Ghetto grow box - My first attempt

yea low stress training would be good if its a sativa. maybe if you have some electronics store nearby you could ask for a massive box from a fridge or something would be perfect hehe.

humidifier isnt necessary, whats your humidity now in the old box?

my entire room has only about 30% humidity and its going well. its not so bad having low humidity.. its high humidity that kills ur buds

I have a 60-65% variable humidity depending on the lights being on or not.
This is upped from the 26% (uncontrolled humidity level) by means of a wick system in front of the input fan.

Take a look, I have pictures of it up, previously in the journal

Fridge box, A1 love the Idea!

Is it worth actually building a cabinet for my grow? May just do that

might aswell build a permanent cab buddy. this is a hobby you wont quit very soon

Needs to be somewhat stealth! Live with family.

the most stealth and most amazing grow ive ever seen was a couch. you know thoose sleeping couches you can drag out and becomes a bed?

he had rebuilt the entire compartment under the couch. had 24 lst'ed lowryder 2's under there. was fucking crazy and you could sit in the couch in his room and not even know lol

he ran into problems during flower though and had to "lst" the buds themselves hehehe

Whats up dyzel. I was browzin around the defferent threads and came across yours. i was reading your method for co2 and was wondering what the following was for:
-1 Tbsp bicarbonate of soda
-1 Tbsp white flour
i have used yeast, sugar and water for a long time for my planted fish tanks and am now using it for my growbox also. works great but the only down fall is that it dumps alot of co2 real quick and then the amount drops quick. For a fish tank that causes the PH to drop fast. so i had to put a 5lb tank and regualtor on it. anyways, i have never heard of using white flour and bicarbonate soda with yeast.. interesting. Yeast is a bacteria which eats on the sugar. this process causes the co2. i have heard of people using bicarbonate soda in different ways, but can you give me some info behind the flour. ohh and the best of luck to your grow. i will be watching

The use of the flour and bicarb:

I come from a culinary background, and teachings have led me to the following hypothesis:

Yeast have some environmental conditions which influence their growth.
They require a source of food that can supply
nutrients (a source of nitrogen, vitamins, etc) for growth. They also need
water, which is generally supplied by the food source. In addition the
growth of yeast is influenced by the pH and temperature of the
environment. Finally the presence or absence of oxygen will influence their
growth as well as the metabolic products that they make through
fermentation (acids or alcohol).

The flour, in addition to the flour assists in feeding the fungi in question.

The bicarb alkalizes the mixture.
Yeast production over time causes an acidic buildup. The setup used in my grow is capable of lasting up to a fortnight if stirred every other day.
This is where the bicarb assists.
It will also prevent the solution for frothing up excessively and messing up the space your working in.

I used the tag angle valve attached to the top of the bottle as a regulatory valve for the CO2.
You can control, to a certain extent, the amounts being released into the grow box.

A simple gauge can be added to the setup if accuracy is key.

I hope this helped. It is my first time emulating a Carbon Dioxide enriched environment, and this seemed like the cheapest, cleanest, easiest and most effective way for me to do this, in regards to my application.

Cheers, and thanks for dropping in!

Additional improvements

I forgot to mention, I intend to add a simple water based reactor to aid in the dispersion, effectively of CO2.

I was thinking of scrapping the 1/2 inch pvc hose pipe with 1/4 inch airline tubing.

This will end up connected to a medium sized air stone which will be submersed in a cup of water within the grow box.
This aids in a few ways;

Allows more even dispersion of the gas, as it is dispersed as many tiny bubbles all over the area, somewhat diffusing the spread.
Increases humidity of the interior box, due to the current heat level, and mild water vaporisation.

The airstone is also an ideal way to disperse CO2 briefly through an aquarium!

Works to build an improved CO2 generator are in progress! Keep a look out!

Here are some pictures of my babies - 29th May 2010

Day 6 - 7

The plants are looking... OK... They are a lovely green, but I can see some white powdery deposits (mineral based?) deposits on the cotyledons, and the leaf edges.

Hope this is not going to be too huge a problem!!

May flush the roots and soil if problem persists.

they look good so far

Thanks for the check up! Hope they keep up the steady growth!

Nice setup... I used to grow in a small trash can covered by a cardboard box... Since then ive upgraded and bought a 40$ plastic storage cabinet at walmart.

crazeehaze said:

yea low stress training would be good if its a sativa. maybe if you have some electronics store nearby you could ask for a massive box from a fridge or something would be perfect hehe.

humidifier isnt necessary, whats your humidity now in the old box?

my entire room has only about 30% humidity and its going well. its not so bad having low humidity.. its high humidity that kills ur buds

Click to expand...

dyzel said:

Additional improvements

I forgot to mention, I intend to add a simple water based reactor to aid in the dispersion, effectively of CO2.

I was thinking of scrapping the 1/2 inch pvc hose pipe with 1/4 inch airline tubing.

This will end up connected to a medium sized air stone which will be submersed in a cup of water within the grow box.
This aids in a few ways;

Allows more even dispersion of the gas, as it is dispersed as many tiny bubbles all over the area, somewhat diffusing the spread.
Increases humidity of the interior box, due to the current heat level, and mild water vaporisation.

The airstone is also an ideal way to disperse CO2 briefly through an aquarium!

Works to build an improved CO2 generator are in progress! Keep a look out!

Click to expand...

