Have you ever wondered what essential supplies you need when you grow indoors? Being an avid indoor gardener for over 5 years, I've tested and failed with a lot of stuff that claims is essential for every grower. This is never the case. So what're the right supplies? Well, it's not as simple as giving you one answer. It depends if you're growing with hydroponics, soil, fluorescent lights or HID. I can't tell you all the things you'll need, but all types of setups require a few universal supplies to help you with your indoor grow. This isn't a list of things you should already have in your grow room. These are the extra accessories and supplies to help you out. This list assumes you already have a grow room or grow tent set up with air ventilation and grow lights.
The Essentials
Watering Cans for Soil Grows
- Easier on the root system
- No root stress
- Quickly water multiple pots
Believe it or not, watering cans are underused and underappreciated. Did you know that if you use a cup, bucket, or in my case-- a gallon milk jug to water your plants, the overflow can disturb your roots and cause slower growth? This is considered root stress and it's something you want to avoid. A watering can or sprayer is a small investment for a worthy convenience.
This other blog post I came across mentions that a cup or a jug works fine as well but that is not true. I've caused root rot from resurfaced roots and slower growth using jugs or cups because it stresses the plants out.
Neem Oil
- Natural bug repellent
- Great pest preventative
- Disrupts hormone system and turns nasty critters into sterile non-reproducers
Neem oil is essential for pest prevention. Don't believe me?
These are some tragic pictures of crops dying from spider mites. This could have been easily solved with weekly prevention. Neem oil is easy to apply and only harmful to pests. In a nutshell, when a bug eats at your plant with Neem oil on it, it interferes with their hormone system and turns them sterile making them unable to reproduce. So many growers try to find the 1-day fix, but treating your plants will cause frustration and will exhaust your plants when it gets to a blown-out infestation. Stop it before it even happens by applying Neem oil. The bonus is that it doesn't hurt your plants and is a natural repellent. Speaking of Neem oil...
Spray Bottles
- Multiple Uses
- Great for raising humidity
- Can be used for pseudo-foliar feeding
Spray bottles have multiple uses and you'll always end up needing one throughout your grow room. It helps evenly distribute a coat of Neem oil on your plants, raise the humidity in your grow tent or cloning domes, and keeps topsoil moist.
Oscillating Fans
- Strengthen the main stem and branches
- Helps breakdown humidity build-up
- Prevents mildew and mold
PH Test Kit/PH Meter
- Required for every nutrient feeding schedule
- Never second guess your nutrient measurements
- It helps determine your PH levels so you don't accidentally kill your plants.
Do yourself a favor and get a PH Test Kit. No matter if you're growing with soil or hydroponics, a PH test kit or PH meter is required for every garden. Feeding your plants unbalanced PH nutrients will restrict certain nutrient uptake and cause deficiencies and nutrient burn.
Extra Grow Bulbs
- Always have a backup
- Reduces plant shock and health
- Keeps you consistent with your lighting schedule
Extra grow light bulbs are something every experienced grower knows they should have for their grow room. Imagine having to scramble to your local hydroponic store and shelling out the money to get a replacement. Some local hydroponic stores are not local so you're spending an extra hour while your plants are sitting in the dark. Every bulb manufacturer has a small failure rate and if you prepare for it, you'll save yourself a headache. Another reason why you want an extra bulb is that all grow bulbs should come with at least a 1-year warranty. This means that you can replace your defective bulb with your extra one and have the peace of mind to send the defective one back for a replacement. You won't have to wait a week while your plants are struggling to find light because you were smart enough to buy an extra one.
Pruning Shears
- Helps remove dead or unwanted leaves/branches with minimal damage
- Faster healing with precise cuts that prevent large open wounds.
- It allows better airflow for your plants and increases light exposure to lower parts of your plant.
Your oscillating fan isn't doing its job if you are not pruning your plants. Pruning your plants means cutting away unwanted and dead foliage or leaves. When you prune your plants, you're doing two things: You're helping your plants direct its energy to specific parts of the growing process like developing bigger and tastier fruits and opening up airflow between your branches by cutting off lower growth.
Remember what I said about oscillating fans prevents mold and mildew? Well if your oscillating fan is Batman, your pruning shear is Robin. Keeping a nice open airflow that can easily go through your plants will keep them healthy in the long run.
Recommended But Not Essential
Reverse Osmosis System
- Receive pure RO water in the comfort of your own home
- Easily mix nutrients in water with low to zero PPM readings
- Consistent Neutral PH at your fingertips
- Great for locations that have low-quality tap water.
A reverse osmosis system is a water treatment unit that plugs right into your faucet. It helps filter out chlorine, residues, and pollutants in your water. You should consider a reverse osmosis system if your growing in an area with low-quality tap water. Before I bought myself a water treatment unit, I use to run down to my local grocery store and buy 3-gallon jugs of spring water for $1.50. Sure I saved some money but the hassle took a toll. I remember when I spilled an entire jug in my car and that was the biggest pain in my butt. The initial investment is steep and if you live in a place with great tap water, you don't necessarily need to have a reverse osmosis system.
Heat Mats
- Keeps your soil warm during cold nights
- Gives a nice healthy environment for beneficial microbes in the soil
- Warm soil helps with faster root production
We mentioned how heat mats benefit seedlings and clones, but they also provide a consistent temperature for your soil. If you are growing in a cold garage or basement, keeping a heat mat under your plants will help prevent root shock and slow growth. This is optional if you don't have this problem, but as I said before, I've grown everywhere and used almost every piece of equipment for indoor gardening and I learned my lesson the hard way.
Cloning Starter Kit
- Keep the genetics you love
- You can start a perpetual grow with the same plant
- High clone rooting success rate
A cloning starter kit comes with everything you need to root cuttings and clones. Most kits come with a standard heat mat, tray, and dome. This usually isn't enough because you are missing so many other vital pieces to the cloning process. GrowAce.com has a complete cloning package with hormone inducing clone gel, Exacto knife, and starting cell trays. This is the ultimate cloning package with everything you need for a success clone, every time.
However, if you're growing varieties of plants and love the mixing and matching of different genetics, this might not be for you.
Conclusion
Whew!-- what a list! To recap, this is the complete list of essential indoor gardening supplies every grower needs.
Did I miss anything? Leave a comment down below on what you think every grower should have for a successful yield and harvest.
3 comments
Samuel Meyer
First of all, I would like to say thanks to you for such a nice and informative article about indoor gardening. I’ve got huge information from this post. It will help me to build a successful indoor garden. thanks again for your effort to write such a great post.
Mia
Yes i think it is very useful post for my indoor gardening project as well as my commercial growing project. I have purchased all 7 supplies thanks to this useful and helpful information.
Tetsuya
I think it is hard to determine how much water is too much or too llitte, that is why I am grateful for a watering system, I have a? Bucket Garden which was created by a man named Ted Hallett, he has over 30 years of experience in Organic Gardening. His system makes gardening not only successful but simple.