grow box help needed!

ok so, ill admit it straight up, im a complete noob to growing and i need lots of help. I am planning on growing in as small boxes as possible (hopefully around 2'x2'x3') I will hopefully have 2 boxes, one for the first stages and another for flowering. I'm planning on having about 2 plants in each, maybe more but not sure yet. I understand the hours the lights should be on and off. I also understand the box has to be white on the inside and light tight. I have heard that you can also line the inside of the box with aluminum foil instead of painting it, is this true? Also about fans, are they 100% needed? if not what do you need to do instead? I also understand you need lights (obviously) but can you use fluoresnt lights throughout the whole process, or is HPS absolutely needed for the flowering stage? how many watts are needed when using fluoro's for a good grow? anything else needed for a grow box?

ANY INFO OR HELP IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!! i am sick of spending all my cash on bud, so now i want to grow it, i know its not easy and ive read alot about it but i havnt really found the answers to these questions so thanks for any help.

I have heard that you can also line the inside of the box with aluminum foil instead of painting it, is this true?

Untrue aluminum foil is not very good at all. Mylar or even emergency blankets are best. White paint works also.

Also about fans, are they 100% needed?

Yes they are 100% needed for both air circulation and to promote growth in the stems of the plant to make them stronger.

I also understand you need lights (obviously) but can you use fluorescents lights throughout the whole process, or is HPS absolutely needed for the flowering stage?

I've have grown in a space 16"deep x 31.5"wide with 4 house hold flours using a simple bubble type hydroponics system and have gotten very good quality smoke. So the answer here is YES you can do the whole process with fluorescents.

how many watts are needed when using fluoro's for a good grow?

Watts are a bad way to measure light, lumens and color (Kelvin) are good ways to find the correct like. The lights i used were 42 watts each. 2700lumens each.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask and I'll try to help you out the best I can based on my experience.

thanks for the info, now i just need to make a run to home depot or something and ill be on my way to growing hopefully

Aluminum foil actually reflects less light than a flat bright white paint. Intuitively my brain says this can't be true (foil is so shiny!) but all the experienced growers say so and have even quoted scientifically taken measurements. So go with paint rather than foil, again flat and bright white like a ceiling paint. Foil also reflects too much heat.

Mylar is supposed to be best of all, reflecting about 94% of light.

Generally you need air circulation for four reasons: 1) heat control, 2) fresh air for your plants, 3) a breeze on your plants causes the stalk to grow stronger (so it will hold up your buds later) and 4) odor control. Potentially you may not need a fan, but that would be the exception. Especially in a relatively small growbox like yours, heat can build up and the air can stagnate. You like to breathe fresh air, your plants do as well.

You need not just a fan but an intake and exhaust route to change out the air. This will achieve the four objectives, otherwise you are just blowing hot, stagnant air around in the box. Generally intake down low and exhaust up high because heat rises. The fan should be rated to turn over the volume of your box at least 2-3x per minute. You have only 12 square feet, so just about any small fan should do. You might even get away with a computer fan.

You could grow with only fluoros, but most would advise getting a HID light -- if you stiick to growing you will buy one eventually anyway so better to invest right the first time. To my mind the best set-up is a single HID fixture that has a switchable ballast so you can run MH for veg and HPS for flowering, supplementing throughout with compact fluoros. That's what I have. I have heard the best fluoros for our hobby are daylight spectrum rated at 6500k color temp. WalMart sells them cheap under the name Lights Of America. An advantage of fluoros is that they run much cooler than HID.

Two other general words of advice that inter-relate. First, you mention being tired of spending so much for grass, just realize that growing your own healthy plants with high-quality results requires a significant investment up front to get started. The financial payoff won't come for a while. But once you've built your box and invested in your equipment it will pay off nicely. Second, this little hobby of ours is much more complicated to really do it right than I ever realized getting started, so to make that investment pay off I advise reading, reading, and then reading some more. Learn about pH, RH, nutes, trichomes, flushing, cool tubes, scrog, LST, clones, and more -- these are important to know about and can be especially relevant given the size of your box. Scan this and other websites, and I suggest doing it fast because some excellent sites on this very topic have been shut down recently, either by LEO or voluntarily. If you see some good advice cut and paste into a file you can keep, and keep building it in case it disappears off the web.

Good luck, keep us in the loop.

thanks toasty, uve helped alot. Like i said im a noob so, what is an intake and exhaust? is it something bought? if so where can i buy it? (not offline i am unable to purchase things offline). I am thinking of getting the fluoros for now and if it becomes a bigger deal to grow then i will start getting the bigger better things. I will keep on reading about everything i can, i have been for the last couple days and will continue. btw im trying to keep this box as stealth as possible so keep that in mind when giving me good advice, i appreciate any advice though. I have read some about pH and all that but dont quite understand it yet so ill keep on reading that stuff, and i will keep you posted about my grow box. Thanks again, peace out.

