New grow setup that needs help with designing

[Theodoreorchidking]

So I am moving into a smaller space and I need to turn my grow table into shelfs to minimise space it takes up. I was thinking of wire shelfs but my paphs are kind of tall and I cant find a good shelf on amazon that will keep a lot of plants with room for lights: if you know of one please share. I am planing on using botanical led's grow lights. I want the 24inch ones as this will keep the shelf size small. However the lower light plant option is the only one in this size. Will this be enough light to make my roths or PEOF bloom? Thanks

The lights: Full Spectrum Plus "Optimum" LEDs (Lower Light Requirement Plants)

 

[big923cattleya]

I bought my light stands, carts really because they are on wheels, from Gardeners Supply. They have a nice web site.
They have plants stands of many different sizes.
I have two that have three shelves each, 54”x 18”. They stand almost six feet tall. There is a maximum of 16” of height between shelf and light source.

The third stand has only 2 shelves with three tubes per shelf. The first 2 stands have two tubes per shelf.
Shelves on third cart are also 54” x 18”. Plastic 2” deep trays collect water. Light fixtures hang from chains and are adjustable.
Your goals are very difficult to achieve. 24” and yet hold a lot of plants. That does not compute. No such animal exists.
With my three plant carts I have 8 total shelves with about 45-48 square feet of growing space. My Paphs. and Phrags. go into the two shelf plant cart because maximum height there is 25”! But even so, with tall plants in flower they go on a windowsill or coffee table when in flower.
I rate these shelves an A+++. And remember, buy cheap, get cheap and by cheap I mean unsuitable for orchids!
Good luck.

During the winter I have about 140-150 plants underlights.

 

[Skoester]

I purchased these SafeRacks wire racks from Amazon in both 36” and 48” widths (available with and without wheels) and have been impressed by the quality of the heavy duty version. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01H2KCE3Q?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

I’m not seeing a 24” width but agree with Big923cattleya that that width is going to be limiting. I also have botanical led lights- am using the lower light led on the 36” shelves for Phrags and Paphs and have recently purchased the Full Spectrum plus for Roths etc. I spoke to Jeff when I initially purchased lights from him and understood that I could grow the higher light orchids under the lower light LEDs- would just need to position them closer to the lights, but you might want to touch base with him when you place the order and get his recommendations. I’ve always found him to be easy to reach and very helpful.

 

[Ray]

In preparation for relocating and downsizing, after selling off the greenhouse and most of my plants (700 > 24, mostly paph and phrags), I bought a set of "baker's racks" shelving like Skoester did, and outfitted them with LEDs.

I found that, due to plant height and light intensity, I could only use 2 shelves for plants, despite the 6' height.

One nice thing I did discover is that the 4' wide x 18" deep shelves could easily accommodate four standard nursery trays, turned sideways to expand them.

Added a humidity tent to that and it was great.

 

[Skoester]

Ray brings up an excellent point that I failed to mention on the wire shelving. I initially purchased a four shelf system since it wasn’t that much more than the three. However, when I started setting it up I realized that even with youngish plants I would only be able to use two shelves for plants due to the LED light recommendations that Jeff provided on the Botanical LED site - approx 12” from bottom of LED to canopy of plant- for my larger Phrags that meant spacing the shelves approx 30” apart.

As a side- when I looked at ready-made grow-shelves many of them couldn’t accommodate that larger spacing between shelves, which led me to purchasing the wire racks.

If you do decide to go the wire racks, I’ve also had good luck with purchasing boot trays for holding the plants- a great recommendation I found on the forum.

That, along with small clip on fans and a humidifier, and it was a quick and fairly cheap setup.

 

[merc]

i use cpu case fans and boot trays for my shelves. i also reduced the no. of shelves from 4 to 3 in my setup to accommodate the growth of the plants. check out Automation experiment for my hobby collection

 

[richgarrison]

i use cpu case fans and boot trays for my shelves. i also reduced the no. of shelves from 4 to 3 in my setup to accommodate the growth of the plants. check out Automation experiment for my hobby collection

okay i'll bite...

which fans? assuming they are 110V what level of air movement do you think is sufficient for shelves you are servicing?

love to hear from all the weenies that have experience/knowledge here...

i know folks that have these kinds of 'muffin' fans in their greenhouses i seem to either 'think' i need a ton of air movement, or i actually do need a ton of air movement.. (my greenhouse is only 14' x 14' and i have 7 - 18" fans and probably 15 clip on fans... + my greenhouse vent fan)

when i look for options that could move a couple hundred CFM, the cost seems significant (like 45$)... so i've gone to clip on fans (~18$)

 

[merc]

okay i'll bite...

which fans? assuming they are 110V what level of air movement do you think is sufficient for shelves you are servicing?
when i look for options that could move a couple hundred CFM, the cost seems significant (like 45$)... so i've gone to clip on fans (~18$)

i link to the fans in my post. the smaller 140mm fans are 49.8 CFM. they span 2 per shelf. the bigger 200mm fan is 110.1 CFM. i'm about to install another 200mm since i have 1 open socket left on my hub. they are 12V. best part is they are quiet so i'm not going deaf over fans buzzing in the background since they are in my office cubby.

 

[richgarrison]

i link to the fans in my post. the smaller 140mm fans are 49.8 CFM. they span 2 per shelf. the bigger 200mm fan is 110.1 CFM. i'm about to install another 200mm since i have 1 open socket left on my hub. they are 12V. best part is they are quiet so i'm not going deaf over fans buzzing in the background since they are in my office cubby.

what are you using for a power supply?

 

[Ray]

Rich, there are line voltage equivalents to such “muffin fans”. Some will state that they’re dangerous in a moist environment, but I have found that soldering leads and using marine heat-shrink wrapping is just fine.