Great work! Looks like you’ve really got it dialed in. Those thin LED panels are really cool, very clean look.
Thank you, it’s been an awesome learning experience/hobby over the last month. I’ve been enjoying some very tasty salads and adding the greens to other dishes. My mom has also been enjoying the ones I’ve been giving her.
I solved three issues with the previous setup. One was not enough space for two trays on each shelf slightly overlapped on the previous shelf, solved by having a slightly wider shelf. Two was a single light in the center causing bending during growth, solved by putting two on each shelf. Three was light bleed beneath the trays which was confusing the sprouts at early germination stage, many were going down towards the light bleeding from underneath, solved with mylar.
Downsides is I only have 4 shelves now instead of 5 previously for a total of 8 trays at a time which I think is perfectly fine because I’m not yet at the point of scaling. Also, the shelf takes up slightly more horizontal space because it’s larger. The shelving unit has a fixed position for each shelf because of holes in the poles where each piece fits to hold each shelf. So ideally I could fit another shelf in it and lower the amout of space.
This shelf was only $33 so I’m willing to trade that off. The entire upgrade I estimate to be about $75. The trays I’m using now are slightly bigger as well so it was necessary, they didn’t fit on the previous shelf at all so it’s nearly worthless for this purpose, but I will use the old shelf for storage.
This is a really cool and I love it. I have considered going similar directions. One thing that always nags at me is the idea of having full spectrum lights on indoors day after day month after month. Won’t that UV light eventually burn those shadows into your hardwood floor perceptibly?