Hello once again!

I've been trying to grow sprouts, fodder-style, for several years now. I'm embarrased to say how many ... <sigh> ... since at least 12 years though since my memory is faulty may be longer (and don't remember if I tried in the 90s ...) <lol> Phew, long time!

I have relatively very few issues with sunnies (sunflower) and pea shoot sprouts but the wheatgrass has been something else.

Despite weeks of internet surfing over the years ... as my hours surfing now of binge-surfing are into the weeks ... there is hope. In last 2-3 years, I stumbled upon last year that only touched on this, I see that a growing "movement" of folks with small farms, etc., have been moving over to growing sprouts (fodder) for their animals! Yeay, we raw fooders/raw vegans have known of the benefits of sprouts for a long time now and it's so thrilling to see others discovering it for themselves.

Which is why it's been so helpful. Years of individuals on the net saying "soak seed, rinse, plant in soil in flat (or other), et voila" have yielded nothing in terms of problem resolution! Stands to reason that it would be the ones growing on a much more massive, if modest, scale would run into the troubles I have. I've lived in 2 different buildings in the last 20 years and neither are inherently conducive to growing wheatgrass without issues. it seems. I and others need help <helppp!>.

I have weathered fruit fly (fungus gnats??) infestations before and would regretfully just let the "crops" die off. Then there was tendency to stop growing for months a time till I got nerve up to try again.

This time I can't. 2 trips to emergency in December determined that <g>. Phew.

I have had in my mind for at least 10 years now to enclose the shelves with sheer curtain materials. But I always get stopped at the fact that ulike regular flies, indoor flies aren't stopped by regular mesh. 3 years ago I tried it in my old building and was successful with a cumbersome but workable system but gave up when the constand mold issues made things impossible. Thanks to the Paca Pride Guest Rand YouTube video I stumbled upon over the weekend, the mold all these years I believe I will be able to resolve the mold issue once and for all. In my case it's probably mostly due to too high temperatures (well, d'uh, why has NO-ONE said so before!) Honestly, all those hours and weeks of web surfing and that was the first mention of temperature as the culprit! <g> <sigh> So I'll work on that, but in the meantime, I'll have to diligently start new batches of seed once I somehow enclose the shelves "permanently". I have a rigged up setting but it's too time-consuming and fiddly as I have to close each shelf's curtain "shroud" with binder clips each time I water and it's too many along with everything else I have to do to grow my own wheatgrass fodder-style.

Rather than this MacGivered thing I've presently got going, I'd prefer to enclose the whole unit and have always been able to wrap my brain around how to wrap 3/4s of the unit, esp. as I am now using wooden shelves versus metal ones, I'll just staple the material around 3 sides and the top using bits of chipboard to hold the staples so the material doesn't tear as easily. I'll cover a door frame I'll make to size, as well. But it's how to drape around the bottom and around all the sides the door closes! If I have to guess, I'd say those flies can get through gaps and holes of maybe 1/16th of an inch depending on the rigidity of the material (?).

My dad never taught me his wonderful skills wood-working, no matter how much I asked - he was very old school it was the 70s, after all -- I suspect things would have been much different if I'd been a boy. But as a girl, he never had the time. So I only just found how to ensure my door frame starts out and _remains_ square - by putting triangular pieces of wood strategically to brace the frame and keep it hanging true, as it were, all within my modest woodworking skills and help from Home Depot in cutting out (http://www.buildeazy.com/greenhouse_door.gif, https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/37/33/3f/37333f99138a068f23cc0ec5a9459a1d.gif - hope you can see these where you are!) but how to keep a seal around the "door" with hopefully a latch and the bottom?? Hopefully someone here has an idea ... I spent about 10 hours over this past weekend alone looking for answers. Nothing. I'd keep going but this has become critical to fix within the next few weeks as my new contract and slightly better salary have a due date <g>. I have to fix these issues now while I will have a little bit of extra money to do so as my health demands it and I will not be able to afford buying this stuff for much longer.

Those flies can get into the smallest holes! I have long experience of that. Last thing to mention, I found a rigid wire mesh fruit bowl to ripen my avocados that has holes the same size as window mesh screening. I saw one little bugger, excuse me for the language but that's what it was, trying to get through one of the holes a couple weeks ago but it couldn't! So I said - "trial was a success" and proceeded to cover the shelves with the roll of fiberglass window screening from Home Depot (same way I later did with the mesh curtain I mention above). The mesh screening lets in more light, you see. Well, I came home to find the infestation had gotten past the screening and there were no holes anywhere, so I know they got through the mesh! My guess is because it's flexible whereas the fruit bowl is not! <sigh> So, yet another failure in countless others!

So, bottom line, is that I have to cover the shelves with mesh that they can't get into and I have to make it as "airtight" as possible around the bottom and the "seams" around the door.

Thanks so much for any help and so sorry for this very, very long post but I needed to present some of the challenges along the way as I've "been there, done that" with so many attempts to cover the shelves <sigh>. But hopefully someone here already knows of a good solution that doesn't have the deficiencies of my current setup. Enclosing with some sort of screening material vs. mesh window screen does work - it's just how to improve access and efficiency without destroying its effectiveness.

Appreciate any help, you have no idea!

Cheers!