The most effective way to keep spider mites out of your indoor grow room is to turn it into a Closed Grow Environment. This method artificially replaces your natural environment with a “perfect” grow environment.
The theory behind the Closed Grow Environment, is quite simple. You use a combination of air conditioners, humidifiers, Carbon Dioxide Generators, etc. to replicate the qualities of the Great Outdoors only BETTER! The joy behind this method is, not only will your plants grow faster (living in co2 rich air, good temperature etc) but they will also never have to suffer from pests.
If you don’t bring in any outside air, and seperate the outside world from your room with a “clean area” you should have absolutely no problems with insects.
Room Preperation
Closed Grow Environment keeps spider mites away with panda film
- To begin with, take EVERYTHING out of your room. Including: ceiling fans, carpeting, and existing equipment . This will make it easy to work inside your room.
- Next, Remove electirical cover plates. Do not touch any wires on the inside. This step is only done to improve “room appeal” for final product. It is not necessary.
- Cover walls with “panda” film or plastic. This plastic is opaque, being White on one side and black onn the other. This is great for reflecting light back into the room or using as a blackout material over zippers, etc. Cut your Panda Film 12″ long in both directions, height and width. This will allow the plastic to lap, giving you a well sealed room.
- Put WHITE side towards the room!! This will reflect the light back to your plants where you want it.
- Tack Panda Film up with stapples about every 24″ on center in both directions.
- After you have all of the walls covered in Panda Film, cover the ceiling. Allow at least 6″ of lap in all directions.
- Tack up just like the walls.
- Next, Cover the floor with the same Panda Film. This time allow at least 18″ of lap in all directions. This will act like a shower pan and help against water leaks.
- Then, get some 4 inch wide waterproof tape and tape all seams in the plastic. Making the room air tight.
- In front of the entrance door, you should now build a small “room about 3 1/2 feet square. It is easy to do this with the plastic and a couple of 2×4′s. This room is where you should leave your shoes as well as well as put on a lab type coat, to prevent the transport of spider mites or eggs into your closed grow environment.
- Insert a zipper in the wall to your entrance room to allow for access to your main grow room.
- Finally, Re-install the electrical cover plates.
CGE Prep conclusion
Turning your current grow room into a world-class closed grow environment is really quite easy and shouldn’t take very long to d0. In the next part we will describe how to set up your Ventilation. The time spent on your closed grow environment will pay off many times over by keeping bugs such as spider mites out and increase those hard earned yields by providing a perfect environment for your precious plants.
