How To Build A Grow Room In A Shed? – Grower’s Guide
Many farmers are interested in cultivating their plants indoors. However, planting indoors requires thorough plans and preparations, arranging the grow room and all the necessary equipments.
Indoor growing has proved to be an effective and organized method for minimizing the cost of farming. Compact design and strategic planning, with suitable equipment will create an efficient and cost-effective grow room.
Did you know that you can build an efficient grow room in your shed? Creating the perfect grow room would require you to consider salient points.
Factors to Consider When Building Grow Room in a Shed
Grow Room Design
The design and structure of your grow room are crucial to the performance of your plants. A detailed drawing and sketch will ensure that you construct the shed in an organized manner.
Utilizing every space available to erect your grow room should be the priority of your plan.
Before purchasing all the equipments needed in the grow room, the design needs to be implemented to accommodate all the equipment. Electricity consumption in the shed should also be considered. This would help prevent any sort of fire outbreak.
Also, incorporate the plumbing system in your blueprint for ease of water source distribution on the farm.
Make sure to avoid including excessive materials that can infest the farm with pests and anything that may be harmful to the crops. When building your grow room, it is recommended that you list all the items that will be needed.
Light Leaks
Planting crops indoors with the help of artificial lighting is the main purpose of growing plants indoors to produce food. Therefore, the room setup should be designed in such a way that the rays of the sun are not allowed inside.
This can be achieved by using light leaks and opaque tapes to seal every grow room area to prevent light from penetrating inside.
Also, make sure light doesn’t enter the grow room by turning off the grow lights. This will help you to see areas that are not sealed correctly.
Reflective Surfaces
Every grow room needs reflective surfaces to increase the effect of the light on the plants. Reflective surfaces help to enhance the productivity of the plants when the position and arrangement are made appropriately.
Some reflective surfaces that you can use include:
1. Mylar
This is the most effective reflective surface available on the market. It has the efficiency of reflecting over 95% of light rays that fall on it.
Mylar is produced in varying forms; however, the form made from aluminum has a more reflective effect. It is usually placed flat on the walls of the grow room and then held firmly by tapes. This way, they reflect more light rays.
Patterned mylar is the most effective one since it does not produce hot spots that may focus too much light and burn the plants.
Always make sure not to touch mylar often since it easily tears when there is too much contact.
2. White Paint
Using white paint as a reflective surface in your grow room can be a better substitute if you intend to save money or if you have a large grow room to cover.
Though the market price is low, white paint reflects about 85% of light when compared to metallic or silver coverings. Moreover, it creates no hotspots since it does not have light-absorbing qualities.
The downside to using paint is that it does not provide insulation or cooling as with other materials. Also, you will need to layer a fungicide over paint to protect some plants that are prone to damage since paint does not have protective qualities.
3. Emergency Blankets
Emergency blankets are another type of reflective surface to incorporate into your grow room. They are the most affordable reflective surfaces you can purchase on the market.
Emergency blankets have reflective efficiency of about 70%. However, this reflective surface forms a hotspot due to its light-absorbing properties, and this can cause the plants to deform.
To avoid this, make sure that the walls are flat before placing emergency blankets to limit excessive light leakage.
4. Grow Lights
When building an indoor shed for your plants, you need to provide light which is vital for the plants to survive. This is an important aspect in the building of grow rooms.
Grow lights are different from the usual household lights. The lights that are used to grow plants are expected to offer a full spectrum.
Some grow lights you can choose when building a grow room include:
- Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL): These lights are mainly used when you are cultivating seeds. They do not provide enough light necessary to support full growth of plants.
- High-Pressure Sodium (HPS) Lights: The HPS lights offers enough light intensity in the orange spectrum and they are more effective during the flowering stage of plants.
- Metal Halide (MH) Lights: This light is recommended for use during the vegetation phase. It produces sufficient light in the blue spectrum.
