Home made seed incubator

For those of us with old freezers, kicking about and who are to lazy to take it to the dump...err, I mean recycling center, why not convert it into a "greenhouse". Makes sense, fully insulated and white interior reflects grow lamp light.





Simple construction, drill a hole in the side large enough to accommodate grow lamp etc. wires, add a reservoir in the bottom with a submersible pump and a method of irrigation (waterproof electrics if you go down this route). I used a Digital Thermostat with an Extended Low Range of 65°F-108°F, to control the grow lamps which also maintains temperature. Set at 80 F provides 9 hours of illumination per day.

That's a great idea.

Can I suggest a good mod?

I would suggest a 24hr light cycle to reduce elongation of the stems, and decrease incubation time by half

I would use the thermostat to power a 4" computer fan on the top, hole made with a 4" hole saw, then do 2 4" holes close together on the bottom-back side, then cover them with a hepa filter for dust and dust mite prevention.

Man, a deep freeze would be awesome too

Here's what I designed back in the day, it is stupid simple,
It is a large rubbermaid tub with a barely ventilated plexiglass top, maybe 2-1" holes at each end, then a wire shelf with the ends poked through sides of container to suspend the plants above the water. The plants do not use the water directly, a small table fountain pump sits in the water with a few drops of bleach and waters the plants and substrate via humidity only. It holds about 300 clones using grow plugs which can sit between the wires on the shelf.

Very cool idea !!

What about ventilation? It looks very air tight, but everything I've ever grown, has seemed to need some air movement.
Too much humidity can cause problems......

Although I guess there's air every time the door is open, and your seeds/cuttings get to grow taller than with just lids on trays...

Good job!

Nice....

With the proper fertilizer...70 days till harvest.

a reply to: Mandroid7

I would suggest a 24hr light cycle to reduce elongation of the stems, and decrease incubation time by half

I am reading about 'light saturation point' and thought I would share with everyone.

That being said, every plant has something called their “light saturation point,” or the point when plants can’t utilize every bit of sunlight that they are being exposed to. As long as you keep your lighting within a reasonable amount, your plants will probably not reach their light saturation point.

If they do, it turns into a waste of light, electricity, and time – when a plant is receiving too much light, it actually does not grow as quickly, since there is no point for it to grow bigger for the purpose of receiving more sunlight when it already gets too much.

a reply to: InTheLight

Yeah, good subject, but that is different than the light cycle.

That quote is light saturation, or light above the usable amount.

Indoors, this would mean your lights are too close to the plants, outdoors would be a shade plant in direct sunlight.

The light cycle I am referring to is the amount of time on vs. off.

Plants flower in the dark, when they flower they retard growth in the stocks and size.

Hence, the 24hr light cycle is the fastest for the vegetative state, it blocks the flower growth, so it will double the speed the plant gets to it's flower cycle, when it gets there, you can switch to a 12/12 light cycle, for the opposite effect creating faster flower development., increasing the flower time to 12 hrs a night.

OP I have been thinking about this for years. Never been able to get a single door freezer for free so we made one our of our wire rack that we have been using for years.
we have to see how it goes for the rest of the season, still have our tomatoes and peppers in there but having trouble controlling the temps. Only have a fan on the bottom blowing air up and vented the top.
We ended up getting two 10x10 hydrofarm white/black tarps and made our own grow tents.
For sure when we find a free freezer we will do your setup.
Awesome to have in the garage.

a reply to: Mandroid7

Guess which plant I was researching?

a reply to: nepatitan

having trouble controlling the temps

A combination of the thermal controller I use and Mandroid7's idea of using it to control a 4 inch computer fan vent might work for you. I have a storm window hot frame outside that uses an Univent Automatic Vent Opener to maintain temperature.