There are a few factors for you to consider when setting up your indoor garden. You must first decide if you are going to be using soil or hydroponics. If you are new to gardening, I suggest starting with soil until you learn the effects of your fertilizer on your plants. If you are growing a variety of plants, I highly recommended starting with soil. You can work your way up to hydroponics by building your own drip system for your indoor garden.
Modifying the Circulating Drip System for Soil Container Gardens
To make the Circulating Drip System into a regular drip system for your container garden, you will just need to take the containers off the reservoir and into a Drain Table. There is a guide for building a homemade drain table here. It is for small plants, if you fill it with large containers it will tumble over. For bigger containers, you can buy a strong drain table or just sit them on something you can drain every day.
Here is an example of a Grow Box made out of a dresser. It is very easy to do because the frame of the grow chamber is already made.
So you want to start an indoor garden but don’t know how to build a grow box. Building a grow box is actually simple once you understand the mechanics. Today you will learn every thing you need to know to build your own grow box.
The following guide will walk you through the basics of constructing a grow box out of an old piece of furniture. A lot of indoor gardeners are also very enthusiastic about recycling, so this should really hit home for a lot of you. The dresser grow box could be considered a grow cabinet, whatever you want to call it, the function is the same.
5 Reasons You Need Grow Box Plans:
1. Grow Room Ventilation: There is too much to say here. You will obviously need some sort of exhaust. The size of fan you need depends on the size of your grow box or grow room. This simple grow box uses PC fans which can be wired to an old PC power supply very easily. You can also control the timing of the fans by putting the power supply on a timer.
WARNING: Do not use the biggest power supply you can find. Stick to a smaller power supply with low wattage because the fans use very little power. If you do not know what you are doing, use a pre-made fan that you can just plug in. For 20 bucks you can get a dryer type ventilation fan that can be attached to ducting.
Cut a hole in the back of your box and screw your fan into place. You can also use epoxy or strong glue.
2. Reflective: Reflectiveness should depend on your budget. Aluminum foil is probably the cheapest material, but it certainly doesn’t reflect the most light. Since you will likely be using small grow lights, you will want to get the most out of it. White poly or Mylar are the premium choice.
3. Water proof/Bug proof/Mold proof: Water proofing is one of the most important things about building a grow box. All hydroponic systems should be in water proofed grow boxes, or outdoors where they can’t possibly make a mess. I’ll discuss bug proof more in the next point. Mold proofing takes a little common sense. Don’t use carpet for the floor of your grow box or anything dumb like that.
4. Air tight: You will want your grow box to be air tight so that light doesn’t escape, bugs will have a harder time getting in, and you will want control of the ventilation.
5. Odor control: Some people enjoy having fresh herbs, vegetables, and fruits growing in their house, but don’t want their house to smell like a garden or green house. Some people just don’t like that smell. You can get a carbon filter for the unwanted smells, but you will need to get an inline fan, which could dramatically raise the price.
Electrical Components
Please make sure all of your electrical components are away from possible water sources. You should place your outlets on the out side of the grow box and hung up. The last thing you want is water in your electrical components.
Key Components
The small desk fan provides plenty of air movement in this small grow chamber. Here you can see two of the small ventilation fans and a few 23w CFLs. You want to get the most surface area of each bulb facing towards the plants. Notice the fan is pushing air OUT of the box. The fan at the top is drawing the heat from the lights and pushing it outside the grow box. The lights are what make the grow chamber's temperature rise. You don't want your plants to catch a fever!
A good garden has places where water can drain away from the soil. Drainage mostly applies to container gardens and raised garden beds. The amount of drainage versus the growing medium’s ability to hold water are important ratios to consider when setting up a garden for a new plant. Some plants require a lot of moisture while others may need their containers to dry out in between waterings. The ratio the plant requires will determine the type of growing medium, the type of drip emitter to use, and how much to water the plant each day.
Holes are mandatory in the bottom of containers being used for plants in container gardens.
There are countless designs for containers featuring different types of drainage. The container on the left is a massive planter and just has a few large holes on the bottom. You would want to put some small rocks or hydroclay over these holes. Most gardeners cover the bottom of the container with rocks so soil won’t drain out with the water. I like soil less growing medium rocks that can be used in hydroponic systems for a similar purpose. Some plastic containers also feature side drainage holes. It really depends on what you prefer.
These plastic containers are small and drain through the bottom with many drain holes.
There are also containers that promote high oxygen levels in the root zone. Containers like Smart Pots have great drainage. Good drainage is key to maximizing the oxygen in the root zone. Smart pots can be used in soil and hydroponics gardens. They come in many sizes and can be used indoor or out. Economical gardeners favor them because they are high quality, highly productive, and washable. The Smart Pots can be re used or transplanted directly to the next pot or outdoor garden.
Smart pots are great containers for all types of gardeners.
Some reasons drainage is important:
Too much water is bad for your plants if they don’t need it.
