
Space Buckets: DIY Indoor Gardening with LED and Arduinos - ekrof
http://www.spacebuckets.com/#c
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foxhop
Every 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.

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Baeocystin
I 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-
See...](https://www.amazon.com/Jumpstart-MT10006-8-875x19-5-Inch-
Seedling/dp/B0001WV010?th=1)

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
Yeah, 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.

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kodfodrasz
This 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.

~~~
Obi_Juan_Kenobi
Why would you do the calculation with compact fluorescent bulbs, when the
project is really predicated on the efficiency of LEDs? Especially the
red/blue LEDs that favor the photosynthetic spectrum.

I'm not saying the conclusion is wrong - this is generally about growing
cannabis - but indoor cultivation is surprisingly economical for a variety of
scales.

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antisthenes
Because at least Red LEDs generally aren't more efficient than CFLs.

You can find tons of articles claiming some lm/w record being achieved in a
lab of 110 lm/w, 200 lm/w and other ridiculous numbers, but the reality is
most of consumer grade available LEDs will only be 10-30% more efficient than
a CFL, and probably _less_ efficient than a t5 fluorescent tube.

I've looked into this extensively when running an indoor garden, and in the
end decided to go with FL tubes and a 400W HPS (which was far better than any
LED on the market in 2010)

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legulere
lumen are defined by visibility for the human eye, which is not what you are
optimizing for when growing plants.

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hughes
This looks interesting, but high-tech gardening communities almost always seem
to turn into thinly-veiled DIY cannabis farmers.

~~~
ekrof
All 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
I'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?

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DanBC
Here's one previous thread with some discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10444907](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10444907)

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ascorbic
Ikea 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
I'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.

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marianabeldi
I 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

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King-Aaron
Aaah, yes. Nice and inconspicuous buckets in the shed, so you can grow your
own... ahem...

"food"

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RickS
you 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.

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foxyv
I 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 =)

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socialist_coder
One 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
The 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
Yeah, 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.

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xanderstrike
Which 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.

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nimos
Interesting, 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.

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antoniuschan99
One 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.

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forgotAgain
The science has come a long way from the incandescent light in my dorm closet.

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simplyshift
Do I have to worry about bugs if I do this in my apartment?

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convolvatron
yes. 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)

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slosh
smart idea having links to the products on amazon

[http://spacebucketstore.com/](http://spacebucketstore.com/)

~~~
ekrof
Lifting content without permission is not cool. You should at least link back
to the original site.

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eruditely
There was a paper recently that LED lights contributed to retinal
deterioration. Let me pull that up for a second.

~~~
goda90
It'd probably be related to the higher blue light levels of "white" LEDs. I'm
sure the amount of screen time most people get these days has a greater effect
than LEDs in a bucket.

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philippnagel
Down for me.

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ekrof
Working on it...

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philippnagel
Thank you. I will check it out later, super interesting project!

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ekrof
I've put a simple HTML page for the moment :)

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hartror
Is a blank page for me.

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ekrof
I added a redirect to
[http://www.spacebuckets.com/hb/](http://www.spacebuckets.com/hb/) but it does
not seem to very working for everyone. Very frustrating day...

~~~
radec
still down for me, but that link works. thanks

