DIY Grow Tent - Cutting all cost corners.

Hi guys, I started construction of my grow tent today and thought I should probably put it up as a journal.

I'm unemployed and basically if I happen to stumble across $20 I have to REALLY make the most of it so I thought this could benefit people immensely. I've come up with a lot of ideas to cut down on cost but keep up with a great grow environment.


No pics yet but I'll get a camera tomorrow and start it up.


Step 1.

The frame. In all honesty this is probably the thing that is going to cost the most (not including the lights and the fans).

Work out your grow space and figure out the dimensions for your frame. If your frame is 2m tall with a 1x1m footprint you now need to work out how much framing you will need. The cheapest and easiest framing around is PVC piping.

I prefer to use PVC pipe with a smaller diameter but thicker plastic. This gives you a more rigid frame but also gives you a tad more room if you're limited on space.

How you build the frame is up to you but you need to make sure it is solid. For my build I am going to include quite a few support beams to keep the frame rigid so if you're going to do the same remember to add them to your total amount of pipe needed.

I went down and bought 1m lengths of 15mm piping for $2 each (AUD) but you can get it cheaper in larger amounts (I had $10 in coins in my wallet so could only do so much haha.)


First step is to build the top and bottom frames. Simply cut your piping to size and buy some elbow joins.



Obviously for a top and bottom frame you will need 8 elbows all up, unless your tent isn't going to be a square/rectangle shape.

Simply push all pieces into place and it should look something like this.



Obviously you'd have the bottom on it too but until I get a camera I can't take photos of mine.

More coming as I complete it! Remember, we're going ultra ghetto


EDIT: forgot to mention, if you have any small off cuttings of pipe that will seem to go to waste, don't chuck them away. You can use them to add extra support to your frame no matter what the size! (unless its something stupid like 2 inches long)

So it was you holding up the bloody queue with your change!!! lol.

If it's a frame and you are saving money, do you need a bottom? Or have you done that to make it more sturdier. Whatever, cool man, I like someone who get's something from nothing. I had an old metal frame drawer, I just wrapped black/white sheeting round it and removed the drawers- small veg cab for nadda. DIY, I love it, and I am absolutely pants at it - hahaha.

Good luck,

DST

just a questionn why would you use new PVC when you can salvage all sorts of things Eg: Wood, old pvc pipes, and puls save the enviroment and dont buy pvc becasue producing pvc pipes releases one of the most toxic chemicals (forgot what the name was lol)

bishter said:

just a questionn why would you use new PVC when you can salvage all sorts of things Eg: Wood, old pvc pipes, and puls save the enviroment and dont buy pvc becasue producing pvc pipes releases one of the most toxic chemicals (forgot what the name was lol)

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Tree hug much?

now now, no need to be rude^^^^^^ but very funny though - lol. Perhaps plastic is cheaper than wood, and by growing his own he is compensating by not buying commercial weed that is sold by terrorists (or so they claim) and other such dispicable people, that do a lot more harm to our world than a few plastic pipes. Should people stop buying tents and going camping as well?

Like us growers with our 400-600 w of lights every day are saving the planet.....

High Time 420 said:

Tree hug much?

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anything wrong with treehugging? people need to just care for the enviroment more, trust im no hippy/treehugger, just caring for the enviroment thta cares for me

DST said:

So it was you holding up the bloody queue with your change!!! lol.

If it's a frame and you are saving money, do you need a bottom? Or have you done that to make it more sturdier. Whatever, cool man, I like someone who get's something from nothing. I had an old metal frame drawer, I just wrapped black/white sheeting round it and removed the drawers- small veg cab for nadda. DIY, I love it, and I am absolutely pants at it - hahaha.

Good luck,

DST

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Unless you are growing in a space that has a plastic bottom I'd recommend a bottom frame. It will be covered in plastic so that any leaks or spills can be easily cleaned and won't damage anything. Of course you don't HAVE to do this but a clean area will help with mould. I plan on doing a fairly decent tent just as cheap as possible

bishter said:

just a questionn why would you use new PVC when you can salvage all sorts of things Eg: Wood, old pvc pipes, and puls save the enviroment and dont buy pvc becasue producing pvc pipes releases one of the most toxic chemicals (forgot what the name was lol)

Click to expand...

