How to Grow Cannabis in a Closet

This article is all about how to grow cannabis in a closet. 

You may have heard people saying cannabis is the type of plant that can grow anywhere — from the upper regions of Afghanistan to the tropical paradise of Hawaii. 

As a grower, you probably knew that already, but did you know that it can grow in your closet space too?

Also known as closet grow, growing cannabis in a closet is more popular than you'd expect. 

It is the go-to choice for many growers around the world who want to keep their plants safe and secret. 

Not only that, it brings all the best benefits of indoor growth while keeping the costs really low. 

Most importantly, it's best for beginners to figure out whether they really want to invest in big setups or not. If a closet cannabis project turns out well, you can plan ahead and take it to the next level. 

So, if you want to grow cannabis discreetly, without spending a lot of money and energy, you have come to the right place. 

Learn how to grow cannabis in your closet. 

Growing Weed in a Closet

Many novice growers ask — is it possible to grow good cannabis in a closet? 

Yes, it is. And with a lot of success.

Growing weed in a closet is not too different from growing it in a grow tent. You essentially create the same environment as a grow tent, so your closet plants turn out to be just as good. As long as you take good care of it.

Closet grow is a terrific way to utilize an empty closet at home while ensuring your plant stays hidden from everyone, even your guests. 

And you don’t necessarily need a closet for this, you can grow your plant using the same methods in your walk-in wardrobe or a cupboard. Just ensure it has at least four feet of ceiling space to hold an average cannabis plant.

What are the Benefits of Growing Cannabis in a Closet?

Before moving ahead, let’s delve into some benefits of why you should consider growing in a closet, even if you don’t bother much about being discreet. 

1. It can Save You a Lot of Money

Growing outdoors is fun, but if you don’t have that option, your next option is to grow indoors in a grow tent. But tents are expensive. Instead, you can use your closet to grow cannabis without investing a lot in expensive gear.

Another benefit of a closet grow is that you don’t need a lot of high-tech supplies — a small setup with a fan and LED light panel works well. 

2. It Keeps Your Plant Discreet

If you are growing in a country where cannabis is not yet legalized, or you just want to hide your plant from others, you can grow in a closet. A closet has a door, so it even keeps your plant hidden from visitors and guests. 

3. You Get Total Control of the Plant’s Growth

When you grow cannabis in a closet, you get full control over your plant’s growth — like a dedicated indoor setup — so you can enjoy exceptional results. You get to control the temperature, humidity, light exposure, and other aspects of the growth.

And controlling the closet environment is a lot easier than other methods because the space is small. For instance, a small fan can do wonders to keep the temperature and humidity in control.

How Many Cannabis Plants Can You Grow in a Closet?

Image Credit - Sinse

Like most other ways to grow cannabis, you can grow as many plants as you would like, but that depends on the size of your closet. A bigger closet can grow more plants and vice versa. 

If you're just starting out, we recommend only growing a couple of plants. More plants bring more responsibility, which can overwhelm you. A couple of plants let you easily grow and observe them, allowing you to harness your skills before moving on to more plants. 

Factors to Consider When Growing Cannabis in a Closet

Image Credit - Sinse

While growing cannabis in a closet is easy, you still need to factor in a few things. The limited space and lack of any airflow or light make it the wrong place for a plant. By taking into account the following factors, you can make it a habitable place for your plant.

1. Closet Space

The first thing you need to consider is the size of the closet. 

Is it big enough to fit the number of plants you want to grow? For a couple of plants, regular closet space is enough.

However, if you want to grow more than two plants, you need a lot of space. For this, you need a bigger closet, ideally a walk-in closet, which can fit multiple plants and their respective setups.

You also need to ensure your closet has a tall ceiling to let the plant grow properly. Most indoor closet-friendly cannabis plants grow up to the knees, but you need at least 4 feet in height so that you can attach the grow lights over your plants.

2. Grow Lights

One of the most important things your cannabis plant will need is light and the right kind. But thanks to the small closet space, you can get away with smaller lights. 

Your best bet is to use LED lights instead of HPS or HID lights. LED lights produce the right intensity along with the UV-B spectrum, which your plant needs, and they don’t emit a lot of heat. 

Additionally, smart LED lights come with a lot of fine adjustments that allow you to control the light spectrum, temperature, and intensity as per your plant’s growth. Your plant needs different kinds of light at each growth stage. 

LEDs are also super reliable and efficient. They have a life of around 11 years and consume 70% less energy than other kinds of lights.

If LED lights are too expensive for you, you can even choose regular CFL bulbs. Just choose one with the right color temperature for cannabis. For a veggie plant, choose a bulb with 6500k, which mimics daylight, and for a flowering plant, choose 2700k with soft white light.

HID or HPS lights are not right for closet grow because they are expensive, consume a lot of energy, and most importantly, heat up. Their heat can burn your plants and you will have to counter that heat with a lot more ventilation and cooling methods.

