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Space Buckets: DIY Indoor Gardening with LED and Arduinos
- DanBC 10y agoHere's one previous thread with some discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10444907 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10444907
- hughes 10y agoThis looks interesting, but high-tech gardening communities almost always seem to turn into thinly-veiled DIY cannabis farmers.
- swsieber 10y agoWell, I hope this one doesn't. Something on my bucket list (no pun intended), is to do something like this on a scale of 10-20 units (buckets?), except maybe in cubes with better climate control with a rolling schedule for a variety of veggies - fresh veggies year round, yum. Quick example - lettuce can go from planting to harvest in roughly 7-8 weeks. So 7-8 buckets could provide you with fresh lettuce every week. Edit: Apparently it's possible to manipulate the light cycles to get lettuce to mature in just 22 days! That's only 3-4 buckets :)
- VLM 10y agoI've done this with bell peppers and its a lot of fun. Ask your local deli or bakery for free food grade five gallon buckets. Mine smelled like frosting which was not necessarily a problem. You probably don't want to reuse a bucket that held paint thinner or weed killer in its previous life. Peppers not being illegal, I didn't need all the indoor lighting or air filters or automation, I just grew them outside in the back yard where anyone could see them. One year I tried drip irrigation mostly to discover I need to weed and harvest daily and automatic watering means I'd skip that to my detriment also rodents like the taste of drip irrigation tube, the effort to keep it running exceeded the effort saved over simply hand watering. You can buy "container gardening dirt" that contains weird mysterious substances that hold water so you supposedly don't have to water as often, I found they grow a crop of mold and moss which lowers or eliminates production. Of course if you live in a desert maybe humidity isn't a problem. It is not rocket surgery for even a noob wood-butcher to turn some 8 foot long cedar planks and some posts into attractive looking planters holding IIRC 7 buckets per planter with plenty of drainage. Cheaper wood is too expensive to use because it rots quickly. My cedar planters are like a decade old and still look new(ish). The problem with indoor lighting is I ran the numbers on an "Aerogarden" product and it works financially for basil (and apparently weed) but not crops like lettuce. The problem then becomes what do I do with an infinite supply of normally expensive fresh basil? Its possible to get tired of pesto although initially it sounds impossible.
- Cerium 10y agoEven for things like basil, I don't want to break even, I want to feel like my work was worth something. I live in a townhouse and have a very small garden, about a 3x9 foot patch. I grew about a 3x3 area of basil and was able to make enough pesto for about 15 meals thoughout the summer, since I usually pay about $3 per bundle of basil I felt I got about $45 out of my basil patch. Of that $45, I spent $3 on basil seeds, and probably another couple dollars on fertilizer. Of course, there is additional value in having fresh basil on demand. By the way, basil can root from cuttings purchased at the grocery store. Its easier and more effective to just buy seeds, but some people have trouble with them. I put some store bought basil in water and it rooted just fine, then continued to grow into a nice plant.
- goda90 10y agoHow many plants could you fit in a bucket? Perhaps you put 3-4 different herbs in each bucket, so you have a good chance of using something in your cooking before having to replant the bucket.
- woah 10y agoIt's one of the most profitable crops, and one that benefits a lot from precisely controlled growing environments. Why is this a bad thing?
- thatcat 10y agoThe only bad thing is the socially unacceptable shadow that it casts on high tech gardening. High profit crops are needed to push the state of the art environmental control designs forward and costs down for other crops; which will become increasingly common as systems mature and costs decline below that of traditional production methods.
