Okay so i decided to start small and begin growing out of a rubbermaid bin. The problem I have is ventilation. Is there a inexpensive solution to this? I was thinking like some cpu cooling fans but Im not sure how I am supposed to power them correctly.


Any and all help is very much appreciated.



thanks

Hello mate,

Not sure what you mean by "rubbermaid bin", could you give us some sizes of this, how many plants, what lights etc? Any pics at all mate?

Good luck

42-7/10" x 21-2/5" x 18" in

Im not sure about how many plants or about the lights.

Heres the link for the pic:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=prod...&lpage=none

most people grow in pots and do repotting, i guess you are trying the flower planter method? for venteliation it depends on grow area

No i do intend to grow inside pots

but I decided to start small and use 2 rubbermaid bins (1 on top of the other upside down) for my growbox.

Want to do maybe 5-6 plants. And maybe 4-6 cfl's

Do they have to be in a box? If not, no ventilation is need for a while. Just use one part as a tray to catch water, attach a drain to it and run it to a bucket or water drain some where.

If it has to be in a box you will need ventilation. also when your plants get big, you need to consider what to do as the plants will want bigger pots. Once plants start growing (and especially when they get bigger) yo will need a lot more ventilation.

Do some research here on micro grows in the grow diary and DIY forums for ideas and issues that need to be addressed to grow well.

Good Luck!

Your mom is going to be furious when she discovers it and it is 100% certain that she will find it.

she'll notice the rubbish piling up in the kitchen

O noes we have a funny guy here....

edit: Randalizer links are broken.

sorry Shrew , i think the confusion is coming from what you intend doing with that green box ie put compost in it and grow or use the box as some kind of self contained diy build/box ?

I suspect your gonna run into wiring issues up on here because your at a UK site... 120 240 type problems dunno though could be wrong... I would recomend looking into retro fitting some plug in desk fans on each side of the bin, and maybe even go with set of 3 or 4 foot shop lights... Where are you gonna keep this bin at??? If it's in your bedroom you could vent cold air in from the outside via a dryer duct to a window or something along those lines if at all possible...

sorry about that. Just go to the forums themselves (same names). Also, you need to give us more info in order for us to help you. Too many variables.

I've seen a few of these rubbermaid style grows on other sites, but not as much on here. Micro grows haven't caught on as much in the UK, for whatever reason.

To answer your question, based on what i have read, many people do use pc fans for extraction, but the problem with them is that they don't have enough push to get through anything but the most basic of diy carbon filters. If smell is likely to be a concern, i would not advise this route.

However, sticking with the PC fan idea, there is a way to increase their effectiveness by using multiples of them. If you mount them in parallel (side by side), you can increase the amont of air (cfm) that is moved. If you mount them in series (one pushing into the next), you can increase the static pressure, which may be necessary to push the air through the filter properly. If going down this route, you could try 4 fans in a 2x2 config, although more may be required depending on the size of your filter and grow space. Noise may also become an issue if you end up needing a lot of fans.

To power the fans, you just need a 12 volt adapter with a sufficient milliamp rating to run all the fans. You can buy switchable ones for very little, or you may have an old phone charger or whatever that happens to be 12 volts. If you are planning on using quite a lot of fans, your best bet would be to use a PC power supply. Most newer ones will need a couple of pins shorting, so the power supply thinks there is a motherboard connected, before it will switch on. Google for details of this, as my memory of which pins is a bit fuzzy.

You should wire them in parallel for best results, as wiring them in series will decrease their speed, and if one fails, others in the chain will also stop working.

That being said, PC fans are a "ghetto" solution at best, and may not provide enough airflow to supply the plant's co2 needs, whilst keeping you stealthy.


Another cheap option sometimes used is bathroom extractor fans. They have a bit more push than PC fans, but still not enough to push through a proper carbon filter. This may not be too bad for a rubbermaid grow, since you will only need to move a small volume of air anyway, so a small DIY carbon filter may do a decent enough job.

Another problem with bathroom fans is the noise, so some ingenuity may be required on your part to overcome this. You can get quiet ones, but you sacrifice airflow as a result. You could also gat a fan speed controller to slow it down to an acceptable level, but you would again be sacrificing airflow, plus, for the price you would pay for the fan and the speed controller, you may as well just buy a proper fan.


These are the two "cheap" methods that seem to be commonly used in micro grows. They have their drawbacks, and may end up being a false economy if they don't work well enough for your situation, but they may work just fine.

Hope this helps.

I've been reading threads like yours for 7 years, no idea how many in total, eg. must have 'super' stealth, can I grow in...gives dimensions of under the bed. Is there a SILENT fan? etc.

There is absolutely no logic to making the setup as you suggest unless you want to hide it from someone that lives with you. Someone with grow consent/authority would simply put a lock on the door. There is obviously enough space to remove and replace the upper rubbermaid so it must be for 'super' stealth reasons.

If you think my first post was funny, try this:

Whenever a new poster lets it slip that they are planning to hide a grow from their parents, there is plenty of response advising them of the possible nasty consequences to the parents etc.

My view is different. An adult with a strong sense of moral responsibility to their family and friends has a far happier life than those raised without those moral standards. Children have a right to be happy and so do adults.

So it follws that those brought up to have scant regard for their family or friends are being robbed of happiness, it's a form of child abuse.

Still with me?

Any minor that plans to show such disrespect to their parents has suffered that abuse. So fuck the parents. They deserve every piece of shit that their abused child can bring down upon them.

That funny enough for you?

Grow or don't grow, I don't give a toss. It's to protect the site that I refuse to help.

Did I miss a post somewhere? Or is it the general concensus that it is only kids that are interested in stealth and micro grows?