First seeds started: onions, leeks, purple cone flower
13.3 years ago indoor growbox, indoor seed starting, LEDs, seeds
My youngest daughter has been patiently waiting all winter to plant some seeds (as have I) Finally it was time in my area to start planting the “start 8-10 weeks before first frost” seeds. Which for me included onions and leeks, though as I was picking up the leek seeds my daughter talked me into getting some purple coneflower seeds as well.
After carefully mixing my special blend of 3 parts normal potting mix with 1 part perlite we filled some trays, sprinkled on the seeds, applied some light pressure to ensure good contact, and placed them in my small Christmas light grow box.
This provides me a small of convenient location to care for these seedlings until they are big enough to move into the computer grow box which if all goes well should be getting a slight makeover this weekend, which I should post about soon.
Controlling my growbox with a mobile phone
13.6 years ago computer, electronics, indoor growbox, Uncategorized, windows phone
How many times have you been riding the bus and have been curious what temperature your computer growbox was running and if the plants needed to be watered? Ok maybe never, but I decided to solve this problem anyway. There is also no point in identifying that you may have a problem without having a way to do something about so I also implemented the ability to override the controls on the growbox by using a Windows Phone 7 application on your new T-Mobile cell phone or any other cool Windows phone.
Design
I made the design for this pretty simple, unfortunately I could not connect with my growbox directly using a mobile device because the computer is behind a firewall (which is a good thing) so I used machine that both the mobile phone and growbox can contact cheapvegetablegardener.com. After creating a quick web service with the following methods the growbox and mobile device could now talk to each other:
- SetStatus(StatusInfo) – GrowBox sets this status every minute
- SetOverride(OverrideInfo) – Mobile sets override to default functionality
- GetStatus() – Mobile Phone gets status
- GetOverride() – GrowBox checks for potential overrides requested by Mobile device
Mobile UI
Now I have the two devices talking here is the basic UI. The top half of the screen shows the growbox temperature, cpu temperature, and the moisture content. All of these statues change color (to yellow and red) as their values get to critical levels (too hot, too cold, too dry)
The middle section shows the current state of the growbox letting me know if the lights, heater, exhaust fan, and/or water pump are on or off. If a situation occurs where you want to override this state you can do this by simply clicking the status indicator.
The bottom part of the screen shows temperature and moisture levels over the past 24 hours. The graphs are rendered using Google Charts for simplicity though am thinking about creating my own custom solution to get the graphs just right. It also displays a current screenshot inside the grow box and you can transition between views with a finger swipe.
Screenshots
| Temperature history graph | Moisture saturation history graph |
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Overriding the heater setting |
Status screen following heater override |
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Though this covers most of my required functionality, I still need to add some cool transition animations and some additional analytics, but thought I would share my current version.
Tags: growbox
Growing basil indoors with a desk lamp
13.6 years ago basil, indoor growbox
I recently moved to a new office building and unfortunately I had a lacked a few years at the company to get a window office. With a desire to have some plant life in my office, I grabbed a couple of the basil plants I cloned, dropped them in some potting soil, and positioned a desk lamp with a CFL bulb. I can’t seem to find my lamp timer so the light has been staying on for 24 hours a day.
The results have been great, the plants are thriving with great green foliage (much greener than its cloned parent was outside this summer) Shortly after taking the picture above a harvested some of the leaves and used the top portion to clone into a new basil plant.
Just shows you don’t need a fancy grow box or AeroGarden
Tags: growbox
Ladybug in the grow box
13.6 years ago indoor growbox, jalapeno, ladybugs
One problem with growing plants indoors is you don’t always get the benefits of beneficial insects, but as you can see above it doesn’t always have to be that way. At least one little lady bug snuck into the grow box and seems to have found some snacks on a basil plant.
If anyone is curious I also have one of my jalapeno pepper plants in the grow box with hopes of getting a few more ripe red jalapeno peppers before things get too cold.
Ultimate Aquaponics setup
13.9 years ago aquaponics, herbs, hydroponics, indoor growbox
I actually thought I already posted about this bad boy which unfortunately is only a design concept from Philips. For those that are not familiar:
Aquaponics is the symbiotic cultivation of plants and aquatic animals in a recirculating environment.
Aquatic animal effluent (for example fish waste) accumulates in water as a by-product of keeping them in a closed system or tank (for example a recirculating aquaculture system). The effluent-rich water becomes high in plant nutrients but this is correspondingly toxic to the aquatic animal.
Source Wikipedia
This system is called the BioTower, the first 2 levels are hydroponic plants with the third being algae. The fourth layer contains shrimp and fish which produce organic waste which is stored in the bottom layer.
The lights are powered using optical fibers from the sun and the methane from the organic waste powers the lights at night. The plants and seafood can then be consumed all powered by the various ecosystems.
I couldn’t even imagine what something like this would cost if it came out of the design phase, though a simple cover over the organic waste and this would make a great conversation piece.
Growing Pepper Plants Indoors
13.9 years ago Bhut Jolokia, indoor growbox, jalapeno, peppers
Pepper plants need specific environmental (temperature and humidity) conditions to establish growth and create high yields. If the temperatures get too low it will stunt its growth or not produce blossoms, when the temperatures get too high the plant will drop it blossoms resulting in no or reduce yields.
The perfect temperature range for peppers is between 70 and 80 degrees F for Bell peppers and hot peppers can handle a little warmer temperatures up to 85 degrees. If their environment gets below 70 degrees the plants will struggle, which given even in August we don’t hit an average of 70 degrees F for any success a greenhouse, hot box, or a growbox is requirement. If you are a frequent reader of this site you probably already know I go with the last option.
With a few CFLs (or incandescent if extra heat is needed) the peppers plants are happy in the growbox. With exception of once a week watering with a diluted fertilizer at 50% recommended on the box they pretty much take care of themselves. If we do get a nice warm day I will bring them out for some natural light. This also invites some natural organic pest control of any aphids which may have found their way into the growbox. When the plants begin flowering this also gives some bees an opportunity to do a little pollination, this can be done by hand with a paint brush or Q-Tip though my success rate is much less than the bees, though they have been doing this for millions of years…I am still a little new at this
As mentioned above controlling the proper temperature is critical, I do this with a combination of computer controlled fans and lighting to maintain the proper temperature, though this could also be achieved by using a $10 outdoor digital thermometer and a occasional adjustments to venting or fan control to maintain a good temperature range.
Last year I only grew jalapeno pepper plants, but this year I am also trying Cayenne, Sweet Yellow, and Bhut Jolokia pepper plants. Though it is quite a bit more work growing peppers in my area, I like challenges and to do things that others say can not be done, call me stubborn.
Tags: growbox
