When gardening indoors, you are trying to replicate favorable growing conditions and a stable environment that are found outdoors. One aspect that is most often overlooked or sacrificed in an effort to keep costs down, even though it is right behind lighting in importance, is ventilation. Proper ventilation is the key to having a successful indoor garden, and skimping on ventilation could spell disaster. When creating an environment indoors, you need to understand that you have to provide the elements that the Earth provides naturally. Earth, light, and wind are all needed to produce a healthy garden. This is the first of a two-part article explaining how to create the wind in your indoor garden.

There are a number of places to begin, but let's first cover the immediate benefit to the plants themselves. Using a couple of circulating fans can provide the wind for your indoor garden. Having a gentle breeze makes plants stronger and thicker which allows a plant to grow taller without support. Just remember, you want your plants to sway in the breeze not get blown away by it. A healthy plant is able to fight off disease and pest infestations. Another benefit of this is that most of your garden pests do not like the air movement. Most garden insects like plants in stagnant air because the skin of the plant is much thinner and easier to eat through.

The next level of air movement comes in the way of intake and exhaust fans. Over time the plants use up the available CO2 in the air and will need more. Bringing in fresh air from the outside will raise the concentration of carbon dioxide back to around 400 parts per million (PPM). CAP valueline fans are one of our most popular styles of fans providing good power for an affordable price. Exhaust fans also help you keep the temperature and humidity under control. Keeping the humidity stable keeps the dry air from drawing moisture out of the plants or keeps mold and mildew from forming due to excessive moisture. Most plants like a humidity between 45% and 55%. Temperature is also very important because plants will go dormant or die if the room is to cold and whither under high temperatures. Keeping the room within 65 and 85 degrees is an ideal environment. Another little hint is if the room is comfortable to you it will be comfortable to your plants.

Fans are rated in cubic feet per minute or CFM, to figure out how many CFM's you need; start by determining the size of your room ({L}ength times {W}idth times {H}eight equals total volume {cubic feet}. Once you know the volume of your room you will need to get a fan that will vent the total volume in three minutes or less. A room with dimensions of 10' x 10' x 8' has a grand total of 800 cubic feet. To find out how many CFM's it takes to do the room in three minutes divide by 3. 800 divided by 3 equals 267 CFM. For this we would recommend a CAP valueline blower. If you have high temperatures or humidity you may choose to go with something that vents much faster, such as the CAP valueline 6 (435 CFM) blower. You ultimately want to get your exhaust fans to a point where they only have to come on for a few minutes each hour to maintain a steady temperature and humidity, while still keeping the air fresh. DH offers a heatstat, coolstat, and a climate controller for use with these fans to help maintain environmental conditions.

Having fans that are right for your room will take you a huge step closer to an environment similar to that of the outside world. You will be able to have a garden all year long with all of the benefits, and none of the drawbacks, such as snow, wind, and freezing temperatures.
In the second, and final, part of this series, we will go over the advanced techniques of CO2 enrichment and odor control. Happy Gardening!