Warning! Sick plants in a grow tent? read this before doing anything!

Hi everyone, I have just had the worst problem in 15 years of growing and now have finally resolved it.
I can't see too much about it on this site so I thought I would share this vital information with you.... Stay well clear of any tent with white interior made of PVC. THEY WILL KILL YOUR PLANTS! The symptoms mimmic (sp?) nutrient defficencies, lockout and ph problems and usually end up killing your plants over a couple of weeks from the bottom up. Plant growth will slow, then stop and roots will die, bizarre chlorosis will occour, stems will be weak and thin, leaves will curl over and under, burn and drop. Whole plants have turned completely bright yellow overnight in extreme cases.

Apparently the tents made in China (lots about on a popular auction website) produce toxic fumes when exposed to heat and light, causing the stomata to close, quickly killing your beloved. I have a link to another site here. You MUST read this.
Grow Tent OutGassing / Offgassing WARNING!! - International Cannagraphic Magazine Forums
Or google "grow tent outgassing"
I understand if you need to delete the link (mods) but I think that this is a very, very important piece of info that needs to be read. I wish I had found it sooner as I have wasted 6 months and spent a fortune trying to resolve what seemed to be a string of different problems, and all the time it was the friggin tent. I lost all confidence in my abilities that up to now have been spot on and came very close to giving up completely. I was actually losing my mind over it.

There are tents with white interior that are made of other materials that are ok, it is just the PVC ones that seem to cause the problems. Also some have a safe material for the tent but the splash tray is PVC. This will kill em too!

Soooo if you are growing in a tent and nothing is working to resolve your problems, GO GET THEM OUT NOW and and dump the tent, they should recover in a week if they aren't too far gone.

Hope this saves you a fortune and more importantly your sanity.

Subzero.

good post :thumbsup: ... if true, I wonder if a couple weeks of being exposed to sunlight and fresh air, would be sufficient to deplete the fumes ?? ... :smokin:

Nope, tried that as a last resort. Put the majority in a mylar tent and put a few back in the washed, aired out PVC after they greened up, within a day they were yellowing again. The ones in the mylar are vegging nicely. Its going back next week.

It seems to be a big problem here in the UK, I think The Chinese are copying most of the top brands and dumping them on our doorstep. They are using PVC that secretes chlorine gas when it heats up, no amount of ventilation helps either. I have put the tent in a big black bag in my shed well out of the house, God only knows what it is doing to my health if it is that toxic to plants.

Hope this thread saves some heartache.

Subzero.

P.S Stinky, you might want to add "are you growing in a PVC tent" in your troubleshooter? It would have saved me alot of frustration!

This was sort-of covered before. First started seeing the problems back in October, I believe. Let's see if I can find the links...

Yup:

Hydrohut Alternative

Hydrofarm Habitat Tents - A Warning - An International Cannabis Magazine Forum

The dangers of PVC/PU in grow tents - someothercannabisforum.com Forums

Yeah, I know theres a bit on here but this was November 2008 and it wasn't a hydrohut or the likes. My point is that they are still out there and the symptoms start like deficencies, then change to strange chlorosis unlike any deficency photo i have ever seen or experienced. I had plants pure white overnight at one point and upon removing them from the tent they greened up in 3 days. All I am saying is that if you have never had problems before and now you just can't grow a f"ing plant to save your life, It is possible this is answer. I just didn't buy a new tent and everything died. That would be quite obvious wouldn't it .
I changed to a larger system, in a new room with fresh paint and new carpet, also changed nutes because I purchased an ro filter, new carbon filter, ducting, bigger pump, new ph / ec meter so I all of a sudden had lots of variables to consider. I may also mention that the smaller good tent was identical to the new one, from the same place, so it was one of the last things I suspected. There are a million posts about using epsom salts on here too but those symptoms are easy to diagnose and treat. And from my experience magnesium deficency and certainly sulpher is rarely the problem with decent nutes. This is not so simple. I must have looked at this site 100 times and couldnt find any problems that resembled mine. So I thought it was worth a mention.

Just trying to help :cool:

Subzero.

I was adding the informational links to other people's insight and experiences on the matter, not slamming the content or intent of your post.

Just trying to help :thumbsup:

homebox grow tents are the best you can get. 100% non toxic. There tents have to off gases

Yea, sorry Rusty, just a very touchy subject here at the mo. The guy at the hydroshop where it came from recons that my email of complaint to him was written by a madman. He doesn't want me to return the tent in person. I think he fears for his life. It wasn't threatening IMO :mad:, He must have took it the wrong way???
I told him that my mental health was not the issue here.
He has pulled the rest of his stock... Result.

Peace
Subzero.

i just been reading up on ur problems with that grow tent; i have the same problems with mine; only i have been trying to get my plants up'not for 6 month' 13 months to be exact and i hav;t got no further' i have been in the exact same possition as you were and I am allso an experianced grower; 19 years experiance' and its totaly sent me stupid'frustrated; aggitated fucked-off' pissed off' and very fukking angry now i have seen your quotes; i aked the person at the grow shop after seeing an article regarding off-gasses; and he asured me that the tent in which i bought was not pvc; it looks like pvc to me; it resembles a cheap prostitutes mini skirt; but he said it was not pvc' my plants wouldnt root' once they were rooted'outside the tent' when i put them back in they just went paper thin from the bottom up' then the leafs died' as if they wer overfirtilised;very pale green colour in them apart from yellowing slightly ;then death;The tent cost me 120 quid' and i bought it from a company called aquaculture hydroponics' i would much apreciate it if you would look the website up and tell me if the tent resembles yours' cheers.

...yellowing of fan leaves in my ladies? I gotta look into this a bit more--does anyone have any info on "panda film/plastic"? (10ml white/black)

KUDOS to the originator for bringing this important information to light!

Good post, and good find. The more info we have the better off we'll no matter what the subject matter is.

from what you are saying ive got the same prob,

i had a nitrogen defiency or what i thought was, but the smaller nodes are greening up its just the larger shade leaves showing what i thought was chlorosis,

:(

These dodgy tents are still about!! my heads been fried for months trying to work out what problems ive been having, ive been growing for years and this problem nearly had me beat till i came across this and numerous other threads. Transplanting perfectly healthy plants from a white lined hydrolab tent to a cheap mylar lined tent with a dodgy white pvc liner totally messed my plants after a week, now ive gotta wait and see if the new plants are gonna take in the mylar tent or could it be the hydrolab tent letting off gases in the room their both in, i run fluro's in the white lined tent and hps in the mylar tent