Pests, powdery mildew, mold and other bacteria can be a big problem for growers. Even the cleanest growers can experience unwanted issues in their grow room.
These contaminants can cause issues with your growth and can even contaminate your harvest – fortunately, there are many ways to keep pests away and keep your rooms clean and your plants safe.
This guide to disinfecting your grow room will give you some ideas on how to rid your grow room of pests and other potential irritants to your crops.
Sanitize or Sterilize? What’s The Difference?
Sanitizing and sterilizing are two words that are often confused and used interchangeably, but they are pretty different:
· Sanitizing is a process that reduces the number of microorganisms, but does not eliminate them.
· Sterilizing is a process that eliminates all microorganisms and leaves a clean surface.
In a more in-depth understanding, Sanitation makes your environment safe for plants and people to grow by removing any unwanted organisms, including bacteria and viruses. The sanitation process is often accomplished by using products that can be added to water. Growers Oxide is effective when used with a Victory Innovations Sprayer – either backpack or handheld.
Use the Growers Oxide Kill List to see every bacteria, virus and fungus that Growers Oxide is effective against.
Sterilization Of Grow Rooms
There are many reasons to sterilize your grow room, including to control any bacteria that may grow in unfavorable conditions. Temperature and humidity are important factors that you have to take into consideration if you want to grow healthy plants. You have to make sure that the environment is free from bacteria and other microorganisms. This is why it is crucial to sterilize your grow room properly.
Here are the steps on how to properly sterilize your grow room:
- To sterilize your grow room, you must first turn off everything in your grow room, including lights and all HVAC equipment.
- Spray an all-purpose, non-toxic grow room disinfectant. Spray it on the walls and floors and also on your equipment. Make sure to not oversaturate your grow room with the spray. If you need a nice clean application, use a Victory Backpack or Handheld Sprayer.
- Next, sanitize all surfaces in the grow room by ensuring everything has been physically wiped clean of any and all surface debris and contamination. This will significantly reduce the populations of bad bacteria, but not eliminate them completely.
- The final step is disinfection, or sterilization of all sanitized surfaces in the grow room. Simply spray growers oxide full strength, and allow a 10 minute contact time to air dry.
To properly sterilize your grow room, you should do this process between each crop.
Sanitization Of Grow Rooms
Sanitization is a very important process to grow indoor plants because it is one of the fundamental way to control pests, diseases, mold and mildew. Proper sanitation will reduce the risks of developing pest issues in the garden and help to ensure the quality of your crops.
Just follow these steps and learn how to effectively sanitize your grow room:
- Remove old pots, medium, and all plant matter.
- Decontaminate everything with a grow room disinfectant spray. Make sure you spray it all over the walls, floor, and other surfaces.
- Wipe down all surfaces in the grow room, free and clear of any and all surface filth, grime, dirt, debris and biofilms
- Use a cleaning solution to clean the floor.
- Disinfect all your pots, trays and equipment
- Disinfect the walls and ceiling of your grow room.
- Replace filters as necessary
Why Is It Important To Disinfect Your Grow Room?
Microorganisms, biofilms, mold, mildew, bacteria and pests are the main problems for any grower. They may ruin your crop and even spread diseases. That is why proper sanitization and sterilization techniques are so important. The importance of disinfecting your grow room also includes the following reasons:
- Prevent the spread of plant diseases.
- Prevent the spread of outside plant diseases.
- Prevent the spread of insects, microorganisms.
- Prevent biofilms from forming.
- Prevent the spread of mold and fungus.
- Keep a clean and healthy environment.
- Prevent contamination of your equipment.
- Prevent the spread of insects and diseases to other plants.
- For the health and safety of yourself and others.
Grow Room Disinfectants Eradicate Mold and Biofilms
Mold, mildew, microorganisms and biofilms are probably the most common problems for growers. These can be found in the grow room, the grow tent, in hydroponic equipment and on most surfaces in your grow rooms.
These can be the source of many problems and if left unchecked can end up costing you a lot of money and effort in the long run. It’s important to know the signs so you can nip things in the bud before they get too out of hand.
Disinfecting your grow room is one of the easiest ways to get rid of mildew, biofilms, and microscopic pests, but also regular disinfecting of your grow room helps to prevent these from forming in the first place. This is because grow room disinfectants are designed to kill bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms that can contaminate your grow room.
Disinfectants Keep Your Equipment Clean
When it comes to growing rooms, it’s important to keep everything clean and in order – not only your plants but also your equipment. The health of your plants relies heavily on the cleanliness of the environment. If your equipment isn’t clean, your plants will be exposed to various pests and diseases.
The only way to keep your grow room safe from these pathogens is to clean your equipment and grow room regularly. As an added bonus, clean equipment will also help extend its lifespan. Growers Oxide is a safe and effective grow room disinfectant specially formulated to keep your grow room clean and safe.
A Clean Grow Room Produces Greater Crops
A grow room can get really dirty quickly. Some common sources of grow room dirt and grime include your hands, shoes, clothes, tools, pots, medium, plants, water, nutrient solutions, high humidity and water prone areas. This can result in contaminants spreading throughout your environment, and can very easily contaminate and compromise your crops.
Disinfecting your grow room is a must if you want to be successful and produce crops that are healthy and bountiful, as well as being able to stop the spread of diseases and sicknesses that could have a devastating effect on your crops. By keeping your grow room clean and disinfected you’re able to increase your crop yield and produce healthier bountiful plants.
Best Practices For Grow Room Sanitization
To recap what we’ve already discussed:
- Your grow room should be your most important and valued asset because it is the very essence of your business.
- A dirty grow room will invite pests, mold, mildew, and fungi that can wreak havoc on your prized plants.
- The cleanliness of your grow room will also greatly affect the quality of your final product.
- There’s a lot more to sanitizing your grow room than just spraying it down with some “mystery” cleaner.
Here’s our five-step guide on how to sanitize your grow room and keep it that way:
Step 1: Get rid of the bad stuff. Removing any dead leaves or plants will go a long way.
Step 2: Clean everything. Clean every surface in the grow room, from the floors to the walls and the ceiling. Disinfect it all with a grow room disinfectant solution.
Step 3: Clean the outside. It’s not just your grow room that needs cleaning. The outside of your grow facility needs to be clean too. Use a pressure washer to get rid of dust and other contaminants.
Step 4: Replace all air filters as necessary.
Step 5: Do a final check. After you’ve cleaned everything, do one last check to make sure you didn’t miss anything.
Best Products For Sanitizing Grow Rooms
Growers Oxide Advanced Clean Room Technology is a popular and effective solution for sanitizing your grow room. It is a highly concentrated formula based on Chlorine Dioxide and is a proven effective grow room disinfectant that you can use for cleaning and sanitizing your grow room. Growers Oxide has created a solution that can be used in several ways to kill mold, mildew and pests issues that would otherwise contaminate the plants. Our safe grow room disinfectant is designed to make their growing process easier.
Learn more about the uses for Growers Oxide, including horticultural applications, odour remediation, and more.
Shop Growers Oxide today to keep your grow room in its best condition.