Light Deprivation Greenhouse

PeyoteReligion · May 1, 2013

Figong said:
Agreed, I would have assumed that the patents they put up are at the technology level, meaning any use of it would fall under said patent.. not specific to 1 design for a window, or greenhouse - good eye. Now the race is on, the patent office is 22 minutes from me @ 80 mph. Nah, wouldn't do that.. I don't wish to do research and invent 100s of thousands of dollars in R&D.

People wish they could have as broad of patents. In reality they are quite specific, allowing for competition to still occur in the invention field. I wish I could fund this idea. I might try using KickStarter for this idea, after I look more into it. I bet tons of people on this site would support the idea.

kpmarine · May 1, 2013

UncleBuck said:
fuck, i never meant to be a grower. when i started growing for my wife and i, i was working a $20/hr job with full benefits, stock sharing, 6% match on the 401k (aka free money), and tons of other little perks like free lunch, tons of PTO, and the like. i would give away ounces to neighbors. i even gave it away after i got laid off until the UI started dwindling.

and i'm the same way about seeing a better way to rebuild things. probably got it from my dad who is a carpenter. when we are at a restaurant we focus more on the details of the trim job or how they could have tiled the place better rather than the food. my brother is the same way.

Funny you should mention your dad being a carpenter. Mine was too, he used to specialize in finish carpentry and custom cabinets. When I was a kid, I went to help him on a lot of his jobs during the summer. I was the gopher for his crew when they wrapped up the original build on the Grill on Hollywood at the Hollywood and Highland Center. When he started running a small framing crew, then I got to work on that during the summers. In hindsight, I was horribly underpaid; I was making $100 a house that we finished (Though, when you're part of a 4 man crew that's knocking out 2 houses a month; that's not shabby for a 13yo.). Thanks to him, I can spot a bad joint in some floor moulding from across the room; he's also the reason I feel constantly ashamed of all my woodworking. Those were some fun times, though. Even after I got out of the Marines, I got drawn back into contracting. There's something about it; there's a special pride in looking at something and saying "Fuck yeah, I built that.".

UncleBuck · May 1, 2013

i've only ever built two pieces in my life that i wanted to turn out nicely and/or take pride in. and even though i notice all my mistakes in building those pieces, no one else ever does. and every time i walk by them, the feeling of "fuck yeah, i built that" is as fresh as ever.

but my dad is also a finish carpenter now and would put even my best work to shame. but he does have a 30 year head start on me.

kpmarine · May 1, 2013

UncleBuck said:
i've only ever built two pieces in my life that i wanted to turn out nicely and/or take pride in. and even though i notice all my mistakes in building those pieces, no one else ever does. and every time i walk by them, the feeling of "fuck yeah, i built that" is as fresh as ever.

but my dad is also a finish carpenter now and would put even my best work to shame. but he does have a 30 year head start on me.

It's the curse of creating something; there's always something you could have done better. It's the same for me. I always see where I screwed up. When I finished hanging some crown moulding for my roommate's in-laws; I spent the rest of the day noticing all the flaws. On the other hand, everyone else has thought it looks awesome. At a certain point you have to think "Well, everyone else thinks it looks good.", but you can't forget that you've seen it done better. It's that balance between practicality and perfectionism.

Flaming Pie · May 1, 2013

kpmarine said:
It's the curse of creating something; there's always something you could have done better. It's the same for me. I always see where I screwed up. When I finished hanging some crown moulding for my roommate's in-laws; I spent the rest of the day noticing all the flaws. On the other hand, everyone else has thought it looks awesome. At a certain point you have to think "Well, everyone else thinks it looks good.", but you can't forget that you've seen it done better. It's that balance between practicality and perfectionism.

It is the same with art. People praise me and all I see is where I could of done better.

The real torture is when you are learning to do somthing like sculpture or ceramics and EVERYTHING could be done better. Drives me insane!

Rising Moon · May 1, 2013

So lets talk ventilation...

I am building some light dep "cages" (only legal way outdoors for me...) in my backyard 6x6x6...

My plan is to hook up an 8 inch inline fan, and suck out, using landscape drainage tubing instead of 8 inch ducting.

My biggest concern is humidity...

kushking42 · May 1, 2013

Rising Moon said:
So lets talk ventilation...

I am building some light dep "cages" (only legal way outdoors for me...) in my backyard 6x6x6...

My plan is to hook up an 8 inch inline fan, and suck out, using landscape drainage tubing instead of 8 inch ducting.

My biggest concern is humidity...

size of the fan should make for quick exchanges. i like to run ducting to the top of the dep to pull the hot air out. how long do u plant to keep it covered? i think last year my schedule was cover around 5 pm and uncover when its completely dark.

UncleBuck · May 1, 2013

Rising Moon said:
So lets talk ventilation...

I am building some light dep "cages" (only legal way outdoors for me...) in my backyard 6x6x6...

My plan is to hook up an 8 inch inline fan, and suck out, using landscape drainage tubing instead of 8 inch ducting.

My biggest concern is humidity...

i have one of those box fans mounted on the back of my GH. my plan is to build a little cage of sorts that hangs on cleats for the dark hours. the cage basically hangs over the length of the fan and angles away allowing for the fan to keep pushing air out of the GH, while blocking light through a simple 90 degree bend.

this part has been the most overlooked part of my design so far, so we'll see if it pans out as i imagine it today.

