Your plants are screaming for room to breathe. Here’s the thing--all indoor gardens need ventilation. When plants are growing outdoors, they have much better access to airflow than in a closed grow room. But there are plenty of reasons why you may want to grow indoors, so you just have to simulate that airflow for your indoor garden. Not convinced? Here are 4 reasons your plants need ventilation.

Maintain adequate CO2 levels

Properly ventilating your grow room helps to move fresh air into the room. And the new air that blows in will have more CO2. That’s because your plants absorb CO2 throughout the day, and the levels become depleted. But they need steady supplies of this gas in order to grow to their full potential. By maintaining airflow, you also help to balance the CO2 level that your indoor garden needs.

Additionally, at night plants tend to absorb more oxygen instead of CO2. Because of this it is essential to maintain balanced airflow rather than only supplementing CO2 levels in the grow room.

Prevent mold and fungus

A room that lacks ventilation and is full of plants will quickly become humid. There is an ideal humidity level for indoor gardens because plants need moisture, but too much and they become host to many varieties of mold and fungus. These infestations can quickly destroy your plants and any harvests you hoped to collect from them. Ventilating helps to balance the moisture of the room by bringing in drier air. You can also keep a hygrometer to measure your garden’s humidity levels.

Providing airflow that keeps humidity levels in check can also help to prevent pest infestations. It’s more difficult for gnats and mites to take hold on plants that are getting a breeze.

Balance temperature levels

You most likely use some kind of grow lights to encourage photosynthesis for your plants. Grow lights, however, produce not only light, but heat as well. Adding ventilation fans will disperse the heat so it’s not beating down right on your plants. But the sun beats down on outdoor plants, right? Yes, and outdoor plants can get too much sun as well, but they are less likely to because sunlight is dispersed rather than pointed directly at a plant the way a grow light is. When temps get too high, your plants will reduce their rates of photosynthesis rather than maintaining them.

Strengthen stems

In nature, plants are subjected to winds that cause their stems to bend. The plant then adapts to its environment by strengthening its stems so that the wind doesn’t blow it over and damage it. You can replicate this effect with ventilation fans. The gentle breeze will create stronger plants in your indoor garden.

You can’t replicate everything that happens to a plant in nature (and sometimes that’s a good thing), but providing a breath of fresh air will do wonders for your indoor garden. Talk to our knowledgeable staff at Indoor Cultivator about the best ways to ventilate your plants.