Building single-plant growbox, I want your opinions!

Usuf, didn't you find that it was just worth it to pony up the cash and get the HPS?

If you had it to do over, would you still have gone with HID lighting for flower?

Fractus said:

Gypsy's tent IS bad ass but i'm looking for something much more primitive. I know for less cost it's probably not possible to make anytrhing more effective and efficient than that tent but it's just a lot bigger and more complex (and more expensive initially) than what I want to do. Although I really might get some ducting and a 4inch inline fan because it looks badass.

I checked thundercats reflector, pretty sweet really. There are so many ideas running around in my head now I just need to decide on one or a few and get reative but sticking to the rules of growtents/boxes.

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I just meant it as a point of reference to a tent...

to show how easily it can be done... like wrapping a gift

the tent itself cost $50 and you could easily run it with cfls or whatever ...

...


can I ask you a question?...

What is your ULTIMATE goal in growing?

bigjesse1922 said:

Usuf, didn't you find that it was just worth it to pony up the cash and get the HPS?

If you had it to do over, would you still have gone with HID lighting for flower?

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I would absolutely positively spend the coin on HID for flowering if I had to start over again. The ballast, reflector and 2 bulbs(1 was a MH convo) cost $125 CAD. The first harvest paid for it x10. I decided on the rubbermaid so that I could start a grow cycle with no flowering downtime ;D

Holy hell do I know you?? Haha. I'll check out your setup, and come back in an hour and see what I've done with mine for now until I think of something better

I asked the same question Gypsy and never really got a straight answer. I don't think he knows yet. I think he is going to figure it out at he goes. Which, will frustrate him.

What is your ultimate goal? If you don't know, take a few minutes, sit down and think about it.

Get back to us.

Oh sorry guys I completely overlooked Gypsy's question, I was reading the last post on the previous page and replied to it, my bad.
My real goal is to find the least expensive way possible to grow the nicest plant that I can in the space that I am willing to sacrifice for it. That's a pretty specific goal really, I bought all the cheapest supplies and I'm growing a healthy looking plant (so far) and I don't have a lot of room for this and don't want to go overboard on my first attempt. I wanna start small, go start to finish for educational purposes. And probably on my next try I will go bigger scale.

So basically I am right.

Sure, you want to grow the nicest plant you can. That's a given, or at least should be.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to find your happy place in terms of what you want to do and what you want your goal to be. Just keep it cheap until then is my advice, because every penny you spend now is going to be replaced eventually (for the most part, not everything, obviously).

GypsyBush said:

I think you are doing good...
It's a nice experiment...

It will teach you a lot ..

And it's way better for you than crack.."lol:

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truuuu dat!

do you want the least expensive way to grow ... or do you want the least expensive buds?

there is a difference...

look at this box

I'm really looking for the least expensive grow. A little higher power bill won't phase me, paying for wattage as low as what I'm using, there won't be a significant $$ difference, it would take years for it be equal cost to run expensive equipment and require less. watt/bud doesn't concern me at this point. I'm really just looking for the cheapest setup I can come up with that works to grow a pretty plant. Today I knew my plant needed something rearraged or it was going to go downhill, I'm still looking into different boxes but for now this is what I have resorted to:


Lights, cords, fans are all now installed in the upper compartment of the top cooler. The cover was cut to fit inside and separates the grow section from the electrical stuff.


What the inside of the top half looks like. Using this setup I can adjust the height of the lights up until the point where if I need to I can mount straight into the top of the box and remove the median altogether. The holes you see cut into it is the only place where air can come for my exhaust fans, it pulls from directly above the plant with the passive holes still in the bottom. My plant is getting blown around when I look through my passive vents so I know it's working.. If you're concerned that the light fixture may fall out of place, I tested that too, and the friction alone from the snug fit of the styrofoam shelf is enough to support the weight, the duct tape is just precautionary, and helps seal any airleaks, I want it all to go through my overhead slots. You have also noticed I reduced to 4 bulbs instead of six. I did this because of heat and also for space. Hopefully it is still ample light for the plant to keep growing at it's current rate.


My baby was curling, but the temperature is much lower now as you can see, maybe this will do the trick! Although this pic was taken at 2200h and the ambient temp was around 75. My thermo there is reading 26 Celcius (79 F).

looks good man, digging the upgrade. its so simple it could actually work

Since then I put in a little fresh soil and watered, even gave a quarter dose of cheap ass ferts, I did it once before and it didn't hurt anything, maybe even helped it grow faster, so I did it again. I got these little miracle-gro singles, water soluble. I just sprinkled a little into my bottle of water and then poured it in. 24-8-16. I'm not PH-ing unless the plant shows signs of stress, if it doesn't I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. I'm open to suggestions if anyone can think of anything that will make my improved box any better. (As long as you don't say "get a new box" )

Fractus...

I owe you an apology..

I thought you were actually trying to get CHEAP BUDS...

But for what you are trying to do ... it's perfect...

My mis-understanding...

Sorry... now it all makes more sense...


Keep it up...

And I owe you an apology for being such a shitty newb, we had many misunderstandings, I learned from all of it though. Glad to see the past is behind us then Thanks for the supposrt Gypsy!

She looks pretty good...

The leaves look to be curled upward slightly...or is it just me?

Yeah the are curled, the plant outgrew the old box design and got a bit too close to the lights, today was renovation day. Hopefully it goes back to normal. I think I fixed the problem. I'll let it adjust for a day or two and post more pics, see if there's any improvement.

I assume there is sodium in the miracle grow? NaCl?

I really don't know, the only ingredients listed on the package are Nitrogen ->24%, Phosphate in the form of P2O5 ->8%, and Potash (K2O) ->16%. That only adds up to 48% though, no idea what else is in it.

If your soil has nutes in it don't fertilize anymore for a while you will end up over doing it. Its one of the most common mistakes newbs make. Its much better to underfeed than overfeed.