Light Spectrum 

Your goal with LED lights is to mimic sunlight since it contains the right spectrum for plant growth. For this, you need to pay attention to the light spectrum, such as:

• In seedling stage: blue-dominant light
• In vegetative stage: blue-dominant light
• In flowering stage: red to far-red dominant light

This is because a plant’s growth depends on the light spectrum. 

Mylar Film or White Paint

Apart from lights, you should also consider adding a mylar film or white paint on the inner walls of the closet. Doing so would maximize light exposure around the canopy to promote better growth while reducing light wastage.

White paint works well, but only if it is a flat (matte) tone. And mylar films are even better if you don’t want to permanently modify your closet. And always avoid aluminum foil and polystyrene sheets as they are not as reflective and the latter is highly inflammable. 

3. Grow Medium

When it comes to the growing medium, you can choose one of two options: hydroponics or soil. 

If you are aware of hydroponics or have a setup already, you can replicate the same on a smaller scale in your closet. A hydroponic setup lets you grow with reusable mediums and give your plant the exact amount of nutrients it needs, ensuring faster growth and bigger flowers.

However, hydroponic setups are somewhat complex to set up and are prone to mold and fungus, which thrive in the humid environment of a grow closet.

You can also use a basic soil-based setup. If you choose high-quality soil for your plant, you don’t have to worry about the nutrients as much. The soil is a rich ecosystem that aids you with nutrients. Your goal must be to improve the soil’s health by adding organic supplements and fertilizers time-to-time. 

Here, a pot is best for growing cannabis and starting the plant in the soil itself. Just ensure the soil has adequate drainage and aeration for the best plant growth.

4. Watering Routine

Water is essential for cannabis — it is a thirsty plant — but due to its closed and small space, building an irrigation system is difficult and not worth it. Instead, we recommend watering your plant by hand in most cases. 

While watering, avoid under or over-watering the plant as it can hamper its growth and cause various problems like nutrient deficiency, root rot, or wilting leaves. You should only water the plant when the top inch of the soil is dry.

To make watering easier, ensure there is enough room in the closet for you to pour water in. Moving the containers twice a day just to water your plant is not a good idea — it is cumbersome and can disturb your plant. 

5. Ventilation and Air Flow

A closet is closed-off from all sides, so you need to work on ventilation so that your plant thrives in fresh air without any risk of high humidity and mold. Plus, without proper ventilation, your plant will fail to complete various metabolic processes, which may stunt its growth. 

For ventilation, you need to get a few small fans, depending on your closet size. The best fans for this job are computer fans. Place one fan near the base of the plant to draw cool air and one above the canopy to exhaust the air — this will create a cross breeze. A single oscillating fan also works.

Whichever fan you use, ensure there is enough space for the air to escape the closet. 

You may also have to drill a few holes in your closet walls for the air to pass through. If you do that, work out a venting setup that does not allow light to leak within the closet. Even a small light during the night can push your flowering plant into re-vegging.

Choosing the Right Fan

When choosing fans for your closet, you need to check the fans’ cubic feet per minute (CFM) ratings. The CFM rating of the fan must be higher than your closet’s volume. 

To measure your closet’s volume, measure the length, width, and height of the closet in feet and multiply them. 

6. Choice of Strain

When growing in a closet, one of your primary concerns should be to ensure that the plant you grow fits in the closet. So, it is recommended that you avoid strains that grow really tall, like White Haze. Instead choose strains like Super Lemon Haze, White Widow, or Girl Scout Cookies, which grow small. 

You can also choose autoflowering strains that genetically grow smaller than their photoperiod counterparts. Plus, they grow quickly, so you can enjoy your harvest sooner. 

PRO TIP: Choose feminized seeds that guarantee a female plant. You don't want to spend a couple of months growing a plant that turns out to be male.

7. Size Control

Even if choose an autoflowering strain, there's a high chance you may have to control the plant’s size. You can use various training methods to manipulate the plant’s shape. 

Doing so would not only ensure your plant fits in the closet, but it will also improve light and air exposure within the canopy, ensuring a consistent yield across all branches.

Here are a few ways to control the size of the plant:

• Use the screen of green (ScrOG) technique to level out the canopy
• Trigger the flowering stage early when the plant reaches half your desired maximum height
• Prune and train your plant, with LST, filming, or topping, carefully to keep the height low 
• You can even use the manifolding technique to create a candelabra-like canopy

8. Odor Control

Cannabis has a strong scent, even when it is growing. So, you need to take some measures to control the scent, otherwise, it will feel like you are burning ten cannabis candles in your room. 

The best way to control the odor is to avoid skunk cannabis strains that tend to smell a lot. Additionally, you can also use carbon scrubbers in the closet, which neutralize the smell in the air. 

