My Therorhetical Grow Box

doej35

Active Member
Hi. I'm new to the forum, so greets. Was wondering if someone could look at my grow box design and inform me of any flaws one might see, so I do not waste my time in advance. If I am correct I should have ~7" on each side of the pot and ~4" - 8" of growing space (vertically). Check the attachments for an image of my design. Thanks
 

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bterz

Well-Known Member
I think you want a passive intake on the bottom and exhaust on the top, as hot air rises.
 

doej35

Active Member
Nice. That would make a lot more sense. I'll definitely make those changes when I implement this design. Much appreciated.

EDIT: I made the changes in my design as suggested above. Here it is attached for those who might want to try to make the same thing; should be pretty "green", not too noisy, and cost around 40 USD to make. I'll post a picture of my end result once I finish making it to show you guys what it looks like as a finished product.
 

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doej35

Active Member
I purchased everything for about 40.00 - 50.00 USD as expected. I got the following:

01. Box (2.5' w, 1.5 ' h, 1' d) - 9.00 USD
02. Hygro-Thermometer - 1.00 USD
03. Two PC Fans - 14.97 USD (4 in pack)
04. 9v Battery Snap Clips - 3.00 USD
05. Light socket - 3.00 USD
06. Cord - 1.00 USD
07. Timer - 6.00 USD
08. 2 9v Battery - 6.00 USD
09. 75 Watt CFL 1100 lms - 5.00 USD
10. Ceramic Pot (5") - 2.00 USD
11. Water Catcher - 0.68 USD

The prices may vary as I seriously don't remember and I through away my receipt. It took me 4 hours to construct it. The only tools I used was a finger nail clipper, screw driver, needle nose pliers, and electrical tape. It is sitting at a perfect 50% humidity and a concerning 85 degrees F; I am looking into solving this; maybe another exhaust and/or intake (I have 2 more PC Fans to play with if necessary).

You should only need about 1400 lms per square foot, it couldn't hurt to go a bit bigger but I am already running hot so I want to see how it does for a few weeks, as is, before I beef it up. The box I bought is naturally shinny and it glows; it looks like a giant blue light bulb and it is nearly silent. I'll post pictures of it in a little bit; I'm still getting use to it.
 

doej35

Active Member
I am only growing one plant. And, I intend to keep it very small, probably no bigger than 8" - 12" long with a max of 4.5" vertically, which is why I used such a small box/pot. No, the light isn't adjustable, because I am trying to keep the plant at max height of 4" using the LST technique.

Here are pictures of my box. You can see how bright it is. I wish the box could be less wide but with the same height, I think I might yield larger nugs, but whatever. That isn't too noticeable is it? It has a lid, in the night picture you can see the cord running from the top. Greets!
 

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doej35

Active Member
That's not a garbage can, it's a rubber made storage unit. I really wish I could have had more access to better tools then I could have made a wooden box with the exact dimensions I was going for; I'll perfect it in 4 months. I told you it was going to be cheap. Just give me some time to learn from it and eventually it *will* become a computer digitally controlling my tiny ecosystem. In fact I was originally planning to use a Computer case, but ran out of time and went with what I could find. Cheers
 

Rix

Well-Known Member
You first need to get rid of those 9v fans,upgrade&nowhere near enough light.
 

artinas

Active Member
you need WAY more light bro... get an enviro light if you want to go with CFL
those pc fans should be fine tho but i think you should do what i did and just splice the wires from the fans to work with old cell phone chargers... that way you dont have to keep buying 9 volt battery's all the time
 

doej35

Active Member
Brilliant! I was trying to figure out a way to power my fans. I wanted to keep it green as possible, but I also don't want to keep buying new batteries every other week or less. I do have an old phone charger, so I am going to go ahead and do that. I also need to cut out that blue light that lights with the fan for when my light is timed to be off.

I keep reading different figures. One person says 1400/per sq feet and another says 2000/per sq feet. My issue is to not over-clock photosynthesis as I don't want it to burn its self out. It is thought that heat and soil play little parts in photosynthesis and that it is indeed light that drives that affect coupled with the proper heat and soil. Does anyone have any scientific data that suggests the idea lumens per square feet? I'm going small but I want to yield as big as possible.

Also, has anyone tried introducing music or any type of positive sound to their plants with any success? I was thinking about playing some Mozart or something for it to see if it responds well to music known to show positive improvements in animals/humans.
 
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