- SamBam 10y ago> unacceptable Since pot is legal to grow (either freely or with a medical license) in California, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, New Mexico, Nevada, Alaska, Arizona, Massachusetts, Michigan, Maine, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, Florida, D.C., and Hawaii, I'm not sure it's so "unacceptable" anymore.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- thatcat 10y agoRight, I should have said frowned upon as the legislative tides are slowly changing. Only 8 / 50 states are recreationally legal and even in these states employers still use drug testing as a pre employment filter indicating some level of social stigma still exists. http://norml.org/states http://norml.org/states
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- chillingeffect 10y ago> Only 8 / 50 The rate of growth is something else to consider. From two states (Colorado and Washington) last year to at least three more this year (MA, ME and CA). And I didn't even notice that DC, NV and OR crept in as well. Yes, some social stigma exists, but it's on its way out. But I agree with you as far as: It may never reach full U.S.-Wide legalization. And employers may never get over it. Note though, that medical as > 50% adoption by state in the U.S. Source: http://norml.org/laws http://norml.org/laws
- socialist_coder 10y agoYeah, this site used to be 100% about growing cannabis. Not sure when it transitioned into showing tomatoes and peppers on the front page. Ask yourself why these buckets have lids and air filters? It's not to keep the sweet aroma of your tomato plants out of your apartment =) But, does it matter? Still some really nice DIY designs here even if you aren't growing weed.
- ekrof 10y agoAll plants are welcome, the community does not judge species. For us plants are just plants, we want to become "a melting pot of photosynthesis enthusiasts", as per the bucket manifesto. There are many cannabis growers but that is because it is a very popular plant around the world (and very expensive too). I've grown a lot of different plants in my buckets, including thyme, dill, basil, hot peppers, cherry tomatoes, strawberry and chives :) Hope you give it a try, it is a very fun hobby.
- ashark 10y agoI've been thinking about doing something like this, since I'd have to fence my yard to have an ordinary garden if I don't want deer to eat all my plants. Are there any concerns about levels of non-growth-limiting (or color-affecting) nutrients in container-grown veggies? Has anyone even looked into that?
- elcct 10y ago> (and very expensive too). It is expensive because of its legal situation. Cannabis is essentially weed and is very easy to grow, thus if not for the law, it is actually very cheap.
- retroafroman 10y agoThe subreddit[0] for this is not even remotely veiled cannabis farmers. Every once in a while someone posts tomatoes. [0]https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceBuckets/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceBuckets/
- Olawles 10y agoIIRC it started mainly as a cannabis community but it's "branching" out to include other veggies - the growing method works for any plant, it's down to the individual as to what they grow. Feel free to experiment with different plants from different climates!
- camtarn 10y agoYep. My other half grows and hybridizes African violets in an indoor setup which, because we're in Scotland, includes some pretty bright grow-lights on a timer. We keep joking about him potentially getting raided due to his shopping list and browser history.
- vollmond 10y agoI remember reading at least one case in the US where a home grow operation was discovered by the amount of power it was using, too -- the electric company noticed.
- shrikes_demise 10y agoI believe it's pretty common practice; not just the amount of power being used as a red flag, but obvious patterns too - for cannabis you normally have it going for 16+ hrs of light for it's vegetative cycle, then switch to 12 hr of light for flowering, so they can use that pattern too. Presumably this stuff is only checked post-suspicion, and not automated and parallel construction stuff done.
- roel_v 10y agoI saw a picture of a raid the other day in the area I live, where they found a growop because it was the only house in the row whose roof didn't have 10cm of snow on it. Quite a funny sight. As part of my law degree I spend some time in courtrooms, just watching cases being heard, many of them about small time growers. Many people caught growing at home are punished twice: first through criminal law, and then through civil claims like from energy companies and banks or landlords. Very often these people have no other option then to start growing again, pushing them into a vicious circle. (They made the initial choice themselves, not spinning a sob story here - just saying that the stories behind these cases are quite interesting from a human interest point of view).
- tornadoboy55 10y ago> Many people caught growing at home are punished twice: first through criminal law, and then through civil claims like from energy companies and banks or landlords. Why would the energy company sue you if you paid your electricity bill? Same for landlords or banks, if you paid your rent, who cares?
