny apartment so the kitchen was usable. It’s made of 12″ pine boards that I did a Japanese shou sugi ban process to make it water proof.  Basically you use a torch to char the outer layer which seals it and then brush it off, sand and polish it to bring out a dark/black wood grain depending how how deeply you scorch the wood.  It’s a really beautiful effect, I coated it with beeswax after as another natural sealant and am debating treating all the wood in my grow room this way to make it more inert/easier to sterilize.  Not to mention more aesthetically pleasing as it’s a much nicer experience vs working in a ghetto grow.

The biggest issue is that the ventilation has to go throw the middle of the shelves with how they line up with the window, I was hoping to fit it underneath but there just isn’t enough room to squeeze it in.  Building your own grow means a lot of trouble shooting unless you make detailed plans ahead of time, which I rarely do as after all the grows I’ve built I find it easier to plan the major design to fit and work out the details as I go.

Last thing to mention is that I used a lot of lap joints when building this instead of simple butt joints overlapped and screwed together.  It takes a bit more time but is more structural when using smaller wood like 1×3’s, if I was using 2×4’s I tend to just use simple butt joints and keep all the cross bracing inside the frame to make it easy to wrap with poly.

As always don’t hesitate to ask any questions, I’m in a bit of a rush so may have skipped important details.

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[Keith]

Are you making use of the natural light?  Is that why you did it around the window?  Nvm I was scanning and I missed it.  Really good idea.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by Keith.

[Somatek]

Yep, anything I can do to reduce my carbon footprint thinking under the legal context of not needing to hide plants.  The only reason we don’t grow them visibly in windows, like every other house plant, is the laws making the illegal or valuable.  That’s not the case, pot has no real value to most people so why hide when we can take advantage of free light?  Prohibition is gone, why bother still growing like it’s a thing when there could be lower cost, lower input ways to grow?

Plus I like the idea of just having an open plant shelf full of vegging pot plants in a south facing window with supplemental LED lighting above them.  Grows can be as aesthetic and decorative as anything else if done properly instead of an eye sore.

[Keith]

Where I live prohibition still exists.  It’s really just fucking pathetic.  I moved across the country a few years back and I just gotta say I do not enjoy the mentality of the people here at all.  In all facets of life, even down to their driving.  I guarantee you we’ll be one of the last states to change.

[Somatek]

Having grown for over a decade under prohibition I feel you, I use to read about what was happening in Cali after prop 215 and was filled with envy as the local police chief’s compared pot growers to murderers and the PM swore it wouldn’t be legalized.  If it’s any consolation prohibitionists tend to scream the loudest as the laws fall apart, hopefully the same is true and the states legalize it federally (or at least decriminalize it) sooner then later…

It’s night and day once you aren’t afraid of the laws for just being a gardener anymore.  I live in a rough area, meth heads wander the alleyways conducting orchestra’s only they can see (true story from the summer) and I’d never have dreamed of being this bold during prohibition.  Now no one cares unless you’re growing greenhouses full of pot and only then really if you piss off the neighbours enough that they complain.

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