Grow tents are really helpful for indoor gardening, but it can be difficult to find a small grow tent if your space is a little tight. Often they’re large, bulky, and can take up most of the room. We’re covering our top picks for grow tents if your in a small space, as well as how they work and why you may want one!
There’s a bit of a misconception that you need a lot of space to use a grow tent effectively. Grow tents can be effectively used anywhere – even in a space as small as a closet!
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What is a grow tent, and why use one?
Grow tents are a more niche piece of equipment for indoor gardeners – so you might be wondering what one is! Essentially, it is a tent that you can grow plants in indoors.
People choose to use a grow tent when they want to grow indoors, but need to create a specific environment for their plants to thrive. Its particularly helpful when trying to grow fruits and vegetables indoors because it allows a lot of reflective light to reach the plant, as well as a few other benefits that we’ll cover in the next few sections.
Grow your Plants Year round
The main benefit of using a grow tent is that it allows you to grow your plants year round, regardless of weather. Some plants can be grown indoors without a tent. However, with some light sensitive plants (like tomatoes) its easier to grow them in a controlled environment like a grow tent.
Reflective Light
For indoor plants, getting enough light can be a challenge. Grow tents often have a reflective coating on the inside of them to ensure that your plants get all the light they need. The reflective material also prevents burns from hot lights.
Kickstarts the Seed Germination process
Grow tents are often used for germinating seeds. Because you have total control of the environment (light, temperature, air, etc.) you can more easily ensure that your seeds are getting everything that they need to successfully germinate.
Top Picks for Small Grow Tents
Best Overall Pick: CoolGrow Hydroponic Tent
The CoolGrow tent is our number one pick for a few reasons. It comes in a variety of sizes, allowing you to pick the best size customized for your space. The smallest size being 24″x24″x36″. It has a highly reflective mylar lining, which is great for ensuring your plants get tons of light.
Its frame is made of metal, making it sturdy and more durable than other models with plastic frames. It also has key features like an easy viewing window, and a removable waterproof floor tray to help catch soil and fallen leaves.
With over 2,000 reviews and over 4.5 star rating, this is our number one pick for a grow tent in a small space.
Runner Up Pick: VivoSun Tent
Our runner up pick for a smaller grow tent is the VivoSun grow tent. You may recognize Vivosun from some of our other recommendations, such as grow bags, and its because they’re one of the more well known brands for this niche of the garden industry.
This particular grow tent only has one size option of 30″x18″x36, however VivoSun offers other models in additional dimensions too.
This grow tent has a lot of the same high quality features that the Coolgrow tent has. Its made of thick material and is coated in a reflective mylar coating to ensure all light is reflected back to your plants. It also has an easy observation window and is noted by many reviewers as being easy and fast to setup.
Best Premium Pick: Vivosun Tent + Grow Light Combo
As you may have noticed, our first two picks do not include either grow lights or ventilation systems. When looking for a tent for a small space, its often easier to buy the components individually so that you can ensure each item is tailored to the size that you need. Often larger kits that come with ventilation systems, grow lights, and more are bigger and will take up much of the room.
This kit from VivoSun is a moderately sized grow tent that comes with a grow light as well. There are two size options – one 2ftx4ft and one 4ftx4ft. Each is made with the same high quality material with a reflective coating, and have over 150 ratings with a 4.5 star average review.
If you’re interested in a kit that comes with more accessories, but need to balance it with a small grow tent we recommend starting here and then adding a ventilation system to the tent.
Other Option: VivoSun Triangle Grow Tent
Our last option for consideration is for those looking to fit a tent into a corner of a room or closet. There aren’t many options that meet this function, but the VivoSun Triangle Grow Tent creates the perfect caddy corner tent. There’s an extra large viewing flap, giving you an expansive view of the plants inside. As with all other models its coated in reflective material, and made of high quality durable fabric that will last.
Frequently Asked Questions
What vegetables should I plant in my grow tent?
We recommend planting fruits and vegetables in your grow tent such as tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms, green beans. Really the options are endless! Whatever you’re interested in eating is where we’d start. Grow tents provide an environment that you can tailor to whatever your plant needs, so it gives you a wide range of options as far as what to plant.
Do I need a fan for circulation?
Yes, you’ll want to add a ventilation system, or a fan to your grow tent. You can purchase kits that have fans included. However, if you’re looking specifically for a smaller grow tent then we recommend purchasing these components separately since you’ll have more options to pick when buying the tent on its own.
Do I need to buy my own grow light?
Yes, you’ll want to add a grow light to your tent. Without a light, your plants are living in darkness which will miss one of the primary benefits of having a grow tent. Remember though, you dont want to leave your grow lights on 24/7 as it’s important to give plants a break in the photosynthesis process. For more info – check out our post on how long to leave grow lights on.
