Setting up the grow light

In my case, we were able to find a few light bulb sockets very cheap at the hardware store on the island. Its a simple screw in fixture with two prongs for a regular plug. I got a pack of 3 6500k CFL bulbs, and one 2700k bulb, since we plan to grow mostly herbs the light requirement will be low, and mostly for blue light. We're only using about 60 watts in total at this time, maybe in the future we will add more bulbs or brighter ones.

We used a segment of a snap-together metal shelf as a frame for the light, and used electrical tape to connect the sockets to the frame. Also using this same tape to ensure the metal prongs were not in contact with the frame itself.

After that I rapped the whole thing in foil to provide a reflective background. Again, using tape to keep the metal foil out of contact with any wires or metal.

We bought some wire, and wired them together in sequence. This is a bit technical, so I'd advise not doing this at home unless you have some electrical knowledge. We stripped the ends of several segments of wire, and tied the ends to each prong of the sockets. Two lights on each side and 4 in total. We used black for hot and white for not. Then for the plug we wired them onto the cord we cut off from a broken floor fan.

To my surprise and great pleasure, it worked the first time. We then hung the light from strings above the shelf that would become the plant area, and made a curtain of foil all around the area to focus the light and spread it evenly through the growing area.

By the end of the project, the lamp was producing 5,000 lumens at the leaf-height, evenly across the growing area.

Hydroponics with limited materials

One of the big challenges of designing a hydroponics system on an Island like this one, is the lack of materials. Some countries have big hydroponic supply stores where you can buy everything, even pre-made high end systems. In other places, you can still find nearly anything you need on the internet and have it shipped to you. Not so here. Where I live we don't even have a mail system, we can't even get letters mailed let alone packages. Also, even traditional garden centers do not exist in this country, gardening just isn't a thing. Farming is a thing, but here farming is walking into the jungle with a machete and chopping down any plant or fruit you need that just happens to be growing there.

Hardware stores, or "ferreterias" in spanish are a good resource. Here you can get basic materials like wire, pipe, tape, light bulbs etc. Nothing is labeled for gardening use so you need a bit of knowledge to know what to look for. Grow lights are not too difficult, My wife and I built our own grow light out of a metal shelf piece, tin foil, wire, and CFL bulbs. It has yet to catch fire, so thats good.

Selling seeds is rare also, so you will have to find most of you seeds in the wild, or take cuttings from the wild or from your neighbors (yes, I ask permission first). People here don't know Jalapeños, but I love them, so I went to the one market that sold them and bought the most shriveled up, over ripened Jalapeño they had. I got some strange looks for buying one single rotten pepper, but it was full of viable seeds. Sadly most of the sprouts died from salt and wind exposure, which is part of my inspiration for doing this hydrponic project. I also plan to grow lettuce, spinach, oregano and other herbs that are not available from the markets here.

I was able to find fertilizer in the capital on the mainland, but had to know what I was buying. Hydroponic nutrients can't be found here so I had to buy some other fertilizer by the kilogram, i'll go into more detail in another post.

In all I think I spent $10-15 on the entire setup, but it took some work and some creativity. In future posts I'll explain in detail each of the steps.