Girls can be thrifty too...

So, I posted before about my little seedlings starting to stretch in my windowsill cause the light wasn't consistent enough so I had to think of a solution that works on a limited budget and efficient in properly growing my baby girls (hopefully) until they can be transplanted at their final location & this is what I've concocted:

Materials:
35 gallon "rubbermaid" tupperware: 8.00 at K-Mart
Surge protector: 6.00 at K-mart
Plug to Light bulb adapter (x2): 4.00 at K-mart
Split socket extender (x2): 3.00 at Home Depot
3 Gallon pots (x6): 9.00 at Big Lots
Tin foil: on hand
CFL 100W bulbs (x4): 11.00 (1,600 lumens per bulb)
Ghetto rigged air purifier: on hand

I'm planning on getting a computer fan for intake, I only have a hole at the moment, but the temperature is fine.

Total: 41.00

ps. I broke a bulb so right now I'm only using 3, I hope its enough until tomorrow.

& here's some pictures



Since this is my first attempt any comments are much appreciated!

Namaste guys & happy growing

Hey pretty decent setup for your first time I started with a ghetto rigged setup too, One thing are those cfl bulbs 100w equivalent? if so dont go by those readings the true wattage is the number it shows first not the equivalent, You might want to pick up more bulbs eventually I had 16 CFLs when i started out for 2 plants. All in all a good start good luck

EDIT: also you may want to ditch the tin foil supposedly burns your plants by creating heat spots from the crinkled edges from your lights. Although I've never really seen this done I used to have foil too awhile back, Some white spray paint or a security blanket there made from mylar or maybe a heat shield from the sun for your car would probably work better then the foil, Just some things to think about is all

Dank Budz said:

Hey pretty decent setup for your first time I started with a ghetto rigged setup too, One thing are those cfl bulbs 100w equivalent? if so dont go by those readings the true wattage is the number it shows first not the equivalent, You might want to pick up more bulbs eventually I had 16 CFLs when i started out for 2 plants. All in all a good start good luck

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Thanks man, really appreciate it! I think I'm going to try and get another extension chord & double my lights, It's just so hard to get them to hang right I'm so scared one's going to fall and crush a plant haha

looks like a nice little set up small and compact but would suggest upgrading your bulbs the lumen output seems a bit low you can get cfls with better lumen outputs than that and make sure your buying cool white cfls for the veg stage and warm white for flowering. if this helped +rep

iriefarmer said:

Thanks man, really appreciate it! I think I'm going to try and get another extension chord & double my lights, It's just so hard to get them to hang right I'm so scared one's going to fall and crush a plant haha

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Yeah I see you got them held up from what looks like a clothes hanger? hmm finding a way to mount my lights was a problem for me too when i was using CFL. Could maybe get a small board that you could drill some screws into and connect the power strip to the board and should be big enough for 2 of the power strips or surge protectors or whatever they have holes in they back of them so they can be easily mounted to things. And just buy a few more socket adapters and Y adapters you should be good.

why dont you attatch your light board to the top of you box should be real simple with just a couple of screws..

shadowdarker said:

why dont you attatch your light board to the top of you box should be real simple with just a couple of screws..

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Because if the light is too far away it's wasted

Dank Budz said:

Yeah I see you got them held up from what looks like a close hanger? hmm finding a way to mount my lights was a problem for me too when i was using CFL. Could maybe get a small board that you could drill some screws into and connect the power strip to the board and should be big enough for 2 of the power strips or surge protectors or whatever they have holes in they back of them so they can be easily mounted to things. And just buy a few more socket adapters and Y adapters you should be good.

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Yeah it is a clothes hanger lol & I just saw a post where someone made a makeshift ballast out of a wood plank like that. I'm going to try my best and do that, granted I have absolutely no experience with building anything like that but its worth a shot

or even just drill a couple holes and zip tie your lights to top of box proplem solved. just tape over the holes afterwards dont want any light disrupting the night time cycle.

nice setup. Quick question(s) tho....what is the 'fan' on the right side? is that for airflow or exhaust? and how exactly do you have it rigged up?

iriefarmer said:

Yeah it is a clothes hanger lol & I just saw a post where someone made a makeshift ballast out of a wood plank like that. I'm going to try my best and do that, granted I have absolutely no experience with building anything like that but its worth a shot

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Well not too hard its as simple as drilling some screws into a piece of wood and just attaching your power strips.

It's exhaust, it's an air purifier that someone put out on the curb at my apartment complex, all I did was block off the side with the vent with cardboard and build a tube and insert it into my box so its only pulling air from in there. I am planning on putting in a computer fan for intake.

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inside & outside

cool....nice work! i was planning on doing something very similar to this setup. However since im in an apartment as well i need to tackle to smell issue before i go any further.

if your planning a small grow like that some plug in airfresheners will more or less eliminate all the smells.

ABSquaredX said:

cool....nice work! i was planning on doing something very similar to this setup. However since im in an apartment as well i need to tackle to smell issue before i go any further.

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I'm in an apartment too, but since I'm planning on planting these outside during flowering I don't really have to worry about that, but there are a ton of odor suggestions on here just search for it

Nice little throw together box! Seems pretty well thought out and kudos for the ingenuity!

Yea it'll def be small....its for personal use so itll be 1 plant lol...nothing to raunchy.

if your worried the lights cant be moved to the plants if mounted on a board why not move your plants to the light i know id rather have lights secured than fall on my plants