This is all the equipment I'm using.
| Thing | Notes |
|---|---|
| Grow Rack | A standard 72" tall, 48" wide, 24" deep NSF wire rack. I got mine from Costco, but you can also get it from Amazon. There are many others as well. 72" high was perfect for my closet. Ensure you get a 24" deep unit so there is room for the 20" growing trays. |
| Shelf Liners | These are really nice shelf liners. They are heavy duty and will not curl. It comes in a four pack so my top shelf does not get one, but all other shelves do. They keep soil and water (from potential leaking trays..but none have leaked yet) from falling on to my printers. Totally worth it! |
| Grow Lights | 2 8-packs of T5 grow lights. These fit perfectly (front-to-back) in the rack. They are all attached using zip-ties. |
| Fans | There are 16 fans. They are just inexpensive 12V 120mm computer fans. I purchased mine from newegg (via ebay). Looks for them in multipacks, you'll get a better price per fan that way. I paid about $78 for all 16 fans, so just about $5 per fan. But...you don't need to use a fan system like this. What you really need is just constant airflow around the trays. An inexpensive house fan set on low will work just fine. |
| 12V Power Supplies | These power the fans. The 16 fans, in total, draw less then 3 amp when they are all running. So any supply that provide 3A or more is sufficient. Since I want to control the power to the fans on each shelf independently I am using two of these supplies. |
| Powerstrip | Since I only put in a single duplex outlet I need a large power strip to plug everything into. This goes on the top shelf, out-of-sight. It is attached with zip-ties to keep it in place. This strip also has a 12 foot cord that makes pulling the whole shelving unit out very easy without having to unplug anything. |
| WiFi Outlets | There is a lot more detail about these below. I use these to control the power to the lights and fans through my "smarthome" system. They key features I needed in the outlet was that it be "SmartThings" compatible. Many brands are not. |
| Hygrometer Thermometer | Always good to keep an eye on the temperature and humidity levels. I mounted this to the back wall of the closet near the grow shelf. |
| Label Printer | Very handy for labelling trays with the seed variety. I use an old Epson LW400 that I've had for years, but it looks like Epson got out of the home label maker business. They are very handy for many things. |
| Grow Trays | I'm using standard 1020 grow trays. I purchased 10-packs of trays with holes and trays without holes. TLM says these are re-usable "when used gently". I must be a gentleman because I'm getting many harvests from each set of trays with no cracking or wear visible yet. I'm still on my first set of trays after 9 months of growing. |
| Kitchen Scale | I use this when watering my trays. See my page on watering. |
| Micro Scale | I originally purchased this to weigh espresso grind. That got old fast! Now I use it to weigh seeds when planting. |
| Big Soil Scoop | Very handy for scooping soil out of the can into trays. Using gloved hands works too. |
| Soil Storage Can | This is where I store soil until it gets used. It'll hold at least two bags of soil. |
Other odds and ends, definitely not necessary.
| Thing | Notes |
|---|---|
| Stream Deck | This device is meant for Streamers (twitch, youtube, etc...). I'm not a streamer. But it is also a great device for controlling smart home devices from my primary desktop workstation. I use to control the lights and fans. Strictly optional! |
| Kill-o-watt Meter | I have this for maybe 20 years and you can still buy them new. For now it lives between my wall outlet and the grow rack measuring all my power usage. With everything powered on, I'm drawing just over 100 watts. Maybe a bit more when the printers are working. |