I’m Kayla. I grow stuff inside my small city apartment. Herbs, salad greens, and the cutest cherry tomatoes. I built a DIY grow tent in a spare closet last winter. It wasn’t pretty. It worked anyway. And yes, my cat tried to nap inside it like it was a tiny spa. For a more detailed play-by-play of the measurements and materials I leaned on, check out this step-by-step grow tent build that sparked most of my planning.
Why I Didn’t Buy a Ready Tent
I wanted a weird size. My closet is 27 inches wide. Most tents are 24 or 36. Close, but not quite. I also like to tinker. I like tape, zip ties, and making things fit just right. Plus, I wanted to keep the light in and the mess out. My shoes didn’t love sharing space with wet soil.
If you’re plotting your own build, you might also skim DIY Grow Tent Kits: Your Ultimate Guide to a Custom Indoor Garden in Europe—it outlines kit components you can hack or resize for odd closets like mine.
Did I save a ton of money? Not really. But I made a tent that fit the closet like a glove, and that felt good.
What I Used (Real Stuff I Bought)
- Frame: 3/4" Schedule 40 PVC pipe, cut to size, with T and elbow joints
- Skin: 5 mil panda film (white inside, black outside)
- Door: VIVOSUN stick-on zipper (the orange one)
- Tape: HVAC foil tape and big black Gorilla tape
- Light: Spider Farmer SF-1000 LED (I also tried a Mars Hydro TS1000; both were fine)
- Air: One clip fan plus a small AC Infinity USB fan pointed across the canopy
- Power: Kasa smart plug on a timer for the light
- Monitor: Govee Bluetooth temp/humidity sensor
- Pots: Three 3-gallon fabric pots, a boot tray for runoff, and basic potting mix with perlite
I also used scissors, a PVC cutter (helps a lot), and a ruler that I lost twice under the couch. For a deeper dive into reflective films, zippers, and other grow-tent odds and ends, I leaned on this breakdown of DIY grow tent materials while shopping.
The Build: Messy, Fast, And Weirdly Fun
I measured the closet and made a PVC rectangle on the floor first. Then I added legs and a top frame. Think kids’ blocks, but taller. I added one crossbar on top to hang the light. I should’ve used two. The light bowed the PVC a bit. My fix? Zip ties. Lots of them. Charming? No. Solid? Yep.
The panda film went around the frame like a big jacket. I left extra at the bottom so it sat on the floor. That kept drip water from sneaking out. I sealed seams with foil tape, then covered those seams with black tape to stop tiny light leaks. The stick-on zipper made a door down the front. It held great for about three weeks. Then the glue got fussy near the bottom. I cleaned it with isopropyl and pressed it back. That helped.
Light leaks? Sure. Some. I ran the room lights off at night and patched the sparkly spots with more tape. It looked like a quilt. A shiny silver quilt.
My First Grow Inside It
I started with:
- Basil (Genovese)
- Lettuce (Buttercrunch)
- Tiny cherry tomatoes (Tiny Tim, the dwarf one)
The light ran 16 hours on, 8 off. The Kasa plug made that easy. Temps sat around 75–80°F. Humidity was mostly 50–60%, which greens like. My little Govee sensor told me when I was slipping. I don’t chase fancy numbers, but I care about one thing: plants perk up or pout. This setup kept them perky.
Timeline:
- Lettuce: baby leaves in 14 days, real salads by week 3–4
- Basil: first big harvest at week 4; I made pesto twice that month
- Tomatoes: flowers at week 5, first red fruit by week 8; got about 30 cherry tomatoes by week 10
I watered every 2–3 days, slow and steady, with a small pitcher. Someday I might automate it with a tiny drip rig—something like this clever DIY irrigation system I’ve bookmarked for round two. The boot tray caught drips. My floor said thanks.
A tiny tech note: I aimed the light around 12 inches above the lettuce and 18 above the tomatoes. If you like numbers, my cheap meter showed about 350–450 PPFD at the leaf tops. That just means the light was strong but not harsh. The leaves didn’t curl, so I knew I was close.
Sounds and Smells
Noise was a soft hum. Like a fridge two rooms away. You forget it’s there. The tent kept smells inside pretty well. My place smelled like a fresh salad after I opened the door, which I liked. My friend said it felt like cracking open a warm greenhouse. She also asked if it was a photo booth. I laughed and said, “Only if you’re a tomato.”
What I Loved
- It fit my closet perfectly. No awkward gaps.
- The light was bright, but the film kept it in. My bedroom stayed dark at night.
- Harvests were steady. A bowl of lettuce every other day felt huge in winter.
- It was cheap to run. The SF-1000 sips power at 60% brightness.
- It scratched that tinkerer itch. Tape, measure, patch, repeat.
What Bugged Me
- The zipper’s lower edge needed babysitting. Heat and gravity, you know?
- PVC flexed with the light. I added more braces later.
- Panda film tears if you bump it with a sharp pot handle. I patched with foil tape.
- It didn’t look “clean.” Store tents look tidy; mine looked handmade. Because it was.
- Heat built up if the door stayed shut all day. I learned to crack it an inch during long light cycles.
Problems I Ran Into (And Fixes That Worked)
When I hit snags mid-build, I skimmed the concise how-to articles on Service Center Team and came away with a couple of neat fixes I hadn’t thought of.
- Sagging top bar: I added a second PVC crossbar and zip-tied the light to both. Rock steady.
- Peeling zipper: I cleaned the area, warmed it with a hair dryer, re-pressed, then stitched the ends to the film with fishing line. Not pretty. Super strong.
- Light leaks in corners: Foil tape under black tape. Double layer worked best.
- Water spill: I put a bigger boot tray down and slid a yoga mat under it. No more panic.
- Fan dead zone: I clipped a second tiny fan low, aimed up. Leaves stopped drooping.
Cost, Straight Up
- PVC, joints, film, tape, zipper: about $45–60
- Light: $120–160 (depends on sales)
- Fans and sensor: $25–40
- Misc (zip ties, tray, cords): $15
Total for me: around $230. A nice 2×4 store tent plus a light can run more, but not by much. So no, this isn’t a giant money saver. It’s a size-and-fun win.
Safety Stuff I Won’t Skip Again
- GFCI outlet or adapter near water. Worth it.
- Drip loops on cords so water can’t run into plugs.
- No stacking power strips. One good surge strip is better.
- Let the LED driver breathe; don’t bury it under the film.
- Keep the tent off heaters. Seems obvious, but I’ll say it.
I’m also mindful of digital safety. I snap progress photos all the time, but I’m picky about where they end up because private images can spread faster than you’d think—just look at some notorious sexting scandals that started with a single photo shared to the wrong person; that article lays out how quickly things can spiral and offers concrete tips for keeping your own pictures under control.
Little Things That Made It Better
- Weather stripping around the door edge cut light leaks and drafts.
- Ratchet hangers for the light made height changes easy when the tomatoes shot up.
- Fabric pots dried evenly. Plastic pots got soggy.
- A simple weekly wipe-down kept gnats away. Cinnamon sprinkle on soil helped, too.
- A quick homemade magnesium foliar spray keeps leaves deep green; I followed this hands-on recipe and it worked like a charm.
If you’re in the Cambridge area and want to swap grow-tent hacks with fellow plant nerds over a relaxed drink, the cozy meetup spot at [Tryst Cambridge](https://onen