- We've all seen the various microgreens racks on the market
and I've made it very clear which one I think is the best.
So now I'm gonna show you two other ways
to use these racks for your microgreen business,
one of which has drastically improved the efficiency
here within my farm.
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I've been using these same racks for over four years now
and I've gotten pretty creative with them.
Whenever I have a new challenge in my business
or here in my farm
I try to solve that problem by using what I already have.
These racks have been insanely useful for my business
and I'm really excited to share with you
these two other ways that I use them.
The second way has just been so amazing
and has drastically improved
like I said before, the efficiency of my business.
All right, so I'm back here in my germination room
sorry, the lights a little harsh back here
bear with me.
But I wanted to show you the way I use this rack
for doing germination.
It's a little bit different because there's different needs.
The peas specifically actually need the most space
because they push up the trays a little bit further
than the other varieties at least that I grow.
So what I've done is I have this shelf right here
is the tallest of the shelves
and this is where I do all the pea germinating
on this top shelf.
And then the shelves one, two, three,
those are the shelves that I use for my other varieties.
And then there's a big space on the floor
let me show you here.
Big space on the floor
and you can actually store a whole bale
of promix soil under there if you'd like.
Or you can use it for storage
and it also just makes it really easy for sweeping.
So I do one big space
the first shelf on the bottom as well off the floor
and then I have these three shelves
for all the varieties besides pea
which gets germinated on this top shelf.
Now this isn't technically the top shelf
because there's another very thin shelf right here
that I use for putting tray stacks in.
So I'll stack my trays six at a time
because that's how many I make at a time.
So I have these set up ready to go for myself
and I've just made this top shelf right here
the perfect height to store one of these sets of six trays.
And I use the very top of the shelf
to store even more tray sets.
So this is the set up that I've found is best
I'll tell you the exact spacing, the amount of notches
between each of the shelves.
So this is very top shelf right here
is four notches that allow you
to store six of these trays sets up here
which is a total of 12 trays.
Then this top shelf for the peas,
one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12.
There is 12 notches for that shelf for the pea germination.
So that's the tallest shelf is 12 notches
visible between the shelves.
one, two, three, four five, six,
seven, eight, nine, 10.
And then the rest of the shelves are 10.
And since you have to build these shelves bottom up
I'll tell you how many spaces there are
from the floor up to that first shelf
so you know where to start.
So that's a total of 18 notches
from the floor up to that first shelf visible.
So yeah, that's the germination rack set up
that you can use with the same exact shelves.
Comment below and tell me some of the ways
that you've gotten creative with the supplies
that you had on hand to improve your microgreens business.
I'm so curious to see what you guys are coming up with.
All right, this rack right here
is what I call the super rack.
And this is the rack
that has drastically improved my efficiency
I hope you can see it.
It's a little kind of hard to see
but it's a rack that's on wheels
that essentially has twice as many shelves on it.
So in the past, in my second farm
the one that I was operating in the deli,
we would be like walking back and forth to the racks.
Every time we needed to grab a tray
whether it be harvesting
or when we're moving trays from germination
onto the main grow racks
and it was just taking a lot of time.
You're spending a lot of time walking back and forth.
So this rack right here is how I solved that problem.
It's on wheels, it has a ton of shelves
and I use it in a few different ways.
So the first way
is after the trays have germinated
and they're ready to come out under lights
I'll load this whole thing up with those trays
in the back room and then I can wheel them all out
so that way I can put them right under the lights.
So now this allows me to transport
a ton of trays all at once.
So that's the first way I use it.
The second way I use it
is when I'm setting up getting ready for a harvest.
So before my employee comes in at nine
I wheel this around the farm
I take off any trays from these main grow racks
that are ready to be harvested that day
I put them on here and then we wheel this right around
and keep it right next to my harvester as she's harvesting.
So you have all the trays ready to go right there
as you harvest.