- lovich 10y agoI know when I posted on there about my peas/tomatoes I had some people surprised that I was actually growing those plants and not using it as a euphemism. They helped me with my plants and setup nonetheless
- convolvatron 10y agoi used to grow weed with old sodium and halide fixtures, and as i grew older i had a nice rig and filled it with cukes, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, peas, string beans, herbs, lettuce. even at the time with the larger power cost i thought it was totally worth it to be able to go down into the basement and make myself a fresh salad or have ripe strawberries without leaving the house. my only issue is that once you move off the easy plants (that dont mind alot of water), it basically stops working. it isn't worth it to try to deal with moving and keeping soil in good shape in a closet. would love to start again with leds someday
- accountface 10y agoThere's no thin veil here, that's how these things started and why they're called space buckets. Indoor gardening w/ grow lights generally isn't economically viable for most readily available varieties of produce.
- xyzzy123 10y agoGrow tech used first for cannabis seems analogous to new entertainment tech adoption driven by porn.
- NTripleOne 10y agoAnd here I am just sitting waiting for some decent VR porn to enjoy with my weed.
- socialist_coder 10y agoOne of the reasons I dislike living outside of the US is because sites like this only have amazon.com links. It would rule if you could swap them for your local amazon (amazon.de for me) links somehow.
- centizen 10y agoThe problem at least for me between .com and .ca, is that they seem to be fundamentally different sites with their own separate arrays of sellers and products that can be quite different from each other. There are many things sold on .com you simply cannot get from .ca, or even shipped to Canada from the .com site
- socialist_coder 10y agoYeah, exactly. Each amazon site has 100% different products. You have to just search for the same product and hope it's there, or find something similar. Even more difficult when the other site is not in English.
- xanderstrike 10y agoWhich is a bummer, because a lot of these sites are supported by affiliate links. When you go to your own amazon, you lose the affiliate connection and can't support the site that gave you the information.
- antoniuschan99 10y agoOne of the reasons why they choose to use Buckets instead of Tents is because it's very easy to transport the bucket from place A to place B. With the tent it's not as easy.
- marianabeldi 10y agoI have my own space bucket and I use it to grow my own food, it's a powerful gardening tool if you don't have much sun hours at home, also you get control of all the process
- philippnagel 10y agoDown for me.
- ekrof 10y agoWorking on it...
- arcaster 10y agoContacted the mods on reddit.
- philippnagel 10y agoThank you. I will check it out later, super interesting project!
- ekrof 10y agoI've put a simple HTML page for the moment :)
- kodfodrasz 10y agoThis does not seem economical to me. For a quick calculation operation cost of a bucket with 20W consumption (One CFL lightbulb) consumes 14.6 kWh energy in a month with continous operation. This costs about 500 HUF (~1.8€) according to the electricity costs i could find quickly (32 HUF/kWh ~0.1€/kWh). This price is comparable to the price of vegetables in the supermarket. This seems economic only for special crops with higher margins.
- qz_ 10y agoYeah, this is for weed.
- aepearson 10y agoFor real. If this is "not economical" - I wanna know where you're getting your weed. :P
- gozur88 10y agoYeah, I like how the article shows tomatoes and peppers. You'd spent fifty bucks to grow, like, $1.50 worth of vegetables. I don't think you'd ever break even just on the power. Not to mention the veggies will probably taste better if you grow them in sunlight. And you'll still get caught if you grow your weed in buckets unless you have a separate source of power.
- digler999 10y agohowever, at least during the winter months, any waste heat given off should technically offset one's heating bill. It may not heat your whole house but since "energy cannot be created or destroyed", it should help at least part of the year.
- wlesieutre 10y agoOnly if you have resistive electric heat. Resistive heat is a simple X electricity -> X heat added to house. A heat pump uses electricity to move heat from one object to another, so it's X electricity -> Y heat pumped into the house from outside, where Y has some efficiency limits, but isn't directly bound by conservation of energy. The effective heat gain here is more than 100% of the electricity spent, and we measure it with "Coefficient of Performance" instead of "efficiency". A good system is somewhere around CoP 3.5, making the LEDs a comparatively bad heater.
- eruditely 10y agoThere was a paper recently that LED lights contributed to retinal deterioration. Let me pull that up for a second.
