Never grown before, been reading about it for a while. Not going for quality on first try, just trying to get my feet wet and my lungs high. What kind of grow box should I use for my current situation: Lights: 4 x 6500 K and 4 x 3000 K Sun Blaze T5. Takes up a 2'x2' space. Fan: Inline Fan (Active Air) 6" 400CFM That's pretty much all I have at the moment. I'll probably use Fox Farm soil or whatever I find that's good. I don't think I'll use nutes on my first grow.
Each of the lamps is 54 Watts by the way. I've changed my mind to do a 4' x 4' but I'm also debating on whether or not to go with HID. 1000w or 600w maybe, not sure yet.
I priced out grow tents and the materials to make a decent grow box out of wood, depending on the cost of plywood (really fucking expensive...) it comes out to be VERY VERY close to the same cost as a tent with a few pros and cons. Pro: Stronger Can build to suit Con: HEAVY Cant move it from room to room or house to house if necessary almost same price as tent Have to build it from scratch Have to build it where you want to put it All in all, I decided to buy a tent for ease of use.
I have built rooms and bought tents. I hate making all the trips to the hardware store when building. It's impossible to buy everything upfront unless you are psychic and know every issue you may run into or you just buy more stuff than you need and waste money. Not to mention time. My time is worth money too and time spent building a room is less time spent growing in it. I can set up my tents in less than 10 mins out of the box. Dunno about the tents other people are buying but I can do pull ups from the bars on mine so they must have found a way to make some pretty sturdy tents these days. Tents come with all the luxuries of having multiple ports, straps, waterproof lining, tons of bars for hanging fans/lights etc... Tents not being permanent is more of advantage for me than a con. Plus I don't have any wasted, left over, or extra material when it's done.
Well not sure you want to go wasting time and money building a wood tent.. I've done a few custom tent builds and depending on size, it usually averages out to half the cost of a pre manufactured tent... But to do a small 4x4 or something, you're better off buying a tent... Usually you build a smaller tent it's because it needs to be like a specific height which no tent on the market matches.. When you build smaller tents, it pretty much costs the same to buy one.. But when you start getting into like 8x10 tents, then it's half the cost to build them... The tents I have built in the past, I use 3/4" Metallic Tube Conduit pipe for the poles (Home Depot $3.50 for 10'), and canopy fittings/corners.. You can get the canopy corners or fittings, well at a place that sells canopies.. I found a local guy, but when he's out or don't have the corners I want, I have used this company... Canopy fittings - Medium Peak Canopy parts for use with 1 inch tubing Kind of slow ship, but they made it I guess... Then I simply use Panda Plastic or CAP Diamond Foil (whatever the patient bought), so I make a box(es) with the corners and poles, and then enclose it in Panda Plastic or Diamond Foil, wrapping it like a giant present, all sealed up tight... I try to get the sides as tight as I can, have a friend or friends help, as one/they pull it tight, ones tapes to keep it that way.. Home Depot sells black and white duct tape which works perfect, for like $7 for 150'... Now I have a big Panda Plastic box with no door, so now I use the Lite Tite Heavy Duty Peel & Stick Black Zippers.. They work surprisingly well and I was shocked how well they held.. The trick is to get the plastic as tight and smooth as you can (which is not really hard), then put the zipper on, make sure it well stick, then open up the zipper, and cut the plastic through the zipper opening.... Makes for a perfect door... Just was just offering something maybe a little better than building a dam wood tent... I would suggest buying a complete tent for anything under a 4x8, unless again, you need like a custom height, or dimension.. Oh and the only real downfall to doing a tent with panda plastic, if you need to take it apart, when you reassemble, you will need to replace the panda and door zipper(s)... Outside of that, these work out rather well and again saves on the larger tents... Good luck....