- Light-emitting Diode (LED) Lights: This is the best grow light available in the market. It is suitable for every phase of growth be it flowering or vegetation because they produce an adequate quantity of light. LED lights are also energy efficient. This grow light does not produce heat inside the grow room because it does not get hot when in use.
The installation and positioning of the grow lights when building the shed is vital to the plant’s growth. You can use a hood to concentrate the rays of light on the plants directly. When using metal halide and High-pressure sodium lights, it is advised that you use hoods with coolers because they are likely to heat up fast.
Our Best Grow Lights
Electrical Timer
Electrical timer helps to turn on and off lights at the set time automatically. Probably, you may have your mind elsewhere in other tasks and completely forgot to turn off your grow room lights. This is where an electrical timer comes into play. It helps regulate the hours of light required by the plants in each phase of their growth.
Ventilation System
At some point, you will need air circulation in the grow room to remove excess heat. It is crucial to establish a suitable ventilation system that regulates the CO2 in building your growing shed.
Ventilation helps maintain the humidity and clean air within the shed. It also reduces the risk of your plants having disease occurrences. Some components of a standard ventilation system include:
- Oscillating Fan: Oscilating fan helps in distribution of air in the room to prevent the buildup of hotspots within the shed that may affect the growth of the plants.
- Carbon Filter: Some plants can discharge unpleasant smells. Therefore, using a carbon filter will help limit or possibly prevent unwanted smells.
- Exhaust Fan: To enhance plant growth and purify air in the shed, it is necessary to introduce fresh air into the grow room. Installing an exhaust fan will help release the air every 3 – 4 minutes and maintaining fresh CO2 in the shed for plant growth.
- Air intake: An air intake valve or suction pipe is required for an adequately ventilated grow room. This is to replace the old air discharged by the exhaust fan.
Thermometer, Humidity meter, and pH meter
These meters help measure the temperature, humidity, and PH level within the shed. You should have these measuring devices when considering building a grow room so that you can regulate the parameters.
Water Supply
There should be channels for accessible water flow to reach all the plants in the grow room. The water supplied to the plants should also be carefully monitored, it should not contain excess minerals as this can damage the plants.
You can add certain chemicals to boost the acidity or alkalinity of the water as it may be required. If the water is too acidic, you can use lime. When high in alkaline, you can add phosphoric acid to the water to regulate the PH level.
Why Should You Build Your Grow Room In A Shed?
Are there any benefits of arranging your grow room in a shed? Yes, of course, there are reasons why building a grow room in a shed is beneficial to you. Some of these are:
- Available storage: An additional storage room is the most glaring advantage of growing your plants in a shed. Some sheds can have extra spaces to store both your garden materials, equipment and other objects. You can even store your barbecue items in the shed. This extra space to keep things creates more room for extra stuff in your garage and living space.
- Increased property value: The net worth of your home increases with an added storage room outside. So, if at any given time you would like to sell your house, make sure to maintain the shed properly. As doing this will bring you attractive offers and serve as good investment in the long run.
- Space for activities: A shed can also provide additional space for other activities. For instance, you can have your barbecues parties here.
- A summerhouse: Another benefit of having a shed is that it can serve as an extra room for guests during summer vacations.
Conclusion
If you need to build a shed grow room for your plants, you can build a productive one when you follow the steps outlined above. Integrating the listed equipment will optimally enhance the growth of plants. However, it is advised that you use the LED lights and the aluminum form of Mylar in your shed; since they are more suitable.
Also, you need to make sure that you maintain good hygiene and a cleanliness routine in the grow room. Avoid littering the shed with materials that inhibit the growth of the plants. Disinfect the walls of the room. This also helps to control pests, insects, and diseases. Similarly, try not to use carpets in the grow room. This breeds mold and dust that can harm you and the plants.
You can use a hard floor that will be easy to maintain, even with water spills. When building your grow room, ensure proximity from the site to a good water supply and constant electricity supply.