Rebuilding the Grow Tent After Harvest: How We Set Up Our Winter Indoor Cannabis Garden
There’s a special moment right after a successful harvest—when the last branches dry, the tent is empty, and you’re staring at a clean slate. For many growers, this is when the next cycle truly begins.
For us, winter marks the shift from outdoor gardens to the steady reliability of an indoor tent. With colder nights, rising humidity, and unpredictable weather, moving the next run into our 4×4 tent gives us full control: light, airflow, temperature, and humidity—all the variables that shape a healthy crop.
Over the years, I’ve learned that how you reset your tent after harvest determines how smoothly the next grow will go. This winter, we took a hard look at our old setup and rebuilt it from the ground up. Here’s exactly how we prepared the space, refreshed our soil, positioned our lights, and dialed in the environment to give our clones the best possible start.
Purple Caper Seeds clones settling into our freshly rebuilt VIVOSUN tent. We added an extra set of sidebars to mount the LumaRay side lights, secured with Velcro fasteners to keep the lighting layout clean and cables organized.
Why Winter Indoor Grows Are Different
Growing indoors in winter presents its own challenges—and opportunities.
Cold nights can crash temperatures, slowing growth and stressing young plants.
Ambient humidity tends to rise, increasing the risk of mold and powdery mildew.
Airflow can stagnate, especially in tight indoor spaces where warm indoor air mixes with cold exterior walls.
Clones and early veg plants need stability, especially during the rooting phase.
The advantage of a tent is simple: control the environment, and the plants will follow. But to get that control, you need a thoughtful setup.
Resetting the Tent: Layout, Cleaning & Preparation
Preparing the tent for the next cycle — removing the VIVOSUN tent floor liner to start the post-harvest cleanup and reset.
Before a single plant moved in, we stripped the tent to its bones.
Sterilize the space
A clean environment prevents many common issues before they start. We:
Wiped all tent walls with a mild peroxide solution
Cleaned trays, pots, and tools
Vacuumed every corner (fungus gnat eggs love debris)
Replaced sticky traps
Wiping down the VIVOSUN tent walls during the post-harvest reset — an essential step to prevent pests and pathogens before the next run.
Plan the layout before placing equipment
In a 4×4 tent, every inch matters. We mapped:
Where the 400W main light would hang
Where the 200W secondary fixture would fill in
Where the LumaLight sidebars would sit
Where fans could circulate air without creating turbulent “dead zones”
Cable paths (organized now = safer later)
This planning step prevents heat pockets, shadowy corners, and the “spaghetti mess” many tents suffer from mid-grow.
Soil Reset: Our 50/50 Blend for a Living Medium
Mixing our living soil base: 50% fresh Royal Gold potting mix, 50% soil from the previous run, enriched with worm castings containing live cocoons and organic fertilizer for a balanced, microbially active medium.
We don’t throw soil away after every harvest. Instead, we keep it alive.
Why reuse soil?
Preserves beneficial microbes
Reduces cost
Cuts waste
Encourages consistent plant response across cycles
Our soil recipe
We blended:
50% fresh Royal Gold potting mix
50% soil from the previous run
Worm castings with live cocoons (microbial boost)
Organic fertilizer for balanced structure
This creates a nutrient-rich, microbially active base—perfect for clones transitioning into veg.
Root inoculation with DYNOMYCO
Right at transplant, we coated roots with DYNOMYCO mycorrhizae.
These beneficial fungi form a symbiotic bond with roots, increasing nutrient uptake, improving water efficiency, and boosting resilience.
It’s one of the best investments a grower can make in early plant health.
Planting Strategy: Clones, Pots & Early Growth
Three-clone planting strategy using Purple Caper’s Ed Rosenthal Super OG genetics
Each 5-gallon pot held three clones, arranged to maximize canopy coverage while still giving roots room to breathe.
Why three clones per pot?
Faster canopy fill
Even light distribution
Stronger competition = tighter internode spacing
More top sites without overcrowding
Light cycle for the early phase
We ran 24 hours of light for the first week.
This encourages:
Rapid rooting
Strong early vegetative growth
A compact, uniform structure
Once established, we’ll transition to an 18/6 cycle to balance growth and plant efficiency.
Airflow: Managing Circulation in Winter Conditions
We added an extra AreoWave fan to the VIVOSUN tent kit to improve canopy airflow. Gentle, consistent movement keeps the Ed Rosenthal Super OG plants breathing, prevents cold pockets in winter, and helps maintain stable humidity throughout the tent.
Airflow is the quiet hero of any indoor grow.
Why airflow matters more in winter
Cold exterior walls + warm indoor air = condensation risk.
Condensation = mold.
To prevent this, we:
Mounted AreoWave Gen2 fans to move air gently across the canopy
Ensured the tent walls don’t “sweat” during cold nights
Created a layered airflow profile (top, mid, and lower canopy movement)
Avoided direct harsh wind—plants should flutter, not shake
Good airflow also helps distribute heat from your lights and prevents hot/cold pockets around plant clusters.
Light Positioning: Preparing for the New System
Our custom VIVOSUN lighting setup — the LumaLight 400W paired with the 200W unit — mounted together for fuller spectrum, stronger canopy penetration, and more even coverage across the Ed Rosenthal Super OG canopy. This configuration gives us the flexibility and intensity we need for the new grow cycle.
Although the lighting upgrade will be covered in Blog 2, here’s where it begins.
We planned for an even canopy
Canopy uniformity is everything.
We placed the pots so that:
No plant sits under a “hot spot”
No clone ends up in a shadowy corner
Light from our future sidebars will hit lower branches
When we brought in the new 400W and 200W fixtures, installation was fast because the footprint was already mapped.
Common Mistakes When Resetting a Tent After Harvest
A smooth grow starts with avoiding the usual pitfalls:
Reusing soil without refreshing it → nutrient imbalance, compaction
Skipping tent sterilization → pests hitchhike into the next cycle
Placing clones directly under high-intensity light → stress and tacoing
Ventilation aimed directly at the canopy → windburn
Poor cable management → safety hazard + airflow restrictions
Running the same settings as summer → winter needs different VPD & RH targets
A reset is your chance to correct last cycle’s mistakes—use it well.
What's Next in This Series
Now that the tent is cleaned, refreshed, replanted, and arranged…
the real magic begins with lighting.
Our next blog dives deep into the biggest change we made this season:
**👉 Part 2 — Our Ultimate Lighting Upgrade: 400W, 200W & Side Bars Explained
(Why we changed, what we installed, and how the new system transformed our canopy.)**
If you're setting up your tent for winter, this is the perfect moment to upgrade older gear. VIVOSUN is offering excellent prices on lights, controllers, tents, and ventilation equipment.
And as always, you can use my discount code Ed420 for additional savings on select products.
Smart upgrades now will pay you back all season long.