So then the third way I use them
is after she's done harvesting
she's gonna be putting spent trays back onto this rack
then we wheel them across the room again
and we dumped the trays, right?
We're dumping the trays put it back on here.
And then lastly, we're going to be sanitizing
I spray all my trays like that with a spray bottle.
And (indistinct) I mentioned that in another video
and that's another great use for this
cause we have all the trays on here,
we're sanitizing and then stacking them up on here.
And then I'll just put this in front of the fan
and turn on the fan to help dry them off after sanitizing.
Now you'll notice also that the top shelf here
is actually a wider space than these shelves here
and then, you're not gonna be able to see it in this video
I don't think.
But all the way on the bottom
they're also a little bit farther spaced out.
And there's a reason why I do that.
So basically the peas and the sunflower
are the tallest crops out of all my crops,
so if I was to put say a tray of sunflower
actually I'll just show you right now.
See how these sunflowers are tall.
When I put them in here
now they're touching this shelf above
and I don't really like that from a sanitation perspective.
And same thing with the peas the peas are super tall
so if I put them in here
they're gonna be like dragging along that shelf.
But when I do a tray like broccoli or radish
it's no problem, there is plenty of space to clear.
So basically these shelves in the main middle section
are smaller together, so that's for all the lower crops.
And then the shelves on top is where I put all the peas
which are the tallest, right?
So this shelf is tallest
and then I can also put peas on top
cause there's no shelf shelf above them in the first place.
And on the bottom same thing
and that's where I put the sunflowers.
And like this is kind of a ratio that I've figured out
to have like two for the peas, two for the sunflowers
and then the rest for the rest of the crops.
But based on the crops that you're growing
and the ratio of the different varieties
that you're growing,
you can kind of build these things to your liking.
But nevertheless, if you wanna just build the same exact one
that I have I'll tell you the spacing
the tick marks in between each shelf
that way you can build it exactly how mine is.
So this top one is, one, two, three, four, five,
six ticks are showing from the top of this pole
to that first shelf.
So then the second one, this big one,
one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine.
There is nine tick marks between this bigger shelf.
Then these normal size I call it normal
but these are the shallower shelves with less space,
are five tick marks apart.
And then on the bottom of this rack
one, two, three, four, five, six,
There is six tick marks for the bottom two shelves,
there's two shelves on the bottom that have tick marks.
And then the difference though on these racks
I'm not leaving the four spaces on the bottom
like I'm doing with my main grow racks.
The bottom shelf is actually in that bottom notch.
Okay, so make sure that bottom shelf
is in that bottom notch the lowest they can go.
And then of course it's on wheels
so you can wheel it around.
So yeah, that's a super rack I call it the super rack,
I don't know why it's just what I came up with.
So if you're here it being called a super rack
I came up with that and I love this thing so much.
Like if you guys are running a microgreen business
and you're doing even a little bit of sales
like even if you're doing like 30 grand a year
or a thousand a month or something
you need one of these things.
It's gonna drastically improve your efficiency
and it's just so helpful.
So now you know a few other ways to use these racks
to improve your, microgreen business
and keep your supplies consistent,
but there are a ton of other ways
that you can improve your business as well.
I created a group on Facebook
where microgreen farmers around the world
can share their own different ideas
that they've been implementing in their businesses,
their experiences, their advice,
all sorts of different stuff.
So we have over 6,000 members in this group
at the time I'm making this video
so there's a ton of amazing insights
that are said within that group on Facebook.
So be sure to join it it's called
the Microgreens Support Group.
It's on Facebook,
I'll put a link below in the description as always
or you can simply just search that on Facebook,
Microgreens Support Group.
To see a full tour of my microgreens farm
you can click the video below.
Or click the other video
if you wanna see how to build these racks fast and easy,
even with one person.
If you like this video be sure to hit the like button below,
subscribe to my channel,
and share this video to other microgreens farmers
and in other microgreens groups
if you think that it can help others.
Thanks again and I'll see you next time.