Grow tents are a popular method of growing different plants indoors, including fruits, vegetables and herbs. Grow tents offer you better control over the environment of your growing space, ensuring your plants stay healthy and happy. Not every plant is well suited to indoor grow tents but many are.
There is a wide variety of plants you can grow in a grow tent including mushrooms, bell peppers, green beans, microgreens, lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, different herbs, and dwarf trees. The ability to monitor and change the environment inside your grow tent allows you to create a grow space suited to the plant varieties in your garden.
Below is a short list of vegetables and fruit that you can easily grow in your grow tent. We will also cover any special requirements you need to provide for certain plants to ensure they produce delicious food for you and your family.
Should I Use Soil Or Hydroponics In A Grow Tent
You can successfully grow plants in a grow tent using pots of soil or by using different hydroponic systems. This includes nutrient film technique, deep water culture, aeroponic towers and other methods. Get more details on using Deep Water Culture (DWC) for growing at home.
I use full spectrum LED grow lights that cost very little to run but provide all the proper lighting conditions for the growth and flowering cycles of my fruits and veggies.
When growing in soil you will need to use a lightweight soil that drains well and regularly add either liquid nutrients or dry fertilizer to maintain healthy growing conditions for your plants. Growing in soil does risk the chance of insect problems occuring in the tent as well as mold, algae or mildew issues.
I use a Tower Garden vertical garden in my grow tent to get more grow density in my indoor garden. The tower holds more than 20 plants and operates on an automatic timer that provides the water and nutrients for the plants automatically. With the automatic lighting system I only have to top up the water reservoir and harvest my food when it’s ready.
Mushrooms Of All Types
If you are a beginner grow tent user and this is the first time you are using a grow tent, then one of the best plant options for you to start growing is mushrooms.
Mushrooms are extremely easy to grow and care for, and they will allow you to become comfortable with and get used to using a grow tent before you try to grow a more demanding plant.
Mushrooms are also fast-growing plants, which will allow you to have a full grow tent garden within a few days of planting the mushrooms. There are a wide variety of mushrooms that you can choose from to grow in your tent, as all mushrooms will do well in a grow tent.
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Tomato Plants
Tomatoes are a great option to grow in your grow tent, however they do require more care than a few other plants on this list. Growing tomatoes will require hand pollination since there will be no insects or natural pollinators in your tent. Pollinating tomatoes is as easy as lightly shaking the flowers or keeping a fan blowing the pollen around.
Determinate or bush tomato plants are smaller and fit into a grow tent best, especially smaller cherry and grape varieties. They are well suited to growing in a pot or hydroponic bucket system in a grow tent.
Indeterminate tomatoes continue to grow and require a trellis to support the stalks and weight of the fruit. Indeterminate varieties will eventually outgrow even the largest grow tents and block out the lights from the smaller plants. Believe me, I’ve done it lol.
Check out my recent article on using full spectrum LED lighting to save money on buying and operating your indoor garden.
Microgreens
Microgreens are a great addition to salads, sandwiches, smoothies or just as a garnish on your plate. They pack a ton of nutrition value for their small size and can be grown to harvest in a couple of days to a week.
Microgreens can fit in any corner or along the sidewall of your grow tent on shelves because they don’t require much light, just a healthy dose of residual light or a small inexpensive fluorescent or LED tube will be enough to have a consistent harvest.
The nice thing about growing greens is that they don’t require any pollination like flowering fruits and veggies do so they are almost a set and forget type of crop. But don’t forget to water them!
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Bell Peppers, Banana and Hot Peppers
Bell peppers (capsicums) are some of the easiest fruiting plants to grow in a grow tent, because they enjoy a warm environment and are simple to pollinate by hand.
Peppers do not grow fast however and typically take 65 to 95 days to reach a harvest, similar to banana peppers. Sweet Chocolate bell peppers grow a bit faster and reach maturity at 57 days.
There is a large variety of peppers that you can choose from including jalapeno, banana, sweet italian, piments, habanero and many others. All grow to different sizes, shapes and colors to give your grow tent a nice variation of color.
You can grow all varieties of peppers from seed, or you can go and buy some seedlings to start your plant collection. Both options will do well in a grow tent. Opting for seedlings will save you a few days as you do not need to germinate the seeds yourself.
However, this could limit the varieties available to you, and you will not be able to buy them in the winter. With seeds, you can plant as many different types of peppers as you want, and you can grow them in winter or get them started inside for a spring transplant outdoors.
Find out more about the health benefits of growing your own hydroponic vegetables at home
Green Beans
Green beans are good plants to grow in grow tents as they are fast-growing and do not require much care to grow quality produce. Planting against a wall will make good use of the vertical space in your grow tent.
With green beans, you will need a medium to a large-sized grow tent as they can grow quite tall, and you will need to have trellis for the beans to climb. It’s important to prune your plants regularly to control their size and increase their yield.
Beans are easily started from seed directly sewn into a good-quality potting soil. The potting soil will provide your beans with more nutrients for a longer time and you can add fertilizer throughout the growing cycle. This will further cut down the care your bean plants need from you.
Strawberries
Strawberries are the easiest and most rewarding fruit I’ve ever grown indoors because they are small plants but put out a lot of berries on each plant. I personally grow strawberries in my Tower Garden vertical tower but they can easily be grown in soil or a nutrient film hydroponic setup.
