How close should Microgreens be to Light!? - Microgreen Light Distance Trial | Indoor farming |

🤯How does Distance from Light Source Effect the Growth of Microgreens?!?

In this experiment, we wanted to see how microgreens would handle being put 25% closer to our microgreen grow lights... We already have our plants fairly close to our LED light source (4.25" from plant canopy to lights), but we were curious what would happen if we put them even closer! The results weren't as expected and we will be doing some more experiments like this soon!!

Hope you Enjoy!! 🤓👩‍🌾

SUPPORT ON THE GROW

LEARN MORE

ON THE GROW VIDEO PLAYLISTS

#microgreens #growlights #indoorgarden

[dlerche]

Hi guys.

I have been using LED panels for a long time.
The thing you must know is the inverse square law, that applies to lighting, which basically states that half the distance provide 4 x the light. So this way you can utilize lower watt with shorter distance, optimize spacing and thereby increasing your yield per square foot.

I help commercial kitchens grow on very little space, where this is crucial. Would love to show you how it looks...

Best regards
David

[yearofthegarden]

Another thing to consider is curling leaves, also with less head room, there is less air flow in denser production scales, which causes higher potential for contamination habitat. Some things to consider, keep the experiments coming! Would be awesome if you two tried using oyster mushroom substrate in your soil mix. I do this and have found that 50/50 black gold/oyster substrate is perfect and helps prevent contaminations, as I don't use hydrogen peroxide or bleach, and have overcome bad batches of peas by letting the oyster mycelium colonize the dead peas before grey mold gets a hold.

[sarahallenhumboldt]

Thank you for all of your research; you certainly have devoted a lot of your energy, time, and effort to this subject.

[loriwoo]

Thanks for all you share! I just stumbled upon your videos after watching so many in the microgreen biz and happy that I did!! You both Rock...thanks again!!

[klorofila]

Interesting video, thank you for sharing.
I am actually working on a custom light to shrink the space between shelves for a more efficient farm (taking into account light spread and ventilation challenges). Hopefully one day I can get it out to more people

[Toroloco]

I highly recommend doing a video experiment on the difference in growth playing Mozart for the micros vs without. It is my hope the results will be astonishing.

[Johngaltsghost]

Very interesting and thanks for bringing this up. These test results may be affected by heat from the light below the shelf...suggest doing this on a shelf with no light underneath. Relatedly, depending on the kind of light that you have heat from some lights may also have a heat affect on the plants under. To avoid the somewhat inconclusive results why not test using simple inch blocks 3-2-1-normal under for more variety and either do it twice or have 8 trays total

[ShookHomemade]

Greetings from New Braunfels TX! Thank you guys so much for these experiment videos. I have just started my microgreen journey and if I end up enjoying it and being decent at growing them then I would like to sell them. Your videos REALLY help me decide on products and they are also generally very educational.

[mvs]

There’s an iOS app called Photone (its only like $5/mo which uses a the front camera to measure PAR/LUX/Kelvin for different lights. It’s fairly accurate with maybe only a 3-5% difference than a professional grade light meter. Maybe a cheaper option for someone who can’t shell out 100s of dollars to buy a par meter.

[jp]

Hi I would love to see you do a comparison between having a Shelf with two of the 20 watt lights vs the three 20 watt lights that you currently run I think that would be a very interesting comparison

[Sean__with_Zunsol]

I am curious after two years, what have you ultimately found to be the best height?

[garrettmineo]

Loved the video, I have been using this trick with the deeper boot strap farmer trays (as elevators) to start snap dragons in my microgreen equipment. It does seem to help when actually growing plants past the microgreen stage. I guess I won’t do it for microgreens because I like them to stretch anyway.

[markflint]

Thanks for all the great info! Do you leave your lights on 24/7 or try to mimic nature with day and night?

[dsd-downshiftdave]

What height are you currently using, are you using frosted lights? And see the bulbs T5 5000K 20 WATT or 6500k?
What fans are you using

[Max_SiddiQ]

Thank you. It is not a surprise about the weight since less par = more stem stretch, other words more par (closer to the lights) less stretch, less stretch = less overall weight that is why 164g, but yes more par intensity (closer) more beautiful mg's are)) Question still about the taste)) I think some mg's like cabbage, kale etc like cool temps, so tastes better when lights further away. All said - my summary: 10inches to the light is good) Try 9inch))

[Evilerspartan]

Any way you can make a video on humidity and temp? And as well as what to do with waste after a harvest?

[roberttomsiii]

what is your DLI?
Is the light cycle set to 24 hours?
Could it be the additional heat caused by the plant being closer to the light? ( assuming these are typical t5 fluorescent bulbs or if they are LEDs the driver is not mounted in the boards )

[almajidi]

Hi
Thank you very much for your wonderful and educative videos
Please advise how many hours of lights is needed for growing micro greens
Cheers

[drewhewitt]

Curious - what make and model of lights do you use for your microgreens? How many lights do you use per shelf? Thanks in advance!

[cloverlawson]

Where do you get the extra shelf Do you just buy a set of shelves and use them on the other ones?