My winter setup (Grow boxes and cacti)

[olof_n]

Hi!

I really like all forum threads where different members share there take on growing seeds, grafting etcetera
So in this thread, I will show my winter setup for growing seeds indoors.
Because I live in Sweden I have to grow seedlings under artificial light. I have therefore started to build my own led grow light and grow boxes.

Starting with "grow box 1". This box is located in my home so I don't have to worry about cold temperature (see grow box 2 & 3).
The only problem is to get rid of all heat the led lights produce.

I have a termostat that starts two fans when the temperature exceeds the setpoint. Have also mounted a timer for the lightning.
The cabinet is from Ikea.

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Not much space inside.

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The 6 glass jars contain small Aztekium seedlings.
They were hard to photograph.

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Some Aricarpus with moss

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Astrophytum asterias 'Super Kabuto'

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Cleistocactus Colademononis

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The other day I got one (out of 20 seeds) Echinocactus Polycephalus to germinate.

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¨
Echinopsis Lageniformis

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Run out of space so I placed a modified Ikea odla on top of the grow box.

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~50 Aricarpus fissuratus in the plastic box.
I had to remove the lit from the box because the seedlings were growing so fast that some of them started to crack!

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[olof_n]

Grow box 2 & 3 are located in a building where the temperature wary between -5C to 20C.
Box 2 has 45mm of insulation and both boxes have heating.

The box has 155W of led lights (measured) so I have to ventilate out a lot of heat.

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The hatch will open if the temperature rises above the setpoint.
In the night (or when it gets too cold) the hatch will close and a PID-regulator will start to regulate two heating mats.
I can set a different day and night temperature.
In the picture, you can see the PLC that controls lightning, hatch, and heat.

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The hatch is opened and its 28C inside.

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Aricarpus graft

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Astrophytum Asterias graft

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Echinopsis Lageniformis graft

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Planted too many Lophophora seeds So now I have ~550 seedlings in three boxes.

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Had to remove the lit from one of the boxes because I got a gnat invasion!

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Some Echinopsis Lageniformis

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Pinguiculas are great agains gnats.

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[olof_n]

Box number three is just an Ikea plastic box with a PID-controller that keeps the temperature high enough.
The output current for the led lighting is adjustable. It's three 100W led chips mounted on CPU-fans. I run them at only 20W (total 60W ).

The box is heated with a 60W heating cable.

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Made a "portable" PID-controller and timer for this temporary setup.

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Echinopsis Pachanoi

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More Aricarpus Fissuratus in the small plastic box.

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Sundews are beautiful and great against gnats!

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[olof_n]

Yesterday I ordered the following seeds:
AZTEKIUM ritteri
MELOCACTUS matanzanus
MAMMILLARIA candida
ASTROPHYTUM myriostigma
FEROCACTUS gracilis
FRAILEA asterioides
ECHINOCACTUS horizontalonius
EPITHELANTHA micromeris
CLEISTOCACTUS strausii
ARIOCARPUS kotschoubeyanus
BLOSSFELDIA liliputana

So I have to arrange more space at home for seedlings
Just bought 20 seeds of each except Aztekium that I bought 100 of.
Thinking about planting all of them in glass jars from Ikea (https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/40378571/).

[Aiko]

Maybe sowing the Aztekiums (and the Blossfeldia's!) in regular pots and sticking those inside a locked bag (or jar) will be better than straight in the jar. It might become hard to get the seedlings out in the future? In normal pots in a plastic bag (or two, for extra protection) it might also save you precious space. The jars look quite big (wide).

[olof_n]

Hi Aiko!
The diameter of the jars are only 7cm which should be okay. The jars in "grow box 1" are 11cm and abit too large.
Jars are probably not optimal for fast growing cacti because the seedlings will outgrow them fast.
But Aztekium and Blossfeldia should be able to grow there for several years before I have to repot.

I realy like the Ikea "Samla" boxes (see Lophs picture) for growing lots of seeds.

[saboten]

I'm not sure if you would know the answer to this: but I have been wondering why one of my Melocactus seedlings looks like a 'snowman'. I can see that many of your Echinopsis lageniformis seedlings have the same sort of double ball shape going. Can anyone explain like I'm 5 why some seedlings grow like that?

[esp_imaging]

I have been wondering why one of my Melocactus seedlings looks like a 'snowman'.

I assume you mean your seedlings grow in the shape of a little ball, with another little ball growing on top, like an "8".
I think this happens when the growing point dies, and another round shoot sprouts from immediately below the growing point.

[olof_n]

Got my seeds today!
Planted them in the new jars! Takes up much less space than the big old ones.

[olof_n]

Had to move some pots to a new place.
I build an ugly grow light of a copper plate. Mixed different LEDs that I had. Warm white, cold white, pink "grow LED" and 15000K LEDs.

[Kristofer1990]

Nice thread just a tip from a practicing electrician... use a non conductive material to mount the lights lol It's a much safer option buddy!

[olof_n]

I don't think I have ever seen a commercial led mounted on a non conductive material.
It is always aluminium (copper is to expensive), mounting a led on a non conductive material will result in a fire. If you had worked with high power leds you had known about the problem with heat.

The DC-voltage levels here are not dangerous, you can touch it with your hands without getting any shock.
It is also a fuse protecting agains short circuit.

[ElieEstephane]

Very cool setup! Would you mind sharing the schematics of the circuit? I run a similar setup except everything is manual and im using a 50w incandescent lamp for heating

[olof_n]

Thanks Elie!

I don't have a circuit but can answer questions.

When I build grow box 2 I wanted to try and use a PLC.
So I bought a cheap PLC from "Rievtech" ( https://www.rievtech.com/ ), they have a lot of different models with and without WIFI/ethernet.

I really recommend a PLC if you like electronics, it's fun and easy to program them.

Some models have built-in relays but I choose a model with transistor outputs (because the PID-regulator generates a lot of on/off pulses)
I also bought SSR to control the heat mats. The linear actuator is 12V and controlled by two 12V relays.

Grow box 1 is more simple.
It uses a common temperature controller called stc1000, it is very cheap on ebay.
The timer is also easy to find on ebay/aliexpress
https://www.ebay.com/itm/DC-12V-24V-AC- ... rk:21:pf:0

Grow box 3 uses a "Rex-C100" PID regulator. You can choose between relay/SSR output.

[ElieEstephane]

Cool! Looks like you like to mess around with these. I remember at one time i wanted use a raspberry pi to control my grow box.
For now i'm thinking i'll hook the lights to a wifi wall outlet and the incandescent bulb to another. I can control both of these from my phone but i just have to find a way to automate these processes especially the heating since i'll be asleep at night and can't know if the temps fall too much