I was glad to see a real answer dyzel. +rep!! most of the time the answer is .....welll such and such did it and it works great. just a couple things to throw out there. Putting an airstone in water will diffuse the co2 will diffuse it, but its goin to do it into the water. this is what causes the ph drop that i mentioned earlier. For an aquarium, i try to get the co2 dispersed into the water for as long as possible without using alot. for this an airstone is ok. but not the best because your trying make that bubble mix with the water for as long as possible. if you go to youtube and type co2 reactor you will c some reactors that trap the buble in what looks like a maze. it causes one single bubble to start at the bottom and slowly step its way up. it starts out big and by the time it gets to the top it is pretty small. that cuz almost all of the co2 is in the water. but we are not building aquariums. ANYways, what im getting at is, co2 is goin to get in the air weather its a bunch of tiny bubble or big ones. it doesnt matter. the best thing to do would either put the hose directly in the fans path so it moves the co2 around the plant. or create a halo around the top of the plant. here is a video link for that..http://www.youtube.com/user/skaterdude1229#p/u/6/aSDwpHzk8Ps. its about 6 min 30 seconds into the video. he has about 9 videos in all. just one last question, and im not nitpickin your grow at all so don't think i am. i noticed you had blue led's on your fan. do you think those will mess up their dark cycle when you go to flower.??????

brandon873 said:

i noticed you had blue led's on your fan. do you think those will mess up their dark cycle when you go to flower.??????

Click to expand...

Thats a great observation, but as stipulated, I intend to move the grow outdoors for the flowering cycle (my rooftop) and so, will not require the fans, nor the lighting, I suppose!
Should I decide to keep growing indoors, I shall change to light free fans Thanks for the +rep, and keen observation!
Regarding the CO2, that was a good video. I think I will forgo the airstone. I will keep the setup as is, with the hose right beside the input fan.

I was considering, on a suggestion, to remove the input fan, and use it as an extractor. That would mean I'd have 2 extractors, and one passive intake.
If I do this, I would need to figure a new way to disperse the gas through my chamber effectively.

Thank you, Keep checking in!

P O W E R O U T A G E

Well, that title says it all. The power just went out! This is happening rather frequently. I am considering an inverter unit or a computers UPS as a means of safety.
Fortunately, I caught the power just as it went off, and moved the kids to the rooftop (future grow area)

There is ample sunlight, actually, the weather is awesome!

Plants shall remain up here until the electricity returns.

Seeing as I have nothing else to do at the moment... !!!

But first, some pictures of the rooftop, and the plants at the moment!



Day 6 - 7
29th May 2010

Copycat said:

Nice setup... I used to grow in a small trash can covered by a cardboard box... Since then ive upgraded and bought a 40$ plastic storage cabinet at walmart.

Click to expand...

That sounds like a great way to keep light out of your set up! A garbage can is pretty large. Awesome idea!

May give it a try. Looking to enlarge the setup I have now.

Going to the electricals store.
May pick up a larger fan for extraction as the system is heating up excessively.
The grow will be moved to a larger box too, I suppose. The current one is kinda beat up now

I think I will start training my plant using LST in another week or so, so I guess a a longer, shorter height box would be better?

Day 8 - 31st May 2010

The grow has taken a new step forward. I now have a bigger box, bigger pots, and more light!

The box I am using is roughly 3x2x2, almost double the old one.

Pots are now pretty green squares! 2 and a half gallons each, these should see me through for a while! Also, they have an awesome lip, so I can easily LST using some paper clips and twine!

Plants are further from the lights than before (6 inches) As I want to initiate some slight stretch (not too much though).

Watered using collected rainfall, as natural as it gets!

Passive air intakes added to either end of the container, lots better cooling! Thanks for the suggestion!

Blue LEDs on fans won't affect photoperiod, as I am on a 24 hr Schedule!

I added 2 more 2o watt (100W eq) daylight CFLs, mounted to the sides of the grow box.
Transplanting seems to have gone rather smoothly. Lets hope I didn't mess anything up! Would hate to have damaged my babies..

I will add the CO2 pump to the setup shortly. The temperature is being maintained at a steady 77 degrees F, and has been like that for the past 6 hours (looks steady)
Humidity is up to 56%, not too bad!

Soil mixture:

Perlite, Gravel, Styrofoam, Wood Chips, Loam, Red soil. 10% of each, except loam, of which I used 50%

The loam is composted and should have enough nutrient content to see me through for about a week.

I will then resume small doses of the previously used fertiliser (used on day 3)
Want to add a fan to the setup (inside) soon to strengthen my plants a bit!


Here are a few pictures.



Comments/Suggestions/Remarks/ questions all welcome

Cheers!

there is some debate between growers about the 24/0 light schedual. i have tried it for about 6 weeks then tried an 18/6. For me the 18/6 was wayyyyy better. i didn't start having noticable amounts of growth until i introduced a dark cycle. but that could have been the type of plant i was growing. i will definaltely be watching. the 77 degrees is nice. good job on that. i wouldn't worry too much about makin them stretch. after you veg and then start to flower, you will probably hope they were smaller. LOL. i Flowered mine when it was around 8 inches tall and now its over 3 times that size. Its also a sativa though. I can tell your gettin into your new hobby. your about like me when it comes to takin pictures. its addictive.

very nice bro! looks like you are stepping up your game abit here the new box looks alot better, they will be happy in there still planning on moving them outdoors for flowering?