Years ago, when California had a really severe drought, I saw a large version of this to grow grass for horses. It had a stack of trays with lights, and each day, you harvested one tray, fed your horse, and replanted the tray. It was only cost-effective when grass hay was really expensive.

I found growing my own produce to be a great way to appreciate farmers and my local supermarket.

Singapore is currently claiming title of "world's largest (and tallest) indoor vertical farm" with a five story, two hectare automated racked site (Jan 2026):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJuo6Te1fM4 (2.5 minutes)

What's the idea behind not using capital letters?

Is that a subtle 5th Element reference in the crontab?

This is fun!

The following isn’t a knock on anyone doing cool stuff like this: I’ve avoided any sort of tinkering and automation of my gardening because I find gardening to be a slower-moving, meditative escape from technology. My brain shifts into a different mode (almost a flow state?) when I’m out working in the soil and tending to my plants.

All lower case, instant won't read.

You did mention the reason for a server rack as a matter of circumstance. But if I were to do and really want the Hydropnics part, I’d sell the Server Rack (good price) and buy the cheaper Pallet Racks. The first thing that comes to mind is that it will be easier to plan, pluck, change lights, etc.

Server Racks - you don’t interact with them often, but you will need to with the Hydroponics one.

Also, your setup is too clean. Water will drip, spill, the pebbles will fall. Looks really nice, though.

About 5 years ago, I worked with a Climate Research Scientist friend, growing exotic plants in dutch-buckets, tower aeroponics, and rack mounted red-lit setups to induce Vitamin B-12 (only found in meat, so deficiencies develops in vegetarian) to Spinach trying to produce Super Spinash.

I also built something similar. In the end I appreciated the services our nature provides to us even more. Replicating all this artificially is really hard and energy intensive. Planting and growing plans outsides is fun and rewarding; adding all the tech in the end felt like a big waste of resources.

My motivation to work on such a project was my disbelief in human mankind to keep our planet earth habitable.

I know this was about the journey, but for anyone interested in home hydroponics (without the journey of building it), I have had a Gardyn[1] for 6-7 years. It works well. It has a 6 gallon (20 liter) tank and a couple of strong vertical growth lights, in a sleek package that looks good in the home. Plants are fitted into pods, in standard-size rockwool blocks that you can get from any grower shop.

The fact that it works at all after a number of years, is surprising to me, given everything that goes on with it: You've got a moist environment with water pumped through it multiple times a day, fertilizer in the water crusting up in places, living plants with their roots growing into the pipes, algae growth, and a lot of parts that are shuffled around often.

There might well be other systems around these days that are the same or better, I wouldn't know, the Gardyn is just what I ended up with when I researched it years ago and I'm happy with it. For downsides, seeds are expensive from Gardyn, but you can plant your own. I do buy some from Gardyn because they have a big selection, and they usually come out good, which regular seeds often don't for whatever reason. They try to push their subscription service but I don't need it, so don't use it.

Hope this doesn't come off as advertisement, as I said there may well be better options (would like to hear about them), but this one works for me for a pretty hassle-free experience.

[1] https://mygardyn.com/product/gardyn-home-kit/

Setting aside the DIY and hacking spirit of the project, let's remember that, with the commonly accepted figure of 2,500 kcal/day for an adult male, a whole iceberg lettuce (~600g) provides about ~87 kcal which is roughly 3.5% of what one's need.

Always lettuce. If someone can figure out how to grow something with a dense and full nutrient profile then there might be something to vertical farms.