Of course you can use anything you want if it's salvageable. I personally wouldn't use wood unless you wrap it in plastic or water proof it with a gloss coat because wood absorbs water and any humidity, which will not only promote mould growth but could weaken the structure.

I would have used old PVC pipe if I had it available but unfortunately I dont. The idea of the metal frame drawer by DST is a good one. If you have any old metal aquarium or cage stands or shelving units they can be a great substitute, but the downside is the inability to custom make to your size.

Heya!


I am going to be doing just this later today. What do you plan to use as a cover over the PVC? Obviously it has to be something that is as cheap as possible, but also able to block out 98% of light into your plants. I am looking for something in my area in a bit, so I will let you know what I find.

I have an answer to that but it will come probably tomorrow or the next day as I don't want to go ahead and explain extra steps until I'm 100% sure I can do them and they are failsafe if done correctly. I don't want to go reccomending anything that turns out to be bogus.

Ok next step.

We won't apply this step until we have finished the frame but it is something to make sure you have handy. In order to prevent spillages we want to make sure the bottom frame is lined with plastic. Panda plastic is probably the best solution but hey, we're on a budget here so we'll have to go for the next best thing.

Get yourself the following,

1. Roll of Duct Tape.



2. Roll of garbage bags.




Don't worry about the colour of the bags, if black is cheapest, buy black, if white is cheapest go for that. We're going to be adding a cheap reflective lightproof surface to it later.


Just remember, DON'T apply any of this plastic yet, just keep it handy as it will only take 2 minutes to setup once we're done with our framing

bishter said:

anything wrong with treehugging? people need to just care for the enviroment more, trust im no hippy/treehugger, just caring for the enviroment thta cares for me

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It was a joke, after reading the above it makes me wish i didn't tip my engine oil down the street drain now.

Did you know pretty much everything we do has a bad inpact on the enviroment?, I'm sure 5 meters of pvc pipe wouldn't make too much of a difference.

High Time 420 said:

It was a joke, after reading the above it makes me wish i didn't tip my engine oil down the street drain now.

Did you know pretty much everything we do has a bad inpact on the enviroment?, I'm sure 5 meters of pvc pipe wouldn't make too much of a difference.

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Stop breathing dude, you are producing CO2!!!!

I agree china, everything we do seems to have an impact on the environment. Personally I think the Earth will do whatever it wants to do. Humans are just a blip in it's history (in fact a blip is probably over exaggerating)

High Time 420 said:

It was a joke, after reading the above it makes me wish i didn't tip my engine oil down the street drain now.

Did you know pretty much everything we do has a bad inpact on the enviroment?, I'm sure 5 meters of pvc pipe wouldn't make too much of a difference.

Click to expand...

as far as I'm concerned anyone growing is being bad for the environment. Just using lights to grow is using electricity, watering your plants lowers reservoirs etc. If we're gonna get picky about it what's the point of even having an indoor grow?

ummmm..........back to the dui tent?

ahahahah whoops diy tent

i posted up some more info but I guess it got lost on the last page haha. Anyway, gonna go get the camera now, it may be 1am here but I can't sleep so fuck it, off for a drive I go! Will give me a good chance to do some more work too More posts coming up shortly

ADLpotter said:

as far as I'm concerned anyone growing is being bad for the environment. Just using lights to grow is using electricity, watering your plants lowers reservoirs etc. If we're gonna get picky about it what's the point of even having an indoor grow?

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I'm not picky! thats why i grow

bishter said:

anything wrong with treehugging? people need to just care for the enviroment more, trust im no hippy/treehugger, just caring for the enviroment thta cares for me

Click to expand...

And i also take it that you use an electric car, have never been on a plane and do not use central heating? Enough said.

Also, you want to save these, this will help build is a cheap DIY reflector for our tent, more on that later though.

I just went and priced my PVC, which came to about 30 dollars for the 40ft and the 4 3 way connectors. You plan to use trash bags for the covering? I suppose that is one way to do it. Hrm. Would you have to use multiple layers, or would one cut trashbag work? And are you planning mylar, or emergency blankets or something for the inside? AHH! The suspense is killing me!