Building single-plant growbox, I want your opinions!

Yeah you can be an asshole but I was willing to tolerate it because you know more than I do haha, and everyone has their days, I'm not offended. I took a lot more shit than this when I was a noob at Starcraft and again ad Diablo 2 haha. Eventually I was the one giving advice. But yeah, I've read so much I just got tired of it all, I will read that one you posted though, just not tonight because I have to leave in an hour, I have a previous engagement. I also prefer learning from a direct and personalized answer to one of my questions, as opposed to generalized answers for everyone. I appreciate the time you're putting into pointing me in the right direction. Hope you're here all the way!

knowing the basics will allow you to get the job done right the first time..

I'm a hands on guy.. but I took the time to read and I got 1 gram per watt on my very first grow.. and so can you..

and so can anyone...

but if you start doing everything wrong cause you didn't read.. it's gonna take you 3 or 4 times as long...

read bro.. no one will spoon feed you the whole way...

I'll be here... and I will do what I can...

I won't be getting that kind of results I doubt, I've got over 100 watts in that box. But that's the same power consumption as if I left a single incandescent bulb on in my kitchen so I'm not complaining about my power usage at all. I'll keep reading and learning though. I've absorbed about as much knowledge as I possibly could in the past 2 days. I didn't really know a thing about the plant until joining this site so I've already come a longgg way. Anyway I'm out for the night I think. Thanks again Gypsy.

Fractus said:

I won't be getting that kind of results I doubt, I've got over 100 watts in that box. But that's the same power consumption as if I left a single incandescent bulb on in my kitchen so I'm not complaining about my power usage at all. I'll keep reading and learning though. I've absorbed about as much knowledge as I possibly could in the past 2 days. I didn't really know a thing about the plant until joining this site so I've already come a longgg way. Anyway I'm out for the night I think. Thanks again Gypsy.

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Its a good idea, but not enough space before heat issues and space period!.... will prevail and stealth does not exist if it glows in the dark!

def a good set up man and i think i was the only person who realized your solution to the hight problem. by the time he gets deep into veg this box will be double the size. rather than taping it up (dont do this while your plant is in it) you could spray paint the whole outside black to reduce the glow. did you leave the passive intake holes? it looked like you just taped over them. a good way to have intake holes and not wory about light leaking in is to use a foot of ducting shoved in those holes. what else did i want to bring up?...

oh the leds, ya it dosnt really matter if you have them at this stage because a plant can get 24 hrs of light without stress at this point. when you get to a strict 12/12 flowering period you will need to figure out how to get those led lights off your fans (do the bulbs unskrew?) or get new ones, ones without the lights should be cheaper. oh and the pot, you dont have one, its just filled with soil. i like using pots so i can move my plant around and make changes to my set up.

good luck bro

Thanks for the advice bro! Yeah tha passive intake holes are there, I think i described it somewhere, one is completely open and the other has a dryer sheet tacked over it. I probably won't leave it there although it's doing a great job at holding negative pressure. Note that both holes are 3inches in diameter, that's a fair amount of intake for a smaller box like this one. Exchanging approx. 70cfm at the moment.

Paint it black! great idea, yes naturally i would secure my plant first though. I may just nicely seal up the inside and then spray the outside, my plan will have to go 20 minutes without fresh air but I think it can handle it.

The LED's are wired directly to a small circuitboard. I'm going to investigate the right wa to go about bypassing them, (it's probably as simply as breaking the lights off and connecting the anode/cathode to each other to complete the circuit). I tried covering them up with tape, not so effective because the whole fan is transparent so light reflects back into them and into my box. But yeah at the young stage I really wasn't worried.

I couldn't get my hands on a pot that would nicely fit in this thing and be able to have enough soil so I just filled my box, but the nice thing about this (since Ishifter my exhaust to the top) is that after I simply remove 2 light sockets, the box itself is a completely mobile plant-pot with 2 large and 2 small holes cut into it (2 passive vents, 2 small holes for sockets to go in). I think when/if I need to flush it, it won't be hard. I'll jab some holes in the bottom of my box and set it right in the bathtub lol.

i like what you have going. definitely not something i have seen before. i think it is going to be hard to control the distance the light is fro the plant with that setup....which is pretty crucial.

