Friday 19 June 2015

ON THE SHELF

These photos are of a part of my system I call the shelves. They face north and sit in the entrance to the shed. One hour direct morning sunlight on a good day. In the winter I can roll down a plastic curtain to keep the frost off.
I knew this would not be the most productive area. However it did allow me to increase the media in the system and play with winter crops.
Last November I planted small brassicas and they survived. I then transplanted to the main GB and we are eating them now.
I knew that additional light would be required.
I fixed a 20 W LED fixture above the bottom GB. To be honest no major improvement. When the filters above overflowed I removed it on safety grounds. I then saw some very cheap waterproof fittings on E bay. £7 each, 10 w per unit. At the same time as I installed these I added a RCD safety device. Now this was 10 W per shelf.
These shelves are part of my,’salty’ system so the choice of Samphire to plant in them was easy. This is a perennial so I was prepared to be patient. Growth to date has been disappointing. I stuck in a few watercress plants and a few sacrificial lettuce seeds to help combat the slug/snail problem I was having.
No surprise all plants faced the light at the front.
With the RCD now in place about a week ago I moved the two 10 W units onto one shelf and brought out the 20W unit for the bottom shelf. These run on a timer 9-21.
As you can see from the photo some of the watercress is now sitting vertical.
It has responded to the increased light source.

Now these shelves are not in the best position but in a south facing window with a small LED boost it could be promising.



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