Under $100 rubbermaid grow box idea

Here's what you need to make a cheap, yet small, grow box with lighting, ventilation, and some carbon scrubbing. Great for tomato and chili plants of course.

Materials:
1 large rubbermaid container
1 large roll metal repair tape
1 42watt CFL
1 lightbulb socket
1 timer
1 trueair odor eliminating fan unit
1 roll masking tape
1 plastic bowl that fits the front of the Truair unit
2 feet pvc pipe
3 pvc elbows
1 pvc slight angle elbow (like 45 degree or less)

Trace the PVC pipe on the side of the container, near the bottom, and also on the top corner, cut holes (2 total) using a small sharp knife. The bottom will be air intake (passive) and the top will be output via suction. The top will have the Trueair unit attatched to it externally. Cut two sections of PVC pipe so that you can join the four elbows, with two elbows inside and two outside, witout leaving any gap so that the bases of the elbows are flush with the container walls. The slight elbow will be on the outside on the top, to connect with the Truair unit. So now when you have an hour to kill, get that aluminum tape and tape every square inch of the inside of the container, including the underside of the lid and the bottom of the bottom part, to block light from going through the thin plastic walls, and to make nice reflective walls. Now get the lid and cut an X slit and push the cord of the light socket through it so that the bottom of the light socket is flush with the underside of the lid, then secure it by taping the the cord to the top side of the lid. When this is complete the bulb should hang directly downwards towards the floor. Now the potentially tricky part, match the plastic bowl up with the front (air intake side) of the Truair unit, make sure it'll create a seal, some cutting and fitting may be needed. When that's OK, cut a hole for maybe eight inches of PVC pipe in the center of the bowl, secure it with masking tape to create a good airtight seal, then attach that to the Truair and create an airtight seal. Now you should be able to stick that onto the outside slight elbow, and it will suck air out of the container. I presume that it'll be possible to start maybe three plants in this unit, and they'll need to be LSTd to prevent them from touching the light, and perhaps a screen could be put around the light.

ive also improvised a rubbermaid container i have some pics on my thread

1 cfl probably isnt gonna give enough light for a plant, probably need like 3. (Hooked into a bathroom vanity light fixture.

Im making a grow box very similar to yours. For CFL's your going to need more then 1 for shure.

You need 2500 lumens per sqft of grow space.

I bought 6 23w 1600 lumen 2700k CFLs and im going to buy 6 23w 6500K CFLs today or tomorrow. To be honest I either need to get some more of these bulbs or buy bigger bulbs like 30w ones or something. You want to have plenty of lumens for your plants. I was going to use all 6 6500k bulbs for vegetative cycle and then switch to 6 2700k bulbs for flowering. My ideal goal is to have 3000 Lumens or more per sqft of grow space. Ile probably end up just buying 2 more 23w bulbs of both 2700k and 6500k grab 2 more light fixtures from home depot and have 8 of each for vegetative and flowering.

GL with your grow!

Well I built it, not growing anything yet but one 42watt bulb brings the temp up to close to 80F, so I'm not sure that it would be a good idea to use so many bulbs.

Well, I first saw the rubbermaid box on Bodom Children Of's thread. We created one for our grow and it has worked well. It is not even close to being perfect, but it works for our purposes.

We originally just planned to use it to sex our clones from mother plants and then toss the clones. It has turned out that we have decided to finish flowering the clones in the box.

We have no carbon scrubber (no real need at this moment). We have a simple fan for exhaust and 6 holes at bottom (3 on each side) for passive intake. 4 CFLs installed into the top container for light (could have more). We have recently added one more due to some plants showing lack of light on the bottom leaves/buds. We also lined the inside (very haphazardly) with mylar for reflection, and to prevent light from entering.

Hopefully, when these are fininshed, we will redo the box to be more light-proof, adjustable, etc. We will probably add more lights (CFLs) into the sides.

Rubbermaid boxes ROCK! :thumbsup:

Oh and one more thing. We have NEVER had a problem with heat. Temps stay around 78F steady. Beautious...ping!

TGF

OH, and almost forgot the pics! haha Go to my thread to see more. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by phytokind

Well I built it, not growing anything yet but one 42watt bulb brings the temp up to close to 80F, so I'm not sure that it would be a good idea to use so many bulbs.

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Got a pic? Those 42 watters are a little hot We tried them...then took them back. We are hypothetically using 23w Full Spectrum bulbs (5 of them at this time)

TGF

Edit: Oh and I THINK those 42w ones are a little high in the kelvin rating for flowering, at least the ones I've seen. :D

No pic but I think that my rubbermaid isn't the biggest, and it seems that the aluminum tape increased the temperature a good amount, perhaps by as much as 15 or more degrees. The bulb I'm using is actually in the redder spectrum, and I've got a variety that I can try. I also tried a 105watt big horticultural CFL and it brought the temp to over 100F. The Trueair also plays a factor, as it doesn't move as much air as the more serious fans, but it does relatively well.

in the seedling and vegetative stage you need to have bulbs with a color temp of 6500k they have a blue spectrum, they are known as daylight bulbs. You need 2700k red spectrum lights for the flowering stage.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PoolShark1321

in the seedling and vegetative stage you need to have bulbs with a color temp of 6500k they have a blue spectrum, they are known as daylight bulbs. You need 2700k red spectrum lights for the flowering stage.

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Yeah I know but I'm just testing temperatures right now with different wattages.