MrBudget - My Personal Narnia - Micro-Cab

MrBudget

New Member
*Note - This is not my first grow, I am aware that the lighting and various features are in need of improvement... But I enjoy pulling a nice box out of a budget of $30 or less. Heck, I would say that I enjoy the build more than the grow sometimes. lol
I built this baby from free Amazon giftcards from various websites. This box was free, but the total cost out of pocket would have been around $20. :)

I asked myself going in 'What is the smallest footprint I can leave with my personal stash-grow?' and I decided to build off of usb power!

LIST:

10w LED Strip (changes to 9 colors and strobe, planning 2 more)
5 port usb hub
1Gal Smart-pot
1 food grade bottle (for wick system)
Cotton Shoelace
Aluminium Foil
Bamboo skewers
36 Can insulated cooler
Cardboard (4 inch high reflector base to hide unused vertical space and lower pot)
COST - $0.00!!!

Total exposed surface space is probably just shy of one square foot.

I spiraled the light strip down the side for maximum node exposure!

I popped some bag seed, can't wait! :D

My Questions:
Does anyone know of a way to set a timer for usb switch?

..and I've left it on and sealed for several hours now - no heat build up what-so-ever. Is a vent fan really necessary? I bought a small fan but am now contemplating using it for a trunk-stem aggitator instead of exhaust...

Could I get away with a yeast Co2 drip for such a small space? (Instead of said exhaust fan lol)

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Here is the feeding and training schedule:
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Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I527 using 420
 
Update! I checked the beans this morning, and dropped them into fresh soil. The other soil was clay-ish.

Two out of four had strong taproots already! Off to a great start! :D

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Thank you for the warm welcome!

Well I setup the schedule to give myself specific days between watering and training. I noticed from my previous grows that I tended to lose track and not leave my plants enough recovery. time. :)

Yeah, I started four beans. I have enough space for two plants max - but I should get atleast two males that I'm going to have to kull anyways..
 
10w LED Strip (changes to 9 colors and strobe, planning 2 more)
5 port usb hub

You're trying to grow cannabis from a USB-powered light source? I might have a few candles around here somewhere if you'd like to upgrade that idea, lol. IIRC, the USB 1.0 and 2.0 specifications are up to 500 mA @ 5v which is, what, 2.5 watts? USB 3.0 is 900 mA and a "high-power" cell phone / tablet charger might provide in the neighborhood of 1.5 to 2.0 amps (but still only @ 5v), but that is still a fraction of the power I'd think you'd want for even a tiny space like that. Even if your five-port hub can provide more than that which is specified for whatever standard it falls under (1.0/2.0/3.0) and IF it is capable of providing that amount from all five ports at the same time... I fear you are setting yourself up for a disappointment.

I usually try to dispense encouragement for anything DiY - and I'll give you an A for effort - but, well, I fear the last sentence in the previous paragraph sums it up. Good luck, though. And I'd be happy if you manage to prove me wrong. Surprised, but happy.

Might want to lose the aluminum foil, too. With such little illumination, I don't suppose you have to worry about hot spots - but it's a fairly poor reflector in terms of light. If you can't find a source for mylar (even one of those $2 "emergency blankets"), look around in your garage/basement - or ask a few neighbors - for some white paint. Flat, if you can find it.
 
You're trying to grow cannabis from a USB-powered light source? I might have a few candles around here somewhere if you'd like to upgrade that idea, lol. IIRC, the USB 1.0 and 2.0 specifications are up to 500 mA @ 5v which is, what, 2.5 watts? USB 3.0 is 900 mA and a "high-power" cell phone / tablet charger might provide in the neighborhood of 1.5 to 2.0 amps (but still only @ 5v), but that is still a fraction of the power I'd think you'd want for even a tiny space like that. Even if your five-port hub can provide more than that which is specified for whatever standard it falls under (1.0/2.0/3.0) and IF it is capable of providing that amount from all five ports at the same time... I fear you are setting yourself up for a disappointment.

I usually try to dispense encouragement for anything DiY - and I'll give you an A for effort - but, well, I fear the last sentence in the previous paragraph sums it up. Good luck, though. And I'd be happy if you manage to prove me wrong. Surprised, but happy.

Might want to lose the aluminum foil, too. With such little illumination, I don't suppose you have to worry about hot spots - but it's a fairly poor reflector in terms of light. If you can't find a source for mylar (even one of those $2 "emergency blankets"), look around in your garage/basement - or ask a few neighbors - for some white paint. Flat, if you can find it.

I've pulled half an ounce from a single dollar store cfl, a handfull of compost and a shoe box - I got this bro lol
 
I've pulled half an ounce from a single dollar store cfl, a handfull of compost and a shoe box - I got this bro lol

My suggestion would be to trade the mood lights for one of those, then - it'd be a big upgrade. I'm going to assume the CFL was a 23-watt, 26-watt... or at least a 13-watt bulb.

If it was a 26-watt bulb - and your yield was only 14 grams - and your current lighting is only consuming maybe 2½ watts, you're probably looking at harvesting... a joint. A fat one, maybe, but it doesn't seem likely to be worth the effort (or the wait).
 
