Hey guys
I’m a farmer from Romania and I’m quite curios If there is any possibility to seed directly plastic trays?
Do I need to create the design of a plastic trays first and then the so as X Y Z function to work properly ?
Unless you use large square trays – like at least 3" square – I don’t think you will have the accuracy to seed larger trays very well. It can be done, but you will have to re-home a lot to achieve the accuracy needed to plant in the center of each square. For this reason, I would say that 1" square trays would likely not be practical.
Despite the repeatability/accuracy issues, its actually a pretty good application for the farm bot and you should be able to get seeding and watering working well.
Lights, well that’s another matter.
Before starting a new topic I searched around to find a suitable existing topic.
Like you I am a farmer in Guatemala, and we produce Hydroponic vegetables for the local supermarkets, restaurants, etc.
I plan to use farmbot extensively at the farm, however the first project I want to work on is for planting seeds directly to my existing 162 plug trays with 8x19 arrangement, measuring 11" (280mm) x 21.6" inches (550mm) x 1.75" (44.45mm) high. I’ve spent the better part of the weekend until today designing a prototype bed out of wood.
Here is a short animation video of the completed design of V1 Seed Planting Bed for Farmbot Genesis v1.3
I will be building this within the next three weeks, and will post updates on a specific thread for the matter.
Features:
- 80cm height, designed to be worked standing up
- Adjustable cross-planks, can be raised or lowered in 30cm increments This allows for seed trays, or to be converted into a completely raised, off-the-flo0r planting bed.
- Modular design (you can continue adding track lengthwise simply by removing one of the transverse planks and cutting the longitudinal planks 24mm)
- Uses Standard mounting hardware (Hexagonal head bolts, 1/4" and 1/2" diameters, washers and nuts)
- Blocks to retain wood planks can be substituted with other materials such as metal squares
- Leg posts can be buried in the soil only, but for best results use concrete.
About off-the-floor planting beds:
We currently have these in our greenhouse, and we line the bed with a screen like mesh, then fill with about 10-12cm of substrates. They work really well. The black portion is buried 60cm in the soil. You can adjust the depth down as much as you like and up about 15cm without losing the desired stability and rigidity for such an endeavour.
Pending:
Prototype installation video and guide
Trial in the real world!
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And since I could not post two images on the same post for being a newbie in the forum, here goes one close up with seedlings already growing.
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Have you thought of modifying the watering tool head? I could image that it will be very easy to wash the seedlings away with the current one which has a very coarse spray…?
You are right! I will surely look into modifying the watering tool head for finer spraying to prevent washing them away.
Update:
I’m halfway into construction of the Farmbot for seeds project. So far, I am test fitting all the wood pieces that will go into the greenhouse where I will install the farmbot.
Drilling ¼ inch holes for cross member adjustable height supports
In case I fail at the setup for planting seeds, I can convert this to a conventional raised planting bed. So, 190 holes were drilled to allow for this. I drilled the planks together to ensure perfect alignment.
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Are these the supports for the seedling trays or why are you drilling that may screws into the wood? o.O