As it becomes legal in increasingly more states to grow your own medicine, the people who would most benefit from doing so may be the least able to take advantage. The Cloudponics GroBox removes the guesswork from growing your medicine while keeping it inside your house and in a manageable space. The GroBox makes hydroponic farming accessible to everyone.
This system is perfect for the elderly, those who don’t have an extended range of motion, people who don’t like to (or can’t) leave the house, those who don’t like getting dirty, or for people who don’t have yards. The GroBox makes it possible for anyone to consciously grow their own medicine without pesticides or anything else that’s undesirable.
Measuring about the size of an apartment refrigerator (66″ tall by 28″ wide by 28″ deep), the Cloudponics GroBox is a turnkey hydroponics system that can grow one large plant or up to 6 smaller plants at a time, from seed to harvest.
Using the Cloudponics app, you can access a crowd-sourced database of seed strains to “give your specific plant the ideal conditions for it to thrive.” You’ll use the app the configure your GroBox, and the app allows you to monitor and control your plant from anywhere in the world. The app will notify you of the simple tasks that need to be performed as your plants grow and mature, showing you what to do at each step along the growth cycle. Most importantly — the app will keep your GroBox locked from anyone but you.
I spoke with Nicolas Ruiz, founder of Cloudponics, and he said that the GroBox was the result of his own experiences — good and bad — with hydroponic farming. The GroBox removes all of the usual hydroponics guesswork by controlling the air temperature, humidity, and light, as well as the light schedules, nutrient control, and the ever-tricky pH levels.
With the GroBox, you have a system that allows you the freedom to go on vacation for up to three weeks without coming home to a dead crop. It uses a carbon filter so that there is no odor in your home during any part of the process. It even looks nice!
The GroBox also handles harvesting; Nicolas said that “the app shows the grower how to cut their plants and hang them from the top of the unit. In the app, the grower selects “drying mode”. It usually takes between 5-10 days for plants to be dry and ready to be cured in mason jars.”
The $2490 GroBox arrives fully assembled and with everything you’ll need to get started — except for the seeds.
Nicolas said that the included nutrients should last for up to a year, and when more are needed, you can pick them up as a full “refresh set” from Cloudponics for $200.
All you’ll have to do is some basic setup once the GroBox arrives, and then follow the instructions given by the app. The GroBox connects to your home WiFi network, and with just a bit of basic maintenance that you’ll do, as instructed by the app when it’s needed, you can expect to see yields of up to 10 ounces per grow cycle. In other words, the GroBox can pay for itself rather quickly.
For more information on the Cloudponics GroBox, click here.
