Project: Low Cost, Low Watts, High Yield

Hi everyone, this is my first post. New to the site and been searching it all day. I figured this would be the best place to post what I am doing and to get some feedback.

Well, as the title says, I'm building a grow enclosure that is low costing to build, consumes very low wattage and yeilds a high amount of buds for the size.

My objectives for this project are to only grow two plants to start with until I can clone. Then I will build another chamber just for the mothers or the clones unsure yet.

I was going to just take a 5-gallon bucket and put it upside down onto another 5-gallon bucket to create a chamber.

Inside the bottom 5-gallon bucket I would have two 5" net cups. Filled with Hydroton. This platform where the net cups are is adjustable in height.

Then the top 5-gallon bucket will have two holes in it for the forced air to pass through and also would house my LED bank.

This is what I plan to use.


I will be using two 5" net cups in the bottom 5-gallon bucket. This will have a ring of .25" vinyl tube fitted onto a .25" T-fitting. This will drip water into the clay stones. Then there will be a air stone in the bottom of the 5-gallon bucket putting air into the water. The net cups will be suspended above the water. So, this is kind of like a drip hyrdo plus a aerohydro setup.

The water circuit will go: pump>.25" T-fitting>t-fitting in the net cups.




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The power usage is as follows:
LED Panel: 13.8w
80 gph pump: 2.1w
Air pump : 2w

I'll have the air pump on all the time but the LED panel on a timer.

I guess, my question is can you grow in a small controlled environment and be able to grow two plants and be able to control the height of the plant but not limit the size of buds that if flowers?

I'm not after huge grow situations like some of you guys have. I just want to flower two plants at a time and yeild enough for personal usage. And since I'm a light weight that would be like 12grams every time they are done flowering. Is this possible?

And the height limit that I have in the buckets is about 15"-17" before the tops would be 3" from the LED panel in the top of the top bucket.

My worries are that the 5-gallon bucket with a diameter of 12.25" is goign to be too small in diameter to house two plants. Should I be looking at something with more width?


I'm trying to build these grow pods in a fashion that I can have a self contained unit for growing and not have to worry about a room or anything else. I'm only trying to flower two plants at once and then have two plants in another growing pod. I may end up with three pods: Mother, Clone, Flowering.


Well what do you guys think?

And is there a huge difference with the additives for the water? I have not done any reading about this and honestly, I would rather just go to Steins and buy plant food at whatever amount to the water and be done with it.

Just buy some pot if all you want to smoke is less then an 1/8th a month.

What is the point of having the top bucket? Also I've never used led's but I would imagine you wouldn't want them any further than 3 inches from the plants the entire time they are growing. Maybe more like an inch or less.

relativeood said:

Just buy some pot if all you want to smoke is less then an 1/8th a month.

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I don't want to buy, I want to grow.


The point of the top bucket is to encapsulate the growing area. This will allow me to control the temps, humidity and air flow much easier than just keeping it open.

As for the LED panel, I have not found much information on them. But, I swear by LED in anything that produces light. I know these are first gen's, but they will work because I'm not going to let my plants get bigger than 10" before flowering them.

I've heard that LED's cant take your plant past 6 inches...

If you want low cost than i would def go with cfl's over led's. Plus theres a shole cfl sub forum in indoor growing where you can get advice and comparisons.

if you havent bought the led's yet i would go with cfl, The bottom line is no matter what form of light your are using 13.8w wont get you far at all....

there are better high out put LED's that are on the market but sadly the makers of these things decided to put cheap leds in an sell it mostly as a gimmick, if ur serious about LED growing, design ur own thing from scratch...

Why the buckets? You could do much better in a rubbermaid tote. Sorry, but I don't think that LED panel will take you through flowering. I'd use CFLs, or better yet, T5HOs. Good luck!

+1 with areoking get a couple rubbermaids and stack 'em. no way will 2 plants fit in a 5 gal bucket.

Thanks for the advice guys!!!!!!!!


I found a local hydro shop (finally) and after talking with them I have decided to ditch the LED panel. I will keep taps on that tech and maybe if I have time in the figure I will make my own with quality LEDs.

I decided to just go with two 18 gal tubs. One for my flowering plants and one for my mothers. And a single 5gal aero setup for my clones.

I'm still sticking to my initial plan of low cost, low wattage and high yield. But, I have deiced to just use a 4' twin CFL setup with one soft white and one cool white bulb to start off with and just set them up to be at different times.

I'm going to be purchasing my parts this weekend and transplanting my plants that I have into my setup.


Here is what I have thus far. these are about 4wks old and I water them 3 times a day and put a zip log bag over them to hold in the moisture. The roots are already growing out the bottoms of the pots. Time to get them into a hydro setup Just hope they are both lovely ladies




I just hope that this all works out. I have 8 seeds that are medical grade marijuana and that is what I will be mainly growing/cloning. Again, this whole build and objective is to just grow enough for my personal usage. But, realistically, I'm hooked on growing. I'm actually thinking about picking up one or two aerogardens to put on the counter to grow some tomatoes and some peppers with. Why buy when you can grow? Righ guys!!!

I'm sure glad to be part of this forum!!!!

Thanks for all the great advice!! And when it comes time I'll be pullin' that first hit off my vaporizor thinkin' about this forum and you guys and all the help I got

Hey Hydro, I don't mean to be negative right off but your plants are very small for 4 weeks old. And you should not be watering them 3 times a day. They need to dry out a little between waterings. Your going to transplant from the soil into hydro?

Project: Low Cost, Low Watts, High Yield

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Sorry, but this statement is oxymoronic.

There's no such thing as "low watts, high yield". You can have low watts, low yield, or high watts, high yield, that's it. Light intensity is the main source of energy for plants, so with all else being equal, light intensity has a linear relationship with yield.

The only real way of possibly achieving your goal would be to start some seedlings indoors, in cups, under a couple of CFLs, then take the seedlings outside in May, plant them in some rich soil and grow them under the sun. Hopefully by October you'll have a couple of lbs. to harvest and you'll be good to go.

Growing indoors is a completely different ball game though, and unless you're willing to invest at least a few hundred dollars, you aren't going to get the results you're looking for.

Yes, they are small. Maybe I'm watering them too much. Those were trials. I have my medical seeds on standby.

I got all my parts today to build two units using two 18gal plastic tubs. 4 net pots per tub and a 12" long air stone for each one. A single air pump to drive both stones and two 80gph pumps in each bin.

I got everything for 110.00. Oh, and that includes the wool cubes, stem gel and food.

I have one unit built already and I have transplanted my two plants into it. I just have to get the timers for my lights. I ended up just getting a cool white CFL for my 4' ballast that I already have with bright white bulbs in it.

Time will tell.

And my definition of high yield is producing more than my materials are worth. Which, I should be able to do with 4 plants flowering at a time.