As I promised this is part 2 of the update post.
Once I had all the grow beds built, I still had some finish work to do. Because all the 2x4's were laminated in black plastic, and because black absorbs heat as well as won't reflect light back to the plants, I wrapped the outside and top edges of all the grow beds with white duct tape. You'll notice on some of the small grow beds that there are still some black sides. Those are the edges that will be butted up against another grow bed, and wont be exposed to light or seen. Once I had all the sides wrapped in the white duct tape, I also had to paint the bottoms of the grow beds (OSB) with the white reflective roof coating. That not only gives it a waterproofs coating, but will reflect more light back down to the plants on the lower levels.
At the time I took the pictures in the garage this afternoon, I had all the 8 foot long grow beds ready. They are in two stacks of 6 in the garage. I also had 4 of the smaller grow beds done and stacked in the garage. The other stack of 4 I finished this afternoon, and took pictures of them drying tonight. I do still need to finish building the last of the small grow beds (the 9'th). I have the OSB laminated, it's under the 8 stacked 5 gal buckets, and the 2x4's in the back yard. I needed to finish building all the rest first because I was using the sheet of OSB I needed to cut it out of as a table top. I had planed to have that one finished by today also, but the rains changed that plan. In total, including all the, cutting, laminating, constructing, taping, waterproofing, as well as painting, I calculated that I spent over 90 hours of labor just constructing the grow beds alone. Overall much more time consuming than I thought it would be, but still well worth the effort.
P.S.
My
nutrients came this week as well. It's the 25 lb quantity of JR Peters herb formula. It's a one part formula, and should make 3,200 gallons of full strength
nutrient solution. Considering I will be growing small plants, and only be needing between 1/4 and 3/4 strength nutrient solution, the 25 lb's should last me between 4 and 6 months of full greenhouse production depending on how often I do nutrient changes.