- nimos 10y agoInteresting, I've always been curious if it doesn't make sense to have a clear unit with some sort of cover and LEDs to "top up" the natural sunlight in northern locations during winter. Not sure if it just ends up being the angle makes the spectrum useless... but always seems like the completely enclosed environments are throwing away a lot of free energy.
- foxhop 10y agoEvery time I see a gardening with tech post I get mildly irritated now that I have been actually gardening for 5 years. I'm of the opinion that we need less tech and more systems with integrated design to take the human labor out of gardening and orchards. The sun is the perfect light source for photosynthesis and temperature. I only use LEDs as a last resort for seed starting. Also LEDs don't provide the heat which plants really, really desire so you will end up needing to supplement with heating pads, incandescent bulbs, or external heating. I accidentally raised my electric bill $100 one month last year when I used a small space heater to warm seeds. I'm currently trying the following experiments: * winter sewing basil using milk jugs outside in the snow * sewing onions indoors and germinating them on top of my houses boiler.
- Baeocystin 10y agoI know you know this, as you referenced the pads, but FYI for the interested: you can get electrically-heated seed mats that only burn 20-40 watts, and cover a standard size. https://www.amazon.com/Jumpstart-MT10006-8-875x19-5-Inch-Seedling/dp/B0001WV010?th=1 https://www.amazon.com/Jumpstart-MT10006-8-875x19-5-Inch-See... I use them for both seed starting, and as a gentle, no-hot-spot heat source in my 3D filament storage/desiccant container. Even leaving them on 24/7 will only add a dollar or two to your monthly electricity bill.
- foxhop 10y agoYeah, the heating pads or seed starting is a great idea. I bought a bunch of 72 watt incandescent bulbs for when the seedlings sprout. I've been using one at my desk to keep my body / hands warm. Beats heating the whole room when all that is cold is myself. I'm in zone 6b and I'm just starting some of my cold hardy plants now. Its a little early but I can't help myself.
- haarts 10y agoHave you documented your endeavors somewhere? I'd be interested.
- 10y ago
- ascorbic 10y agoIkea now sells hydroponics gear, in the UK at least. Looks neat. They're targeting it at herbs and salads. http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/indoor-gardening/ http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/indoor-gardening/
- RickS 10y agoI'm pleasantly surprised by that selection! I expected aerogarden clones, which are IMO way to productized and small for any kind of serious gardening, but those ikea racks are close to what you'd find in a real hydro setup for nursing seedlings/small plants.
- forgotAgain 10y agoThe science has come a long way from the incandescent light in my dorm closet.
- King-Aaron 10y agoAaah, yes. Nice and inconspicuous buckets in the shed, so you can grow your own... ahem... "food"
- RickS 10y agoyou joke, but the marijuana industry has long been at the forefront of DIY hydroponics and cultivation in general, in much the same way that the porn industry is an early adopter of various web tech. being the underdog leads to some fruitful risk tolerance.
- slosh 10y agosmart idea having links to the products on amazon http://spacebucketstore.com/ http://spacebucketstore.com/
- ekrof 10y agoLifting content without permission is not cool. You should at least link back to the original site.
- simplyshift 10y agoDo I have to worry about bugs if I do this in my apartment?
- convolvatron 10y agoyes. maybe not initially but once they settle in they are there for good. treat with insecticidal soap once a week and rinse it off well (move your buckets or tubs into the shower)
- foxyv 10y agoI think the greatest advantage of indoor gardening isn't the ideal lighting and temperatures so much as pest and humidity control. Indoor gardens don't suffer from birds, insects, and rodents like my outdoor plants. (Or my Mom's chickens =P) In addition they don't require half as much water as my drip irrigated plants. Even if you just keep the plants in the garage it's a huge advantage if you live in an area with lots of pests. Also with the emergence of cheap LEDs you can keep light on the plants without the huge energy costs of fluorescent lighting. Not to mention it's kinda pretty to have walls of plants in your house =)