Currently Available Hydroponic Racks (and renderings of bigger MARSfarms!)

Hardware
1

While the MV1 product line offers phenomenal customization and control over growing plants, it does not have the agricultural throughput that a larger, rack-style product would have. As a result, it is useful to pair an MV1 with a rack-style product to gain the benefits of both. Below, I have broken down five existing rack products objectively and thrown in some of my opinions on them.

growrack
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1: Hort GrowRack

Shelves: 3
Dimensions: 60” x 24” x 72”
Mobile: Yes
Reservoir size: 40 gallons
Irrigation setup: Soil
Environmental Sensors: None
Air Circulation: None
Lighting: Fully controllable

Overall, it has a robust lighting system, but it has a finnicky irrigation system and a complete lack of environmental sensing or control.

sananbio radix
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2: SANANBIO Radix

Shelves: Configurable
Dimensions: Configurable
Mobile: No
Reservoir size: Configurable
Irrigation setup: DWC/NFT Hybrid
Environmental Sensors: None
Air Circulation: None
Lighting: Preset, but configurable

The Radix features phenomenal irrigation, modularity, and ease of construction. However, it lacks environmental sensors or control, as well as it lacks sidewalls that would balance the light distribution. The configurable lighting and routing of wires and tubing through the pillars is a great touch.

farmshelf
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3: Farmshelf

Shelves: 3
Dimensions: 40.25" x 21.5" x 74.75"
Mobile: Yes
Reservoir size: 13
Irrigation setup: NFT
Environmental Sensors: Cameras with sensors
Air Circulation: Unclear
Lighting: Automatic

The Farmshelf is visually appealing with great automation. However, it is unclear how much real-time control or data viewing can be done by the end user, or if it just used internally. There is also a lack of airflow, which is especially problematic for an enclosed unit.

no irrigation
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4: GSC SunLite

Shelves: 3
Dimensions: 51" x 14-5/8" x 68-1/2"
Mobile: Yes
Reservoir size: None
Irrigation setup: None
Environmental Sensors: None
Air Circulation: None
Lighting: White

The GSC SunLite includes sufficient lighting, but that’s about all it does. Timing, as well as everything else, is external.

babylon galleri
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5: Babylon Galleri

Shelves: 5
Dimensions: 32" x 66" x 96"
Mobile: Yes
Reservoir size: Possibly none
Irrigation setup: NFT
Environmental Sensors: Cameras with sensors
Air Circulation: Unclear
Lighting: White

The Babylon Galleri has incredible capabilities all around, but it lacks a robust air circulation system.

1 Like
2

Here is a summary of what we learned from the research @ben did this summer. Our goal was to create five configurations of racks and then use those renderings to test how important a feature was. This is somewhat subjective, but things like ‘nobody likes the square one’ (#2) become obvious and it provides an opportunity for someone to describe how they would use it in practice.

Please reply with your feedback or if you think we’re missing something!

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Option 1 is the base option. There wasn’t too much specific feedback on it.

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Option 2 is the square option. The actual form factor wasn’t really wanted, largely due to not being to easily put it against a wall. However, the casters on the reservoirs were very wanted.

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Option 3 is the individual climate option. Some people really wanted it, but a lot of people weren’t interested. The science-focused ag teachers or straight up science teachers were generally the people interested. We’re likely to prioritize other options at first and offer this if it is wanted.

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Option 4 is the lettuce factory. It had a moderate interest level.

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Option 5 is the short version that also has the entire rack on casters. It achieves this by making the distance between racks shorter and by moving the fill reservoir to external. Both the kid-height and the rack being on casters were strongly wanted.

Main Takeaways:

  • Everybody loves casters
  • Nobody wants the square option
  • Climate control could be useful in some cases, but more science than ag
  • Shorter is better

Next Feedback to Get:

  • How much do they care about air circulation?
  • How much do they care about temperature control?
  • Do they want a large, pH-controlled reservoir?