Grow box

I had three goals when building my grow box: 1) it should work, 2) it should be cheap, and 3) it should be quick to build.

I already had the grow light, it is a 125 watt compact fluorescent bulb. Compact is somewhat of an understatement it is about a foot long and puts out 8500 lumens at 6500K. I’ve read the 6500 K full spectrum bulbs produce the wavelengths needed for good leaf growth. In hindsight, I wish I would have spent a little more and gotten the 200 watt bulb. This bulb came with a “mogul base” which means it does not screw into a standard light socket. I ended up buying an adapter for another $10 bucks and screwing it into a old school shop light stand. You can also buy pre-wired sockets and light reflectors with mogul sockets.

The enclosure was made from a $10 4′ by 8′ piece of reflective foam insulation board, a scrap piece of plywood, a spare mylar car shade, and some aluminum tape. This board came precoated with a reflective finish. I used the piece of plywood for a base and screwed the insulation board to it. I cut the insulation board with a carpet knife and taped it together with the aluminum tape. The insulation board was ridged enough so I did not need any internal supports. I taped the mylar car shade to the top for use as a door. I cut a fairly large hole for the light and used left over scraps of the insulation to partially cover this hole. I adjusted the space around the light until the box maintained a fairly constant temperature of 85 deg.