You're just quite the Debbie Downer today?

Well perk up buttercup! :D

I've seen cannabis grown in a beer can with less led diodes, so the possibilities are endless! ;)
 
I think the word you're looking for is realist. I'm all for DiY builds, especially those which are possible on a shoestring budget (since I can't even afford a shoestring ;) ) .

It doesn't matter how many LEDs (the word "diodes" after that is superfluous - since that's what the D stands for) you use if you're only giving them a tiny trickle of electricity. That's all I'm saying.

But, again, I'll be happy if you prove me wrong. Do so... and I might try something similar in the future, myself.
 
Ah snap, I had no idea! Well I can't edit my post now, but I'll remember that for the future. Good lookin out bro :)

Basically a guy managed to grow a very, very, very small plant inside an aluminum can with like 20 diodes. It was powered via USB which is a large part of my confidence in my own experimental box.

hehehe Snipe hunt hehehe :)
 
Lol. I grew up in a family of hunters (although Mom stopped hunting around 1982 or thereabouts), but I was never... initiated into the mystery of the Great Snipe Hunt. Probably because I also grew up in a poor family - when we went into the woods, we didn't screw around; we were there to get something to eat. And we generally did, even if that meant <COUGH>accidentally<COUGH> killing a turkey on the last day of deer season in a rare year when no deer was harvested by one of us.

I don't hunt any more, because my eyesight is poor enough that there'd be a real chance of me just wounding an animal instead of killing it as humanely as possible. And I do not fish much, either, because eating locally-caught fish is NOT advisable to those who wish to have a long and (somewhat) healthy life. That both angers me and saddens me in equal - and huge - amounts, because I can literally walk from my front porch to water in eight or ten minutes. I am not one of those eco-nuts, and I might have accidentally (no point in even adding the <COUGH> things around that one ;) ) introduced some PITA-head to the treble hooks on one of my hula-poppers (artificial lures, just in case you do not fish) one afternoon when he thought it'd be cool to start beating on the water with a long cane(?) to try to scare the fish away... But more and more as I get older and realize what we've done - and continue to do - to our air, land, water, and selves... I kind of understand what causes one of those environmental types to go 'round the bend.

As long as they don't try to keep fish out of my skillet...
 
I can relate to that! Growing up I practically lived off venison. :)

Well I havent fished in years, people around here keep pulling up mutated fish. :/ The problem is that we`ve spent the last couple hundred years destroying this planet - and not enough people care to make a difference... I can understand the enviromentalist frustration lol

UPDATE!
Its aliiiivvvveee! :D

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I can relate to that! Growing up I practically lived off venison.

I never cared for deer all that much unless it was pressure-canned in gravy. Ate caribou a few of times and reindeer twice. I'd rather eat a pot full of squirrels - and I'll eat rabbit any time. For me, most of the time, eating deer was just filling the hole in my belly. My family has always eaten deer. I guess because you shoot one and you can go home, lol. With squirrels... I could do for two or three even when I was a little kid, and there were four of us. I was tired of deer meat before I was 15. Think I'd rather try groundhog now. Which will send Mom into fits if you even mention it, she was the one that always had to go help her dad get them (ammunition cost money - he saved it for... deer) when she was little and she hated it. Probably because there were 13 kids and she felt like she did all the work and was lucky to eat for it, IDK. They were real poor. When I start feeling too sorry for myself, I just think about her growing up. I halfway think she went off and got married the first time so she could own a pair of shoes all by herself and not have to worry that they'd be on one of her sisters' feet when she needed them.

BtW, rats taste like salty pork, lol. No, I haven't been that hungry yet. I'd eat one of those monster 100-pound South American rodents - capybara - that a pope once declared to be a fish without batting an eye, though.

Well I havent fished in years, people around here keep pulling up mutated fish. :/ The problem is that we`ve spent the last couple hundred years destroying this planet - and not enough people care to make a difference... I can understand the enviromentalist frustration lol

They still (mostly) look like fish here, but... Unless you're going to the mountains, I wouldn't eat (much of) them. And I would - and have - eat stuff that many people would throw away.

I don't know if it matters, it'll all be Asian carp before it's over with. <SHRUGS> At least they taste all right; a lot more people would eat the things if they were called, IDK, Asian cod.

Its aliiiivvvveee!

Hey, congratulations. I hope it's a girl.
 
hmn.. The oddest animal I've ever eaten was kwolla in jerky form. :) Yeah, we see a lot of warped fish here.. It'll all be lionfish before long! xD

Well two of the four hath sprouted, but unless they're auto-flower beans I wont see pre-sex for several more weeks..
 
UPDATE:
The second seedling bit the dust, the first to emerge was all alone so I transplanted it into a half-full 1gal smart pot for now.. *crosses fingers for a girl* 3 inch tap root, but I buried up to first real leaf set. Thinking Flux tbh.

#nomoretouchingtillflower

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Tortured Soul gave you a bunch of great advice. All points true. Just as applicable to a micro grow as a large grow.

It seems like your goal is seeing if you can grow a decent bud in a tiny environment and that's cool! I look forward to seeing how frosty things can get in there! Bonsai cannabis? :)

Peace, Hyena
 
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