Hey Drum, intake and exhaust merely refers to having a way for the fresh air to get in and a way for the air to get out. The common arrangement is one or more holes in the floor or low on the walls of the box for intake and a hole in the ceiling or one of the walls near the top of the box for exhaust, with a fan sucking or pushing air out of that exhaust hole.

For stealth you will want to either channel that exhaust outside and/or run it through a carbon filter. You also will want to keep light from escaping the air intake holes -- you already won't want light leaking in during dark periods, but you also won't want light from inside leaking out during light periods. Where in your home will the box be, a closet, basement, spare room, attic, etc?

Take a look at the new thread in this same Design/Setup discussion area, thread title starts "BaD", the poster there put up a very clear diagram.

thanks again for the advice, i am hoping to be able to find a good spot in my attic for the box. this may sound like a dumbass question but is there a way to have lights but not use electricity from my house? like is there plugs or lights that run off battery's? if not how much do u think growing increases the power bill? oh and thanks for the explanation for the intake and exhaust, makes alot more sense now but if you have holes in the box doesnt that take away from the light proof idea? what are u supposed to do to keep it light proof? thanks for any help, peace out:D .

Lightproofing: a simple solution is to thread each intake hole with pvc pipe with a 90* elbow on each end, paint the inside of the pipe and elbows flat black. That should take care of most light escaping either direction. Don't make the pipe too short, give it a foot or so for the light to dissipate. To further lightproof you can put a piece of black cloth in one end (an old sock etc). Don't pack it tight, keep it thin and loose to let as much air through as possible.

Separate issue from light leaks, but with this pvc set-up it's easy to put a small vacuum cleaner bag around one end, secured tight with a rubber band, to keep out spiders, flies, etc. Might even deter a rat. All of these an issue in an attic space.

Never heard of lights for our vocation that run on batteries. I doubt any such thing exists given the power requirements and particular color temp of the light needed.


To figure the cost for electricity for your setup, use this formula:

(total rated wattage) x (hours per day to run) x (days per month) / 1,000 = your monthly kilowatt hours usage.

For example, a 400w light running 24/7 in a 30-day month will use 400x24x30/1000=288 kilowatt hours. To figure the cost for that pull you last electric bill, it may show the rate right on there. If not you can just divide the monthly charge by the number of kilowatt hours used that month. Mine works out to 8.2 cents per kilowatt hour. So in the above example it would cost me $23.62 per month. You can see the benefit of getting away with fluoros if you can, not to mention the upfront costs.

ok so this is what im thinking of....i know the drawing is crappy but bear with me lol. would i be able to fit all 4 plants in this? if not what is the smallest a box can be to have 4 plants in it (not growing to big, i dont want to change the 3' height)?

thanks for any help, peaceo out

ok, i thought i had this all down but a whole new thing just came into place...wiring crap. what do i have to buy and wire to hook up CFL's inside my box? also is there any fans that i can buy that just plug in instead of wiring, cause wiring is a bitch. so if anyone could give me a step by step process on how to hook up CFL's then i would be a very happy man

thanks and peace out

Yo Man, You tube it lol...Theres a guy on there who builds boxes and shows peeps how to do it. You tube...Make your own grow cabinet! Hope it helps, there's like 24 parts to the video but in there he talks about wiring moguls...which are the light bulb adapters you wire. Here I'll even simplify it for you....Get a 6 strip and go to walmart and buy bulb adapters that just plug in to the 6 strip.

I don't grow a lot of weed lol, only what I need which is about 2-3 plants at a time so I need no second box....So what I did was baught 2 power strips and 6 bulb adapters....Put a 6 strip on each side of my box..and plugged 3 6500lumines Grow cfls and 3 2700 lumine flower bulbs in the other....After veg state....power on flower bulbs and turn off veg bulbs. If you wanna constantly have plants coming one after another, then you gotta use 2 boxes.

There's more to growing also man...are you doing it hydroponically or dirt? If hydro, you have to watch ph levels and nutrients...If dirt...you gotta use pesticides to control spider mites. If your new to it....Good luck Drum....God bless and Smoke for less: Weed is not a crime........Peace

i also need help with a growbox.. i been thinking of a huge cardboard box with mylar on the inside and with the fan to refresh the air. can it work or no?

cardboard can mold... so keep an eye out... yes it will work but its also a fire hazard... so keep an eye out for that as well...

better to have to plastic tubs...

cardboard can mold... so keep an eye out... yes it will work but its also a fire hazard... so keep an eye out for that as well...

better to have to plastic tubs...

plastic tubs work better? have you tried it?

plastic tubs work better? have you tried it?

next time make your own thread