Budget Grow Box/Clean Room??

I'm on a super tight budget. I've got everything i need except a place to do it in. I have animals in the house so hair/dirt etc is a concern. I want a completely sealed area, big enough to hold Two mother plants and start throwing 10 of their clones straight into vegging for quick harvests. I'm not super crafty so i dont want to build my own from the ground up, however i'm not too bad at 'ghetto rigging' things for my purpose.

I will be using CFL's so heat isnt a huge concern. Wash-ability is important. I want to be able to easily spray down the room with bleach and wipe it all down easily.


I've been looking at these Secret Jardin tents and they're really nice but far too expensive. I'm only looking at around 50 dollars for this. The "Dark Street II" is about 100 USD, but its only one single compartment and a lot of wasted vertical space for my rapid clone/harvest i have planned.


Has anyone had experience converting Refrigerators or those Deep Freezers into grow boxes? I was thinking i could probably get a broken one real cheap, however i'm concerned with mold or other bacterial problems associated with them, and it would be hard to get all the wiring and air ducting into them. Bonus of the fridge is if i can get a big one, i could probably use the freezer section for my mothers 24/7 lights and fridge section for 12/12 ^_^


What other sealed / "clean room" type of environments could i (re)use for this on the cheap? Preferably something fairly easy to convert but if not that's ok, i'm more worried about the price.

$50 is a tight budget to get started in. But it can be done. Does this budget include lights as well? If so, I would spend most of it on light and Soil. You can grow without many things, but Light you need.

Converting an old fridge isn't TOO hard. and the 2 compartments will work well for your plans. You can pull all of the guts out of the back and you should have holes to run your wires. If you have a Sawzall, that would make it easy to get a hole large enough for air circulation. Put a Passive intake at the bottom, and have a fan pull the warmer air out of the top. You can buy Hepa filters to put over the intake to keep pet hair and dust out.

A tip for starting out on a tight budget... E-mail all the Nutrient companies and ask for samples. Most will give you many samples to try out. and these free nutes can get you started.

Also..

You can convert old wardrobes, Cabinets, Empty PC cases, Dressers, Cardboard Boxes have been used for grow boxes with GREAT results.

Are you planning to go soil or hydro?

If you would like to try Hydro, Google "Hempy Bucket" it is a passive hydro technique that costs next to nothing to run. and could be done with most anything you have around the house. Old milk jugs, etc...

I started my plants on my bathroom counter, now they're in a large 25.5"/14"/27" cardboard box, lined with tinfoil and garbage bags lol. They've had massive improvement in the box, however its far too small, and this is the biggest box i can get my hands on.

I think the fridge or deepfreezer with a hepa filter would be my best option. It would be really hard to seal up my closet or dresser or other piece of furniture. If i put a carbon filter on the exhaust, do i need to worry about smell coming from the intake? I'm guessing probably not, but smell is a concern

I really like this free neuts idea! I didn't know they'd do this! Right now i'm using some basic Miracle-Gro 24-8-16 and im pretty sure that's not optimal at all. They're green and doing good, though a few of the leaves don't look as healthy as they could be. How would i word that email? I'll probably ether sound clueless or like im begging hah

Right now im growing in Miracle-Gro 'Seed Starting Potting Mix", they are far from seedlings now, but seem to be doing well in this soil. Its not mixed with anything else. I think im going to stick with soil for a couple of grows and get to know the plants this way first. Hydro seems better but much more complicated, and i cant afford the PPM meters and all of that. Soil seems to give a bit of a buffer for newbie screwups. I want to try the 'party cups' style with clones too.

Lights are 4 random CFL's from around my house. I know at least one is 2700k, but im not sure of the others.