Show us your Ghetto growing gear.

Hi fellow Pepperfolk!

Some hobbies cost a lot of $$$, some aren't so hard on your wallet.

Y'know how it is...sometimes you buy seeds online, other times a cutting from a mate will do...

What I want to see is where you've got some bespoke ghetto growing gear from what you had lying around. Lights, pots, heaters, irrigation.. the more inventive the better.

Here's my ghetto heat pad - an old digital set top box. Keeping the theme, I grow from seeds in jiffy pots in a take away container. Seed trays? Who needs them!

I posted this last night, but surely I can't be the only one



And when I ran out of pots for my seedlings, I went to egg cartons (great for moisture retention) and PET bottles that y'all soda comes in. A few holes in the bottom and they're good to go.



What do YOU have that's Ghetto?

Sean.

not exactly ghetto but I used mostly what I had around the house except the light fixtures...

AlabamaJack said:

not exactly ghetto

Click to expand...

I'd agree with that!

Great idea for a thread! I'll contribute over the break. My stuff will fit right in here...

AlabamaJack said:

not exactly ghetto but I used mostly what I had around the house except the light fixtures...

Click to expand...

Love it AJ! Right up my alley. Is that Christmas lights on the roof too?

Knowing AJ they are probably lights that put out some kind of gamma ray for optimal seedling growth!
Nice thread, ghetto it up people!

InCider said:

Is that Christmas lights on the roof too?

Click to expand...

thanks man...and yes, christmas lights on the ceiling...is quite nice for "mood" lighting after a long day of transplanting...

Ghetto it is then....



Cant adjust the hight of the light, so i adjust with pots under the trays lol.

I wish I had my camera out, I think I have everyone beat for the saddest, most 'ghetto', setup. A heat mat and a Pixar lamp with a 'daylight' bulb. That's it. In a basement apartment with constantly covered windows, so very little outside light (I work the night shift, and have a slight daylight allergy). On the other hand, my habanero has started putting out buds and might actually flower this time.

you said ghetto...

Shadowchilli and wrightdaddy - you are chilli heads after my own heart! Love it!

lol at WD - I don the same thing I always have that one plant that takes off faster than the others and end up angling the lights all over trying to get everyone under the lights

How about this?



slat frame from my new dishwasher cut down and reformed, 2 desk lamps and 2 lamp fixtures with pie plate reflectors and one clip on work lamp. For a heat pad, I put the starters on the radiator until they pop, then move them up under the lights. I have a 30$ greenhouse for the spring, about 5' high, 2x2', good for smaller plants.

I love it

Brilliant ta2edfreak! Pie dishes - pure gold!

My beautiful DWC. It's made of cheap storage box, hydroponic pots, submersible pump and duct tape.

AJ, if you are standing at that table, cut you some pieces of 2" PVC about 2' long (or whatever length you need) and slip them onto the table legs to raise it to a comfortable height. Works wonders for your back!

AlabamaJack said:

not exactly ghetto but I used mostly what I had around the house except the light fixtures...

Click to expand...

I don't know anyone who doesn't practice ghetto gardening.

A couple of my DWC lettuce raft setups- Home Despot 18 gallon black totes (believe they were $4 each with lids) and blueboard (free pickups at a construction site). I run a cheap 2-holer airpump into them and use 3 inch netpots. Less than US$20 into this and they will grow anything- I can use it to start peppers and then move the netpots to individual 5 gallon DWC sets, I can start a ton of basil and other herbs and then transfer then to ebb & flow trays- hell, I even start cabbage and brocolli in these and transplant the netpot out into the garden.




The ghetto ebb & flow-



41 quart Sterlite under the bed style bin (after-Christmas sale, $6 each) on top of Rubbermaid 16 gallon tote (same sale, $4 each). I found the water pumps in the very back of the gardening center- pretty cheap in Alaska in January ($5 each). I had originally gone full-ghetto on the flood and return lines by using plastic plumbing piping but I later splurged and used real ebb & flow bulkhead fittings ($10). Again, I use a cheap 2-holer airpump in two of these side by side. So yeah, about $25-30 each.

Lights? Yeah, I can't do anything normal. Somewhere in California there's a town with no stoplights...

I got these off the Bay- new LED stoplights. Thanks to the bunnyhuggers, new stoplights are mandated to be high efficiency LEDs, consuming no more than 10 watts each. DOT also mandated a wavelength of 635nM as well. In order to add some blue, I put in some of those crappy Edison fitting sockets that have the threaded bezel- those contain 5 watt blue LEDs. I wired all the reds into one switch and all the sockets into another switch and then both of those into one plug-in. I hung the board from block & tackle so I can drop it down right on the plants when I'm not home. It works out to be about 110 watts of red and 30 watts of blue, though sometimes I put 42 watt Feit daylight bulbs in place of a few of the blues- though they're only 5 watts, the blues are really effective.





It's bright enough it'll hurt your head being under it, and the leafs all get a really dark anthocyanin tan to them so it works. Total power consumption is 145 watts with all lights on, and heat output is not noticeable. Probably about US$250 into this, not including the Edison socket blue LEDs.

I also made a stoplight fruiting bar- I just gutted a few stoplights and mounted the LED panels and the driver panels onto an aluminium frame that I built. Total power used is about 70 watts.



I'm going to redo this one. I've got a 10" x 12" x 2 1/2" heatsink- I'm going to use silver epoxy to glue the LED panels on the bottom and mount the drivers on the top on the fins, and mount a computer cooling fan on the end of it. That should get it down to a bit more manageable size and keep the drivers a bit cooler as well.

That beer can is probably a keg by now!!

InCider said:

Hi fellow Pepperfolk!

Some hobbies cost a lot of $$$, some aren't so hard on your wallet.

Y'know how it is...sometimes you buy seeds online, other times a cutting from a mate will do...

What I want to see is where you've got some bespoke ghetto growing gear from what you had lying around. Lights, pots, heaters, irrigation.. the more inventive the better.

Here's my ghetto heat pad - an old digital set top box. Keeping the theme, I grow from seeds in jiffy pots in a take away container. Seed trays? Who needs them!

I posted this last night, but surely I can't be the only one

And when I ran out of pots for my seedlings, I went to egg cartons (great for moisture retention) and PET bottles that y'all soda comes in. A few holes in the bottom and they're good to go.
What do YOU have that's Ghetto?

Sean.

Click to expand...

WOW... that is a great idea with the digital box..
Now i can finally use my K-box for something lol.

midwestchilehead said:

AJ, if you are standing at that table, cut you some pieces of 2" PVC about 2' long (or whatever length you need) and slip them onto the table legs to raise it to a comfortable height. Works wonders for your back!

Click to expand...

thanks man but I sit every time I get a chance...if I need a higher work table, I have an adjustable "bar table" to work on...when I sit at this table, I have to put a pillow in the seat of the chair to raise me up a bit.....