As it is winter in New Zealand, and we’re still having the occasional frost, growing outdoors has come to a bit of a standstill, in our yard at least – there are still things to be done outside but the temperature certainly isn’t inviting. We have therefore moved our interests indoors.
At the weekend we visited Bunnings, Mitre10, plus our local Hammer Hardware and BuildLink and gathered all the things required to get an at-home micro-greens environment set up. The trays were the hardest to find and we need a better solution to these. The shelves were very loud to put up, the metal all sang out and we ended up each donning ear muffs.
We covered the shelves with black plastic polythene which we had left over from a summer waterslide, and as you can see a clear polythene front space, which is useful for peering in without opening. Yes, the space isn’t air locked which means that the dehumidifier does dry more than the growing booth, but at this trial stage we’re OK with that.
We had some deep bath hydroponic trials going already but the lower daylight levels had brought the basil leaf growth to a near standstill. As an experiment, we placed the yellowing plants into the booth for a 14 hours of full spectrum LED light to see if it made any difference. And after 3 days the colour in the leaves is certainly far greener and healthier it its appearance.