Do everything you can to prevent mold and mildew.
Leaving water in the grow space can mean spills for indoor gardeners
Bugs and Pests love a little extra water potentially filled with nutrients or sugars.
Roots filled with too much water are being suffocated because they are not receiving enough oxygen
Hydroponic Economics is now open for tweeting! Head on over to twitter @hydrohelp to become a follower. The twitter account will be used to keep in touch with readers and keep readers in touch with me. There is a lot of good information on this site, but there are many other resources for all your indoor gardening needs. Twitter will feature articles I’ve been reading myself, links to other hydroponics blogs, and links to all sorts of industry news. Stay focused with Hydroponic Economics and keep up the green work!
If desk fans or computer fans weren’t enough for your indoor gardeningair circulation needs, check out what the engineers at Dyson have created:
The Dyson Air Multiplier is a great innovation to air flow technology. The new Air Multiplier may be a little too expensive for some hydroponic setups, but I know there are some people out there who only want the best of the best. If you have a Dyson Air Multiplier or use one in your indoor garden, please contact me! You may be featured on this website!
Fans are not just for cooling your high powered grow lights and ballasts. I use fans in every grow space to create wind. Wind will help to move the air around in your room so it does not stagnate and get used up. Plant leaves like oxygen and breathe like we do. They need a constant supply of fresh oxygen to be used at any given time. If your air never moves, your plants are losing all the extra oxygen they could be pulling from fresh air. An exhaust duct with a strong inline fan will move some air from negative pressure, but it is no where near what the plants are used to from Mother Nature.
Take a look out your window. If there are trees around you, see if their branches are blowing in the wind. Think about how brutally bent you’ve seen some trees and plants after a storm. If the plant is not uprooted or snapped, it seems to recover from the storm. You do not want to create a wind tunnel that has your plants curving to the ground, but a nice breeze is a good idea. The best thing about indoor gardening is you become Mother Nature. That means you choose the time and strength of the wind.
I use desk fans of various sizes to control air circulation in my indoor garden. I look for fans with various speeds that can be easily hung in the space I need. Letting the fans sit on the ground causes loud vibrations that get annoying after a few hours. I suggest hanging inline fans as well for the same reason. High power inline fans can get extremely loud if not hung.You can decide the location of the fans inside your grow room. I like to position at least one towards the center of the light so the hot air is pushed where the exhaust fan can pull it out. Another good place for a circulation fan is close to the intake fan. The circulation fan will move the colder fresh air where it can be used by all your plants. Check your plants needs to make sure this won’t make your medium too dry or too cold. Sometimes having a warm ballast in the room is needed for heat depending on your complete cooling system.
Wind will make your plants tough and force them to thicken their stems. Thicker stems can be beneficial for supporting a plant’s weight and ensuring the proper amount of nutrients and water to each stem. If your plants never experience wind they may be limp or droopy. If you do not introduce a plant to wind early, it may develop too thin and weak. A plant that is weak will suffer stress when it is first introduced to heavy winds. It should eventually adjust and strengthen its stem, but you may be diminishing your yield from a lack of planning. Starting seeds inside that will be transplanted outside need to be hardened off. You must gradually expose them to more light and wind until they can handle the harsh outdoors. You may have two fans of different strengths placed in two different spaces in your grow room on two different time settings. Having this much variation would vary the speed, and direction of the wind throughout the day. That type of air circulation is closer to the real experience for the plants.
The only way to be the best gardener possible, is to try to be the best possible. If you only put forth a little effort, you will only get a little return. In this case, your return is your harvest. Even when you give it 100% and make your garden your first priority, you won’t be 100% successful all the time. Do not be discouraged! There is hope for gardeners of all skill levels. Gardeners can start to grow in the direction of perfection by aiming for perfection. Aim for maximum yields and healthy plants and you will be rewarded.
Moral of the Story: It’s easy to keep a plant alive, but nearly impossible to grow one perfectly.
Pest control is often a topic shrugged off by novice indoor gardeners. You might think, oh its indoor, there are no bugs in here. WRONG. You cannot assume things like this when it comes to indoor gardening. It is better to plan for gnats, flies, aphids, spider mites, and other plant eating bugs before they wipe out your crop with out you noticing. Don’t underestimate the damage a bad pest infestation can cause. It may seem like they are only eating a few leaves or slightly discoloring leaves. The point is all that degradation adds up and what do you have to show for it? Worse crops, bug infested food or flowers, and lower yield! The point of indoor gardening is to control for a better grow. Be preventative in your pest control and you may never have to worry about an infestation.
Try using an organic garlic spray to ward off bugs. Post up yellow sticky paper to catch flying insects. The yellow sticky paper is great almost anywhere you put it. I have put them under the lips of containers to catch fresh gnats in the soil. If you place them up higher you may catch bigger flies. Try to use organic and natural pest control so you don’t affect the quality of your crops. Hydro shops also sell predatory bugs that will eat your pest infestation and then eat themselves. This is a method I have not had to use, but it is one of the most natural pest controls. Buying live lady bugs or placing them in your garden when you find them around the house will help eliminate small bug populations.