Strawberries are simple to hand pollinate, just give the flowers a light squeeze once they are fully open and that will be enough contact to start the berries development.
Another great reason to grow strawberries is that they self propagate by sending off runners. If they are planted in soil the runners will naturally become a new strawberry plant. If you are growing in a hydroponics system it’s simple to cut off the runners and root them in a glass of water before replanting them back into the system.
Propagating strawberries is a delicate balance because a plant that is creating runners will divert energy from fruit production into the runners so if you want to maximize the fruit yield you’ll need to cut off the runners when they form.
Here are some great options for growing strawberries in your indoor garden
Green Onions And Shallots
Green onions and shallots are a common ingredient in many dishes and are best when they are picked fresh from your home garden.The smaller varieties of these plants are easy to grow in a grow tent and because they wont require a deep pot of soil like larger varieties.
When growing shallots in a grow tent, you need to space them 6-8 inches apart if you want to have large bulbs but can pack them more densely for smaller bulbs. Green onions can be planted closer together and harvesting every second plant will create room for the others to grow larger over time.
Onions and shallots need to be planted in a pot that has a good amount of drainage holes. Onions need space and do not like their soil being too moist.
You can grow your onions from seed, or you can replant the root section you cut off store bought green onions and shallots to start your onion garden. When the green onion stalks are 6 inches tall, you can harvest your onions.
Pak Choy
Pak Choy and other choy varieties grow well inside grow tents much like most greens. These leafy and hardy plants can be harvested by the leaf as you need it keeping it fresh for tasty asian stir frys, rice bowls and any other healthy dishes.
I like Pak Choy because it is a smaller plant than Bok Choy, making it easier to pick smaller portions for fresh cooking. Choys’ also grow quickly and are easy to propagate from seed whether you are growing in soil, coco choir, or rockwool.
Lettuce
Lettuce is one of the most used and most popular ingredients globally, as everyone uses lettuce in salads, sandwiches or sometimes even as a garnish to make a meal look more appealing. I have had great success growing romaine, iceberg, and leaf lettuces in my grow tent in my home office.
Lettuces are well suited to growing in vertical growing towers or a stacked hydroponic setup like nutrient film technique (NFT) made from PVC pipe.
You don’t need high powered lighting for growing lettuces or other greens because they don’t flower and they are ready for harvest very quickly making them a good choice for indoor growing.
Here’s a how some more information on using the nutrient film technique (NFT) for growing indoors.
Kale
Kale is another great leafy green that is incredibly easy to grow in a grow tent. You can grow kale alongside your lettuce as they generally require the same care, with kale only needing a bit more space to grow.
I prefer to grow red kale because it is more tender than green kale and adds a nice coloring to my grow tent garden. Kale is much more nutritious than lettuce and goes great in smoothies.
Adding kale to your smoothies will give your smoothies a boost of vitamins and minerals that can help your body function better. So, you should grow this leafy green in your grow tent if you can.
Spinach
Spinach is a great leafy green that has many uses in the kitchen. There is a wide variety of spinach that you can choose from to grow in your grow tent. You can grow all the different types with your lettuce and kale, as spinach requires the same care as these other leafy greens.
Spinach is a fast-growing plant, so you will not need to wait long before you can do your first harvest. If you want to grow spinach in your grow tent, it is recommended that you grow it from seed rather than seedlings, as they seem to grow better this way.
Swiss Chard
Swiss chard is related to spinach, so this plant tends to grow quite well in a grow tent too. Swiss chard is a bit hardier than lettuce, kale, and spinach plants, making this plant perfect for beginners as they offer some room for mistakes without the plant dying.
Swiss chard is also easy to grow and look after in a grow tent, needing the same care as lettuce or spinach.
Different Herbs
Herbs are great plants to have growing in your grow tent as they grow fast and offer you many different options of plants to grow. Herbs that you can choose from to grow in your grow tent include:
- Rosemary
- Basil
- Parsley
- Mint
- Thyme
All these herbs are used in many different recipes worldwide and offer a fresh taste to any dish, including some drinks. These plants are easy to grow, but you do need to watch out for mint, as this herb tends to take over and spread easily if not pruned back regularly.
Dwarf Trees
For growers who love to experiment with grow tent gardening, small trees like the Dwarf Cavendish Banana, Dwarf Meyer Lemon and Leprechaun Dwarf Nectarine are fun options. These small trees are able to be grown in pots and will need some pruning to keep under control.
Fruit tree varieties are best suited to specific hardiness zones so choosing one that suits the environment of the rest of the plants in your grow tent garden requires a bit of planning. Choosing a self pollinating variety of fruit tree is important to get a harvest, your tree provider or nursery will be able to tell you whether one tree is sufficient or you need more.
Conclusion
Many different varieties of veggies, fruits and herbs are well suited to growing in a grow tent using soil in pots or a hydroponic growing method. Here’s a list of 12 common plant problems when growing indoors and how to fix them.
Whether you are growing indoors year round or just using a tent indoors to get an early start to your outdoor growing season, Using a grow tent is a great way to create the perfect growing environment for your plants while keeping your home from becoming a jungle.