Instead of controlling the position of the lights to the plants I've been reading about how to position the plant according to the lights - tying it down and growing the shape and size I want once it gets older.

Here's a couple pics of my plant, taken today.


Canopy

Woyld a bulb that doesnt produce alot of heat still work good

Absolutely. They need the light, not the heat. Which is why you've (hopefully) never seen anyone in your life that grew in incandescent bulbs. You want your plants to have a nice air temperature, like 75-85 degrees F.

Stoner42070 said:

Woyld a bulb that doesnt produce alot of heat still work good

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Such as......

we do not have intense light without heat yet... that's in the future still.. unfortunately...

GypsyBush said:

Such as......

we do not have intense light without heat yet... that's in the future still.. unfortunately...

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I think what he meant is bulbs that efficient in light and not producing much heat (like my fluorescents). I don't think he's asking about bulbs that run cold haha. But damn, won't that be the day?! And they will have fans built right into them so they are blowing-cool-bulbs. Sick. Just have an array of those for your plants to vine in and around and get super lighting from all angles without burning. Imagine..

i mean the intention with your box is good, your going to end up with issues down the road. get a proper box then you can modify it however you want from there.

check out this box. it is roughly 1x1x3 (depth on the inside is only 10inches). like you it has the outtake at top with passive intake in the bottom. however, with the adjustable shelf you can move those plants right up to within a centimeter of the bulbs if you want. the setup now has 6 bulb spaces available, but the thing has maintained a 150watt hps (With a few extra heat precautions). i love it for vegging things or overflow clones now, but in the day this thing was the 1 and only. also, putting dirt in a pot...is amlost a given, is pretty helpful in watering, trimming, transplanting, cleanliness, training of the plant in order to maximize yield on the small area and wattage.

check out the grow faqs and keep reading on here and youll keep learning more and more. not a grow goes by that i am not learning something.

Thanks dude, that's helpful info. I like your box design, shelves for the plant is way smarter than spending money trying to figure out ways to change the height of your lighting.

The nice thing about my box though is once i take off the cover and unscrew those two bulb fixtures in the base, it IS a pot. Completely mobile, easy to work with. I really don't think a pot was necessary for this setup. It's just a big pot with buit in lights and a cover, essentially. It's very clean too, I don't want to transplant it again, the biggest I want this thing to get is going to be inside that box, I don't have the ability to make anything any bigger where I'm living, trust me. This is just my new hobby Entertainment, you might say.

Fractus said:

This is just my new hobby Entertainment, you might say.

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and a very good hobby indeed...

i guess as the plant grows you can train by tieing limbs to the walls...maybe those fishhook screws. that would be pretty sweet if you had that hole thing filled in around the side bulbs.

That actually is my intention, the bulbs aren't producing enough heat to hurt the plants even if they get really close, I would like to have it grown in and around all my bulbs. It will be easy to twist some fishhook screws into styrofoam sidewalls too, so far I'm actually liking what I have, I don't regret building this thing despite all the minor snags I've encountered so far.

Also, I have 8 blue LEDs for sale that I just ripped out of my fans, I found out they are all wired in parellel with the fan so disconnecting them had no effect on the fan itself, I just broke them all off lol. Just kidding about the "for sale" part.

Fractus said:

so far I'm actually liking what I have, I don't regret building this thing despite all the minor snags I've encountered so far.

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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:

lol that is the epitome of an antistealth box hahahaha

Updated plant pics from prototype styro-growbox, courtesy of the Motorola V3c


More little leaves are just sprouting at every node now, I can almost WATCH it grow!

Edit: Another detail I forgot to mention, My plant is already smelling delicious! But I fear soon I will be able to smell it through my vents so tomorrow is D.I.Y. carbon filter day! I'll have pics of how I do it, another creative idea - staying with the theme though.