6 Cannabis Grow Room Cleaning Checklist Items You Need to Have Right Away
Here are the best grow room cleaning tips you will ever need for your indoor commercial grow.
Summer can be difficult for indoor growers since ambient temperatures can reach elevated levels for growing plants.
Although indoor farming allows for planting at any time of the year, the season is an excellent time to unveil your grow room cleaning checklist.
Summer grows are difficult since the scorching outdoor temperatures, mixed with the heat created by grow lamps, can make maintaining perfect conditions in a grow room a nightmare. However, with the advent of LED lighting and low-cost air conditioning, you now have more options for summer planting.
So, what do you need to clean your grow room or tent if you’ve decided to do so? What should be cleaned, and how should it be done?
We’ll address these topics, but it’s also worth noting that cleaning your grow room shouldn’t be a one-time event; the goal is to avoid disasters, and a daily cleaning routine can help you avoid losses.
Why Is a Grow Room Cleaning Checklist Necessary?
A grow room cleaning checklist reduces the chances of pests, pathogens, and mold from wreaking havoc in your grow space hence better plant health and yields.
A cannabis grow room cleaning checklist is a step-by-step guide to cleaning your cannabis grow room. A good cleaning checklist ensures that your operation runs smoothly, with no infections, pollen, or other contaminants lurking in your grow room.
Sanitizing or sterilizing your grow room are two aspects to consider when preparing a grow room cleaning checklist.
Sanitizing your cannabis grow room is a cleaning operation to inhibit pests or pathogens from thriving in a particular grow space.
On the other hand, sterilization is done as a countermeasure when a previous harvest has been plagued with illnesses and pests, and it is used to kill off these microorganisms so that the new batch can get off to a healthy start.
Both procedures aim to kill pathogens, but sterilization is a more thorough approach than sanitization.
Embracing the best-case scenario, sanitizing your grow room is sufficient in most situations.
Making a daily, weekly, and monthly grow room cleaning checklist ensures that you stay on top of the situation and keep diseases and pests at bay.
Therefore, what are the tools of the trade when carrying out your grow room cleaning?
- Sponges and several cloths
- Gloves and protective goggles
- Cleaning agents; Detergent, Hydrogen Peroxide, Bleach, and Vinegar
- Alcohol wipes
- Reverse Osmosis or Distilled water
- Duct tape
- A Mop and bucket, broom, and dustpan
6 Steps You Got to Have In Your Cannabis Grow Room Cleaning Checklist
A cannabis grow room cleaning checklist is ideal for ensuring your grow room is in tip-top condition. What things do you need to check out as you clean your grow room?
1. Start With Cleanliness
The first thing you have to factor in your daily grow room cleaning checklist is cleanliness.
Powdery mildew and pollen are prevalent problems in a poorly sanitized environment. Having sufficient airflow in a grow room is a preventative measure for dealing with these two nuisances.
However, in the case of accumulated contaminants, there’s a need to conduct daily cleaning procedures, which include;
- Closely Inspect Your Plants and Vertical Growing Systems – Dedicate some time daily to inspect your plants to check for dry leaves or signs of pests and disease. Consider what can host diseases on your tabletop caster units and vertical grow racks, such as soil spillage and debris, and remedy it immediately.
- Practice Good Housekeeping – Clean the floor with a mop and detergent/bleach combined with warm water daily to remove grime and debris. As a disease-preventive method, the goal is to eradicate possible pest habitats on a daily basis.
- Assess Your Grow Equipment – Contaminants are kept out of your grow room thanks to functioning growing equipment like carbon filters, ventilation systems, and irrigation systems. Check your equipment daily to keep pathogens from destroying your crops. Also, use alcohol wipes to wipe your electrical equipment cables.
Weekly Cannabis Grow Room Cleaning Checklist
Weekly grow room cleaning entails more time-consuming procedures that aren’t practicable to complete daily but are equally vital.
2. Cleaning the Ventilation System
There will almost certainly be junk in the intake filters and bug screens, which is a positive indication they are functional but due for a clean-up.
Most intake filters have removable dust filters, simply strip them off, blow out the dust inside and wash the sleeves in the washing machine. Reinstall the filters after drying them.
Cleaning your grow room’s ventilation systems is crucial in your grow room cleaning checklist. An opening in the system can allow spores, bacteria, and pollen to infiltrate your grow room and affect your canopies.
Check for leaks or holes that can be sealed with duct tape for a more efficient ventilation system.
The lifespan of most filters is between half a year to a year; inspect them keenly to assess the need for replacing them.
3. Cleaning and Sterilizing the Grow Systems
Whether using 1020 grow trays or plastic pots, you need to sterilize them to keep the root system healthy and fungus-free
Hydrogen peroxide is a good disinfectant that is severe on disease-carrying pests yet gentle on plants. A suitable H2O2 solution for cleaning surfaces and eradicating persistent bacteria is two parts water to one part 35 percent hydrogen peroxide.
You can also use Hydrogen peroxide to sterilize your grow soil and kill any diseases or pests present. This, on the other hand, is something you can perform after a growing season or monthly.
Small tools, including pumps, irrigation tubes, trays, and propagation covers, can be sterilized by soaking in the hydrogen solution.
Monthly Cannabis Grow Room Cleaning Checklist
With your daily and weekly cleaning checklist down, there are tasks to be done monthly or bi-annually based on your assessment.
4. Cleaning the Irrigation System
Bacteria and mold can grow in pipes that are dark and humid. You may have to dismantle your irrigation system and clean it thoroughly.
Large items, such as reservoirs, should be washed by hand and thoroughly rinsed. You’ll also have to open the submersible pumps and clean the filters.
If you use a reverse osmosis purifier to purify your irrigation water, it may also need to be serviced. Replace the carbon and reverse osmosis filters as required.
Also, if you’re using a pre-softener, make sure the salt cartridges are replaced.
5. Cleaning the Grow Lights
Using a soft cotton cloth, thoroughly clean your reflectors. Avoid using paper or abrasives.
A 3 percent vinegar solution comes in helpful at this point, followed by thorough rinsing with distilled or reverse osmosis water (that helps reduce the formation of calcium stains).
As for the tops of your reflectors, wipe away accumulated dust. Clean the glass panels on your air-cooled hoods with a regular window cleaning product.
Duct tape can be used to secure ducting connectors and replace broken seals connected to your grow lights.
6. Stock Up
As you conduct your checks, compile a list of depleting consumables like nutrients, hydrogen peroxide, bleach, and window cleaner.
Also, calibrate the pH meters to keep your grow medium and nutrient solution pH levels in check.
Create Your Perfect Cannabis Grow Room Cleaning Checklist
Checklists are more than just a way to ensure you’ve completed all of the needed tasks. Making a grow room cleaning checklist will help you safeguard your crop yields and health while also making your next grow to go more smoothly.
MMI Agriculture provides high-density vertical growing systems that help compliment your grow room cleaning efforts. They are made of high-density steel that resists disease proliferation while allowing you to access upper levels through the mezzanine walkway. This makes it easier to inspect crops and clean the elevated shelving.
Contact us for the best vertical solutions in the market.
