Budget Grow Box: How To Grow Weed In A Bin For Under £150

I’m currently growing a weed plant in a bin in my bedroom.

From the outside, the bin looks just like a regular rubbish bin. But lift the lid and you’ll discover a miniature grow room complete with lights, a discreet ventilation system, and a single cannabis plant emerging from a pot. 

I built this simple grow bin a few months ago but only put it to use since the UK went into lockdown and I realised that I was going to be staying home for a while. 

I was inspired by looking at other people’s homemade grow boxes online. Particularly useful was this guide on Spacebuckets.com, although they use buckets rather than a bin.  

What is a grow bin/grow box/space bucket?

I first read about space buckets a few years ago. It was reported in High Times how people were growing “lush pot plants in tiny grow chambers that anyone can build.”

I then discovered the spacebuckets subreddit, where people were posting pictures and descriptions of their many different and wildly creative mini grow boxes. 

They were installing lights and fans into cupboards, mini fridges, PC towers, bins and more. 

This got me thinking about how to make my own. So I popped onto Amazon to try and find something suitable to turn into a grow box. I settled on an 80L bin and began planning my build. 

I’ve listed the products I used below, as well as the steps you need to take to build yourself a similar grow bin. You could really use any type of container, however. 

What you’ll need to build a grow bin

• A container (I used an 80L bin) – £14.48
• Light  (35w energy saving light bulbs work for me) – £23.96 
• Lamp fittings for lights – £30.80  
• Two PC fans (this three-pack is ideal) – £12.99
• Power adapter – £4.99
• Socket timer thingy – £6.30
• Reflective sheeting – £18.09
• Power strip – £6.04
• Something to cut the bin with (I used a jigsaw) – £21.99 
• Duct tape – £3.90

Total: £143.54

Steps to building a grow bin

1. Install the fans

• Mark two outlines of a PC fan on the bin – one at near the top and one near the bottom. 
• Use the jigsaw to cut out holes for the fans.
• Wire the fans with the power adapter. This video shows you exactly how to do this to one fan, but you can follow the same instructions to attach the second fan to the circuit to create a parallel circuit. It’s safest to solder and tape your wires together, although twisting and taping works too. 
• With duct tape, secure one fan to the bottom of the bin blowing in and the other at the top blowing out.

2. Install the lights in the lid

• First, you’re going to have to wire up all the lights into a parallel circuit that connects to one plug. To do this, you use the same technique as shown in the video above.  
• Then, you’ll have to get a bit creative in order to attach the lights to the underside of the bin lid. I used copious amounts of duct tape to get the job done. 

3. Final touches

• Tape the power strip to the side of your bin, somewhere where the plugs of both the fans and lights can reach.
• Line the inside of the bin with reflective mylar. (I’m lazy and skipped this bit.)  

You now have a complete grow bin ready to use. You can plug the fans into the power strip, and plug the lights into the timer plug, which also goes in the power strip. The timer can be set to switch the lights on and off at preselected times. 

What to grow?

If this is your first time growing weed, I highly recommend you consider growing autoflowering cannabis seeds. Whereas regular seeds need a consistent 12 hours of light to 12 hours of darkness to flower, autos will flower, you guessed it, automatically when they reach a certain age. 

Autos are also generally smaller than regular varieties and are easier to grow. Read more about autoflowering seeds here. If you’re interested in growing high-CBD plants, check out our list of the best CBD seeds. 

Also, UK-based Ice Head Shop offer a great range of autoflowering seeds, regular high-THC seeds, and CBD seeds.

Get creative

You definitely don’t need to use a bin if you don’t fancy it. See what you’ve got lying around or available on the free section of Gumtree. 

You can also try using different light setups and ventilation systems. There’s loads of advice and inspiration on the space buckets website and subreddit.  

Also be sure to check out Super Green Labs, an American company that sells kits which let you turn any piece of furniture into a stealth grow box. They also have a lot of great content on building different types of grow boxes.

Please comment or send a picture if you decide to build one or have built one before!