Another method of preventative pest control for an indoor garden is an enclosed growing environment that pests cannot get into. People may not realize the importance of closed chambers, but they can certainly help isolate a pest problem. If you anticipate a possible aphid or spider mite problem try a very light solution of a spray like AzaMax to ward off any pest infestation attempts. I’ve wiped out whole aphid colonies with only off-brand Neem before as well, but I’m sure that won’t work for all.
Green Moral of the Story: Preventative pest control can save you many headaches from dealing with nasty bugs and sprays. Preventative pest control can also ensure your crops will stay healthy and yield at their highest potential, and that’s what we’re after.
Get General Hydroponics AzaMax at Amazon today to protect your indoor garden investment. You can also read customer reviews here.
One of the main reasons I chose to start an indoor gardening project was to produce my own fresh, good-tasting, safe food. Some stores sell fresh produce, but my area lacks in availability for year round fresh fruit. Strawberries were one of the first things I tried to grow in a hydroponic system. Once you learn the basics of hydroponics you could set up a system to grow tropical fruit inside your house! If you have a big back yard you could even create a tropical green house with the sun and the addition of high power grow lights. Once you are familiar with all the equipment available you can create any environment for any plant. You can tend to plants with very delicate environmental needs.
If you do not trust the source or are unsatisfied with the quality of your local produce then start a hydroponic or indoor gardening project to perfect the fruit of your dreams! Anything is possible if you learn enough about the plant requirements. I try to find books on Amazon.com about organic gardening and plant care. The books on Amazon don’t cost very much and are usually pretty detailed. Buying a book centralizes large amounts of information for you to consume. Searching on the internet for the information you need is fast, but sometimes it is not detailed enough if you are just beginning. If there is a topic you are confused about or don’t know where to start, try getting a book to get your feet wet. On the other hand experience is the most valuable knowledge you can get. Good luck green thumbs!
Lately I’ve had a pretty bad infestation of spider mites and aphids and I have been looking for the best solution for my plants without getting into nasty chemicals that will affect the taste of my food at harvest. Gnats are another common indoor gardening pest I have had trouble with. A simple solution for gnats is the yellow sticky paper that you can put along the walls and on posts in the containers of your plants. Spider mites however don’t really fly around or get attracted to the bright yellow colors. They seem to just be attracted to the pretty green leaves of my plants! Flattering… except spider mites are gross and I would not like to eat them, regardless of how much they want to eat the leaves of my plants.
I tried spraying some solution of Neem PY onto my plants and it takes a few days to kick in but it slows down the infestation for sure. Neem makes the bugs slow and frankly just plain stupid. The bugs aren’t killed instantly, so don’t feel like you’ve been cheated because all your bug problems are still there. The neem makes the bugs not hungry and unable to reproduce. The bugs will eventually starve to death and the babies will hatch damaged or will eat the neem on the leaves right away and become affected. The Neem PY wouldn’t stop the infestation completely but it certainly crippled them. No matter how much neem I used the spider mites kept coming back. One time I used too much neem too close to harvest and I could taste its tangy flavor on my food. It wasn’t as horrible as a I thought and was better than eating mites, but I would rather have the best food possible not just “okay” food. Thats why I grow my own!
To get the infestation in check I picked up some of General Hydroponics’ AzaMax because two other indoor gardeners recommended it to me. I figured it would work like Neem PY but it was actually amazing how much stronger it was. I foliar fed the AzaMax to my plants and than poured some solution into my hydro reservoirs to ensure the plants would be bug proof. After about two days it seems like almost all the spider mites have died or stopped moving. It definitely helped control the gnat problem too. I have not harvested the food the AzaMax has been applied to since it is new but I will be sure to write about how it has affected the food flavor and aroma if at all. If you decide to go and try AzaMax I would try foliar applications at first to see if you can rid the problem that way. This is especially good if you are still in the grow phase and the fruits you will be eating or picking have not started to form yet. AzaMax is a little pricey for how much it recommends to use but I promise it does work well. I will most likely continue to use Neem PY and AzaMax as a preventative and reactionary pest control solution.
Another good feature of AzaMax is that it is OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) approved. Sometimes labels can be questionable since any company can label their products “organic.” Look for the OMRI or other official organic labels. Make sure to look up and research any product you think is suspicious or may be claiming to be organic. You can take a look at the OMRI web site here. Even though some forms of hydroponic systems use inorganic parts, I still think it is best to get the closest thing you can to organic every time. I believe this can yield a more natural and usually sweeter tasting fruit or vegetable.
Get General Hydroponics AzaMax at Amazon today to protect your indoor garden investment. You can also read customer reviews here.
