Wanna share your cover design with the Micro Grow Community, post them in the PocketGrow Forum or email us the graphic at covers [at] pocketgrow.com.

Specifications for Creating Your Own Covers
- Accepted Formats: JPEG, BMP or TIFF
- RGB, not CMYK
- Size: 1884px x 735px

The name “Hydroponics” was created from a latin word which means “Working Water”.  Hydroponics is simply the growing of plants without soil.  Instead, plants are grown in an inert medium , balanced with oxygen and nutrient solutions specifically for hydroponic growing. All plants, whether grown hydroponically or in soil, need 16 basic elements to grow. Most of us are familiar with the top three that are consumed by plants. These elements are called the Macro-Elements and they are Nitrogen (N) Phosphorous (P) and Potassium (K), they are abbreviated N P K.  These letters can be seen on most fertilizers followed by a number. The number specifies the strength of the elements.

The other 13 elements are grouped together as the Micro-Elements. Most people are not familiar with these elements because we have always counted on them being present in the soil. In a hydroponic system these Micro-Elements are not present and need to be added to the hydroponic system to establish good plant health.

Why use LED lights instead of HID or Compact Fluorescents (CFL)? [TOP]

Growing with high intensity LEDs is a fairly new technology as far as plant growing is concerned. LED refers to light-emitting diode.  Young plants at the seedling stage require blue light in order to grow properly. Mature plants, such as a flowering or fruiting plants, require red  in order to get the plants to produce the flowers or fruit. We carefully selected a mix of both blue and red LEDs that emit color frequencies for optimum plant growth.  The advantage to using LED lights is that they are not nearly as hot as HID lamps and CLFs during operation, and they also consume much less electricity while lasting much longer than the conventional grow light.

When will you start shipping out the Lab Box Grower? [TOP]

We are working very hard getting the Lab Box Grower ready for production and will try to bring the grow box to market as soon as we can. Remember to join the interest list to receive updates and product launch dates.

How much will the Lab Box Grower Cost? [TOP]

Price for the Lab Box Grower has not yet been determined. We hope to have the pricing published soon.

How easy is it to grow my favorite plant or herb? [TOP]

It depends on your experience and dedication to growing your plant or herb.  If you have experience growing in a hydroponic system or even dabble in gardening,  growing is quite easy. For those that don’t have a green-thumb or need assistance, you can use our Micro Grow Community Forum to help you with your grow. A hydroponic grow will require monitoring to make sure everything is working properly. If you are away from the box for a long period, growing might not be possible.

Will I be able to grow just about anything? [TOP]

No, obviously with the size of the grow box, you are limited to small plants or herbs. Having said that, certain plant species can be miniaturized or  Bonzai’d.  Through pruning and low stress training (LST), miniaturizing can be achieved through these techniques for plants that are larger than the box.

Can I reprogram the microchip to suite my growing needs? [TOP]
Yes. The LabBox Grower utilizes a single PicAxe micro controller. If you have some experience or would like to dabble in programming, you can easily re-program your LabBox Grower to fit your needs. Best of all, the software required to program the micro controller is absolutely free.

• Software Download
• Getting Started Manual
• BASIC Commands
• Interfacing Circuits

How often do I need to water the plants? [TOP]

Depending on your watering schedule, the LabBox Grower water/nutrient reservoir can last up to a week without refilling. An external water/nutrient reservoir can be purchased to increase your watering time to once every two to three weeks.

How does my LabBox Twitter messages? [TOP]

When your LabBox Grower is connected to your computer via a Serial Cable,  data from the box is transmitted to the LabBox Server software and Twitters to the Twitter account you specify. We are working on a USB version for those that don’t have a Serial Port.

How do I get help growing in the LabBox Grower? [TOP]

Anytime you need help growing or setting up your grow box, refer to our Micro Grow Community Forum for assistance. There are many knowledgeable growers out there that can help you with whatever problems you may encounter. Of course you can contact us directly by going to our contact page.

How do I contribute to the Micro Grow Project? [TOP]

Help the Micro Grow Community by sharing your ideas and growing techniques on our Micro Grow Community Forum.  Bounce ideas with the community and publish your own creations. Let’s grow together!!!

How do you ship your products? [TOP]

All shipments domestic or international will be sent through the United States Postal Service (USPS) unless specified. Orders usually ship within 3-4 business days unless out of stock.

What is your return policy? [TOP]

At PocketGrow, we believe in our products. But we do understand that this is a experimental product and may not be for everyone. If for some reason you are not pleased with the product or simply don’t think its right for you, simply return the product within 30 days from the time of purchase to receive a full refund (Hydroponic Nutrients are not refundable).  Please email us at returns[at]pocketgrow.com to request a return merchandise authorization (RMA) number.  We DO NOT accept C.O.D.’s on return items. Customers are responsible for return shipping charges. For your protection, we suggest you return your merchandise via UPS or a carrier with a trackable method.

What is your warranty policy? [TOP]

Our warranty policy is simple…  If for some reason your product is defective, we’ll try to replace or fix the part for you or of course return the product within 30 days from the time of purchase to receive a full refund. Please email us at warranty[at]pocketgrow.com and specify the reason for the warranty request along with your order number given at the time of purchase.

Based upon a variety of Microchip PICs, the chips come in a number of DIP footprints, from an 8-pin, 128-byte program capacity device through to a 40-pin, 4096-byte program capacity device.  We opted to use the 14 pin chip (6 outputs and 5 inputs (3 of the inputs have analogue capabilities))  for its low cost and numerous output and input pins.

What’s great about the PICAXE system is that programs are downloaded via a direct cable link straight into the micro-controller, so no expensive programmers or erasers are required. The LabBox Grower includes a custom RS-232 serial connection to program the box so no extra components are necessary.

If you have some experience or would like to dabble in BASIC programming, you can easily re-program your LabBox Grower to fit your needs. Best of all, the software required to program the micro controller is absolutely free.

• Free PicAxe Program Editor
• Getting Started Manual
• BASIC Commands
• Interfacing Circuits
• LabBox Controller Circuit

With Monday’s (August 24, 2010) launch of the PocketGrow.com website, I was absolutely amazed by the interest we received with this new micro hydroponics system. The server even went down several times with all the unexpected traffic we received. I want to thank everyone for their positive feedback and support to grow this community of Micro Growers. I am working very hard trying to get the production pieces built and still working on the final production design.

Having said that, we did see a comment from a reader that the leaf on the PocketGrow was taken from another site.  I do apologize for this as I thought that this was a clip-art image that was freely available for use.  The last thing I want to do is take someone’s intellectual property or art work.  So, I really do apologize for that and I ended up hand drawing a leaf and changing the logo.  I know… it’s kind of a typical leaf you see all over the place, but hope this is acceptable to the Micro Grow community. I guess I was so involved with getting the product designed, that I didn’t thoroughly do the research.

Many have been asking if they can receive an actual release date, but at this time I am not exactly sure.  I am working very hard to get the final design done and manufacturing them. Unfortunately, these boxes have to be CNC milled and hand assembled which takes time. Trying to create jigs and tools to help me piece these boxes faster.

I am also trying to finish up the LabBox Online Controller interface that is written in PHP with a MySQL database to connect to the LabBox Grower. This interface allows you to control your box from anywhere you have a online connection.  Below is a preliminary interface. Please note that this may change as I finish up the design and programming.

Again, I want to thank everyone personally for your interest in our Micro Grow Box. I will be keeping everyone updated that joined the interest list.  If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us.  Keep growing!!!