UncleBuck · May 1, 2013

instead of spending $60 on a huge roll of 6 mm black plastic only to find out it wouldn't work, i spent $10 on a small roll of 4 mm black plastic sheeting to test for proof of concept.

verdict: it works very well.

i doubled it up, although just a single sheet is probably sufficient.

work is going slowly today, will probably have it all done by tomorrow and throw some pics up.

wolfpackleader · May 1, 2013

Man i have so much experience with gh's if anybody needs help pm me i have no problem answering questions . I have battled the temp and humidity as well as smell and I have neighbors so close youd shit yourself. Stealth is key with a good greenhouse you can grow as much as you want hcopters cant see through if you get the right film. seeing a heliccopter above your gh is no joke scary though so be prepared to come close to shitting yourself but i harvested so yeh

UncleBuck · May 2, 2013

wolfpackleader said:
Man i have so much experience with gh's if anybody needs help pm me i have no problem answering questions . I have battled the temp and humidity as well as smell and I have neighbors so close youd shit yourself. Stealth is key with a good greenhouse you can grow as much as you want hcopters cant see through if you get the right film. seeing a heliccopter above your gh is no joke scary though so be prepared to come close to shitting yourself but i harvested so yeh

less talk more advice.

how would you go about constructing a light dep GH in the 500-800 dollar range?

UncleBuck · May 2, 2013

well, there are some light cracks. mainly in the corners (easy to fix) and in the rafters (probably easy to fix). should be able to have it all sealed up with an hour or two of kludging around tomorrow.

the entire covering takes 6 minutes to put on or take off.

not the most beautiful thing in the world, but it should suffice for my purposes.

2641266d1367549019-light-deprivation-greenhouse-cimg3278.jpg

2641267d1367549041-light-deprivation-greenhouse-cimg3280.jpg

kpmarine · May 3, 2013

Looks like it will do nicely.

UncleBuck · May 3, 2013

kpmarine said:
Looks like it will do nicely.

just need to trim the corners so the plastic will lie flat, and staple some scraps of the black sheeting to the small boards that i use to plug the cracks in the roof and we should be in business.

kpmarine · May 3, 2013

I may have lucked out with some really stable plants in my small light-dep attempt last year, but I didn't have to worry about the little leaks. I locked mine in a shed that had a good bit of indirect light bouncing in; enough that I could find stuff without bringing a flashlight.

UncleBuck · May 3, 2013

kpmarine said:
I may have lucked out with some really stable plants in my small light-dep attempt last year, but I didn't have to worry about the little leaks. I locked mine in a shed that had a good bit of indirect light bouncing in; enough that I could find stuff without bringing a flashlight.

i guess what's important is not so much that it is pitch black, but that it is dark enough and consistently timed.

i had my plants flower in the spring last year while the light from the kitchen window and porch light blared on them.

during the summer, a full moon on a clear night makes it bright enough so that i cast a shadow. a full moon on a partly cloudy night makes it even brighter with the clouds reflecting the light.

kpmarine · May 3, 2013

UncleBuck said:
i guess what's important is not so much that it is pitch black, but that it is dark enough and consistently timed.

i had my plants flower in the spring last year while the light from the kitchen window and porch light blared on them.

during the summer, a full moon on a clear night makes it bright enough so that i cast a shadow. a full moon on a partly cloudy night makes it even brighter with the clouds reflecting the light.

My theory is that it's relative brightness and exposure time. My soil garden was right in line with the kitchen windows and the back porch light; they didn't stop flowering either. My light-dep was irregular as hell though. I had a bad habit of forgetting to take them in and put them back out on time. So they had a sporadic light schedule. Then they'd go into a shed full of light leaks, but with all of the light having to come through cracks and diffuse.

UncleBuck · May 3, 2013

kpmarine said:
My theory is that it's relative brightness and exposure time. My soil garden was right in line with the kitchen windows and the back porch light; they didn't stop flowering either. My light-dep was irregular as hell though. I had a bad habit of forgetting to take them in and put them back out on time. So they had a sporadic light schedule. Then they'd go into a shed full of light leaks, but with all of the light having to come through cracks and diffuse.

keeping that regular schedule is essential. and if i ever miss my lights off time, i make sure to wait 12 hours to turn them on again.

i've decided that with the greenhouse, i am going to go ahead and close it up around 5:30 - 6 every evening, and then remove the cover around midnight once it's dark out. that way i don't have to wake up so damn early after keeping guard all night. i would probably miss it 4 out of 5 mornings if i tried to wake up at 7 after going to bed around 5:30.

kpmarine · May 3, 2013

UncleBuck said:
keeping that regular schedule is essential. and if i ever miss my lights off time, i make sure to wait 12 hours to turn them on again.

i've decided that with the greenhouse, i am going to go ahead and close it up around 5:30 - 6 every evening, and then remove the cover around midnight once it's dark out. that way i don't have to wake up so damn early after keeping guard all night. i would probably miss it 4 out of 5 mornings if i tried to wake up at 7 after going to bed around 5:30.

Given my experience before, I'd say you won't wreck anything by missing the times a collective week or so. That's about the times I shot for.

UncleBuck · May 3, 2013

kpmarine said:
Given my experience before, I'd say you won't wreck anything by missing the times a collective week or so. That's about the times I shot for.

i get up at about 10 am every morning to turn off my lights and feed my chickens. if the chickens aren't squawking, which happens often, i am liable to miss lights off. happens plenty during every cycle, never seen anything weird happen because of it.

they seem to do fine as long as they always get 12 hours of dark. i have some stable strains and some that love to hermy, they've behave the same way whether i get them to the minute every time or miss by an hour a handful of times.

still fun to watch newbies freak out about missing by 20 minutes.

Light Deprivation Greenhouse

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