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DIY Indoor GrowBox

A project log for Smart Agriculture

We're working on a flexible set of tools for agriculture indoors and outdoors, both for gardens and farms.

progressthProgressTH 06/11/2017 at 05:590 Comments

June 11, 2017 | ProgressTH A grow box is a basic means of creating an indoor garden using artificial lighting and a varying degree of automation. It is useful if you lack rooftop, balcony, or other outdoor space for growing.

The box itself provides a means of suspending the lighting and enclosing it to maximize reflection back onto the plants. The box also serves as a platform to add in automation for irrigation, ventilation, monitoring, and more.

This prototype was constructed from 600x400mm MDF boards, 3D printed joints, aluminum foil tape, and magnets to create a front magnetic panel for accessing the interior.

It uses a 30W LED floodlight for illumination. It has been used to successfully grow herbs before, but it is still unknown whether or not it can successfully be used with fruiting plants like chili peppers or tomatoes.

Using an IoT weather station from a previous project, we are able to monitor and record the internal conditions of the box. The graphs here display the information as it is updated in real time using ThingSpeak.

So far, only two types of basil are growing inside it using soil as a grow medium just to see if anything at all will grow inside. Development is underway for a hydroponics or aquaponics system.

This project is an attempt to replicate MIT's Personal Food Computer using materials readily available here in Bangkok at hardware, electronics, and stationary stores.

Careful, patient use of a utility knife can be used to cut the MDF board. Hot glue is used to join everything together.

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