Plant Gardens 101

How to purchase a hydroponics grow box

Purchasing your first hydroponics grow box can be a big decision. We have written this article to make it easier for you to purchase a hydroponics grow box that is going to be right for you. There are many things to consider before you buy your first grow box. Usually the grow box you want is best based on as much money you are comfortable spending on a grow box. Once you have a number in your mind, be prepared to spend at least this or maybe a little bit more to get a grow box that’s going to last for many years. Try to think about expandability in mind. Get the best grow box you can afford at the time as it will serve you well into the future. Based on the price you have some idea as far as the features that you are looking for, or rather to say can afford.

Usually the more expensive the grow box is, the more plants you can grow, the more room you have to use as the plants grow fast, the more powerful the lighting system will be, and overall more technologies usually involved in the manufacture of that particular hydroponics grow. The cheaper or less-expensive grow box systems are often smaller than their larger counterparts and even use less light. For instance you may have an air cooled reflector on your higher end grow boxes versus the non-air cooled reflector on your lower end entry level grow boxes. (more…)

The advantages of growing with a hydroponics grow box versus converting a room

There are numerous advantages to grow in your plants hydroponically in a grow box of versus converting a room in your house or apartment. Converting a room can be a huge undertaking. Often there will be a huge mess associated with converting one of the spare rooms of your house or a closet into a hydroponics grow space. Often these spare rooms on their own do not have adequate ventilation by default, so you could have temperature issues right off the bat. Certainly in most cases it’s not a good idea to have water directly on your carpet or wood floor. A grow box is self-contained unlike the grow room but the advantages don’t stop there. A grow room cannot be moved in a moment’s notice. A hydroponics grow box however can simply be moved to another room or space in your house or even to another growing location with ease. It comes completely assembled and ready to use. It can be broken down and cleaned in minutes. You can’t rebuild a the room that fast. (more…)

A carbon scrubber is a safe and effective odor removal device to have whether you converted a room into a hydroponics grow room or whether you’re using a hydroponics grow box to grow your plants indoors. A carbon scrubber is 100% safe and effective way of removing odor from the grow environment such as your garage or closet. Carbon filter or a carbon scrubber is much safer than using a room ionizer which some people will use to get odor out of the grow space. Ionizer should only be used in areas where human beings and plants will not be exposed to any of the ionized air. Ionized air is dangerous for human beings and also for plants and animals in the area; keep this out of your grow space! Only use ionizers when venting into a space with no living life. Beware of grow box manufacturers that include ionizers with their grow boxes as a way of removing odor. These are dangerous to have in your living environment.

So a carbon scrubber is a safe alternative to an ionizer for reducing grow odors in the grow space. A carbon scrubber is a simple device. If broken down it is actually two cylinders, with a layer of thick activated charcoal carbon filling both those layers in your cylinder. Air is forced through the middle of the cylinder into an open space like a tube and then in order for the air to escape must force its way through the activated to exhaust the confines of the scrubber. The carbon itself is a very porous material and will actually absorb the odor molecules at a microscopic level so that by the time that air is exhausted back into the grow space there’s no smell whatsoever. Carbon scrubbers can be replaced every six months to one year as odor becomes a problem again. (more…)