smell proof grow tent

Smell Proof Grow Tent: How to Keep Smells At Bay In Your Grow

For many starting out in the wonderful word of growing, you’d likely want to buy a smell proof grow tent. It can come as a bit of a surprise that grow tents themselves are not smell proof.

Given that many of them look like the kind of tent you’d see at the entrance to a shady government base in a sci-fi movie, this misconception is understandable.

While cannabis continues to be made legal in a growing number of regions across the world, there is still the matter of odor. The smell of marijuana is potent, and not necessarily something you want permeating your home. Fortunately, there are ways to cut that smell down, and even keep it contained entirely.

In this post, we are going to explore the different ways you can smell proof your grow tent. If you haven’t set up your grow yet, we recommend taking a look at our top 3 grow tent kits for beginners.

Alright, let’s get down to how to create your very own smell proof grow tent.

Why Manage The Odor At All?

Not everyone is concerned with the pungent aroma that marijuana produces, but there are other reasons you might want to get a handle on the smell coming from your plants.

For one thing, there are still plenty of parts of the world where growing cannabis is not legal, and even in some places where it is legal to consume, laws regarding distribution can cause headaches for aspiring growers.

The strong smell that can emanate from your growing tent might attract unwanted attention, even if you are perfectly within your legal rights.

Another reason is the health of the plants themselves. A particularly strong odor can actually be a sign of poor health. Granted, you will always get some smell, but if it is overwhelming, it is often a sign that something is amiss.

Finally, there are your neighbors to think about. Even if you are growing in a region where there is no question that you are within the law, there is still the matter of being considerate. You may not mind the smell, but that doesn’t mean your neighbors will be pleased if their back garden starts smelling like a cannabis farm.

How to Create a Smell Proof Grow Tent

So now we get to the meat of the post. As the title suggests, the methods and tips we are going to mention here are intended for growers using a grow tent specifically. Some of the advice is transferable to other setups (mostly enclosed ones) so, grow tent or not, there may be something you can use.

Create Proper Air Circulation

Having adequate air circulation in your grow tent is useful in combating overly strong odors on two fronts. The first of which is the fact that excess heat and stale air can cause the aroma to grow stronger, two things that air circulation can deal with.

The other issue is one of build-up. While a grow tent may not be smell proof, it does hold the odor in to some degree, and that odor will build-up over time, turning your grow tent into a big storage container for cannabis smell.

The smell will leak out, of course, but when you next open the tent, all that pent-up odor will rush out in one go. And marijuana smell is remarkably good at spreading.

Use Air Purifiers

Another unfortunate trait of marijuana odor is its ability to cling to things. Once the smell of cannabis gets into your clothes, for example, it will smell quite potent for hours, even days after. The same can be said of the surfaces around your plants, including you when you tend to them.

Having an air purifier will help to mitigate this by continually working to keep the air clean, which also has the nice side effect of creating a cleaner environment for your plants.

If you want to be thorough, you could also use surface purifiers occasionally for a completely smell proof grow tent. one of the best air purifiers for grow rooms can be found here.

Properly Manage Temperature & Humidity

We mentioned above that excessive temperature contributes to a stronger odor. While proper air circulation helps in this regard, the best way to handle the temperature factor is to ensure that the temperature in your grow tent is properly managed, and the same goes for the humidity.

This is more complex than simply keeping a steady temperature, as the ideal conditions for your plants will change as they move through their growth cycle. Managing these factors is a win-win, because you reduce the odor and create an optimal environment for your plants to grow in.

smell proof carbon filter

Use Carbon Filters

As we mentioned above, you can’t prevent all cannabis odor, even with the most optimal growing conditions, but you can reduce how much of that odor gets out. Using carbon filters will do just that.

These filters attract the tiny particles that are responsible for the smell being carried around, and can cut down a vast majority of the smell down.

Carbon filters will give you the best chance at having a smell proof grow tent and we recommend this full kit here.

Create An Air Lock

Okay, not a literal air lock, but a separation between your growing space and the outside world. If you have your growing tent in the corner of your garage, for example, it will be difficult to keep whatever odor is being generated from getting into the garage.

But if you have a sealed off area-perhaps even a second, larger tent-and you have some odor-cutting methods in that space (carbon filters, air fresheners, etc.), even if you only turn them on when you are in the space, it will significantly cut down the amount of odor that can get from your grow tent to the wider world beyond.

Final Thoughts

One of the main things to remember about cannabis is that, even in regions where it is perfectly legal to grow your own, not everybody is a fan of the smell. If you live in an urban environment, it’s simply more responsible to create a smell proof grow tent.

In much the same way that you wouldn’t blow cigarette smoke in a non-smoker’s face, it is not fair to subject those around you to the pungent aroma from the contents of your grow tent.

As it turns out, many of the methods for cutting down the odor from cannabis plants also benefit the plants themselves, so it is in your best interests to keep that smell under control.

Failing all that, buy yourself a remote property where the nearest neighbor is miles away and grow to your heart’s content!