9. Carbon Dioxide Supply

Plants breathe carbon dioxide to survive, so one way to boost your closet plant’s growth is to supplement it with an adequate amount of carbon dioxide. This is not mandatory, but a terrific choice for the best yield.

You can make carbon dioxide available to your plant in various ways, such as the following:

• You can get a carbon dioxide tank and pump it into the closet
• Allow a small cube of dry ice to melt within the closet
• Or buy carbon dioxide canisters that release the gas slowly into the closet 

If you add supplement carbon dioxide to your closet, keep these tips in mind:

• Only add carbon dioxide when the lights are on
• Shut off the fans when pumping carbon dioxide
• Add carbon dioxide from the top of the canopy, since it sinks to the floor due to its heavy weight
• Maintain carbon dioxide levels of 900 ppm during the veggie stage and 1,150 ppm during bloom
• Invest in a carbon dioxide meter so you don’t accidentally choke your plant 

Step by Step Guide to Grow Cannabis in a Closet

Once you have worked on the factors mentioned above, you can finally start setting up your closet for growing cannabis. 

Things You Need:

1. A sanitized, clean closet
2. Hangers and fixtures within the closet to hang the fan and grow lights
3. Cannabis seeds
4. Grow lights with a timer switch to control the light cycle
5. A few computer fans or an oscillating fan for effective airflow
6. A container and growing medium for your plant, depending on the growth method
7. Carbon filter 
8. A pH meter 
9. Gardening stakes and ties to train the plant
10. A thermometer to monitor the temperature and relative humidity
11. Flat white paint or mylar film

Follow These Steps:

1. Clean and sanitize your grow closet to remove any dirt, debris, and mold spores 

2. Paint the inner walls with flat white paint or cover them with mylar film and duct tape 

3. Install the lighting set up and fans 

4. Install the carbon scrubber

5. Set up your growing medium

6. Run a few tests to ensure everything is working in order

7. Start growing your plant 

Follow these steps and you are set to grow cannabis in your closet. Apart from these, follow the usual cannabis growing techniques to take your plant from a seedling to a flower-full plant.

Stimulating the Climate for Each Growth Stage

When you grow cannabis indoors, you have to control the indoor environment by regulating the humidity, temperature, and airflow. Ideal conditions for a grow closet are as follows:

During germination: 

When you are germinating the seeds, keep the closet dark, warm, and moist. In a soil-based setup, keep the soil damp all the time.

During the seedling and vegetative stages:

Once the seeds have germinated, maintain a temperature of 75°F to 80°F or 24°C to 29°C and RH between 60% to 70%. During these stages, you should also keep the fans running at all times to keep the closet air fresh and cool with a steady supply of carbon dioxide. 

During bloom:

And in the flowering stage, keep the temperatures between 72°F to 78°F or 22°C to 25.5°C degrees with the RH between 45% to 55%. Lower humidity will prevent mold and mildew on the buds. 

Curing Your Closet-Growing Cannabis

Once you have harvested your cannabis plant, you will need to cure it before consuming it. Curing allows you to protect your buds from mold and other contamination and bring out their flavor and scent profiles, so you can enjoy them at ease. 

Curing cannabis consists of two steps, where you first dry the buds in the open air and then dry them in a concealed space. The first drying process takes about a week, but it is necessary so that the buds are dry enough and free of mold risk.

For this, you can simply hang the buds in another closet or the same grow closet, but ensure it is away from high humidity and light, which may hamper the drying process.

For the second drying stage, you can use mason jars and place them in a space with a temperature not exceeding 78°F. Keep them in the jar for 1 to 3 months, depending on how long you wish to cure them. 

Storing Your Cannabis Buds

Once your buds are cured, you need to store them well. Otherwise, they may dry out too much or become prone to mold and mildew. 

If you want to store them only for a month or two, you can use the same mason jars you used for curing them. But if you want to store them for longer, place them in an airtight container and place them in a freezer or vacuum seal them. 

Summary: How to Grow Cannabis in a Closet

Sure, growing cannabis in a closet is rewarding, but that’s not the best part about it. A closet grow allows you to grow cannabis with maximum security — even visitors at your home won’t know it’s there.

And it allows you to control various aspects of the plant’s growth, so you can tune it as per your preferences and grow a plant that you want. It is just like growing in a grow tent without the overhead expenses of a tent and other high-tech supplies.

To grow cannabis in a closet, all you need is little patience and a few basic supplies — small fans, a decent LED panel, some duct tape, mylar film, and perhaps a carbon filter. 

Once you have all the supplies ready, clean your closet, apply the mylar film or white paint, and set up the lights, container, and ventilation. Once everything is ready, plant your seed and give it enough water and nutrients and watch it grow into a big, bushy plant in a few weeks. 

This guide is here to help you grow a cannabis plant in your closet while ensuring you get to enjoy many big buds and prevent common problems like mold, pests, and diseases.