My Seed Starting Setup

[Jimche]

Here are a few pics of my new seed starting setup. Wanted lots of capacity for peppers and tomatoes, but did not want to spend $2,000 for two 4-shelf racks with lights and four 2'x4' heat mats. Instead, I spent about $600 in materials and way too many hours building these. The racks are just 3/4" plywood, trimmed in 1x2s, set into notched 2x3 supports, held together by lag bolts. The shop light chains run through holes in the lower half of the 1x2 shelf trim and are held in place at different settings by nails that pass inserted downward through the chain links. The heat trays are made of a masonite bottom, wood trim sides and aluminum sheeting on top, with about 35 feet of 1/2" rope light (not LED type) winding around inside. This rope light idea came from postings by others on this and a couple of other sites. The stuff I bought emits 5.5 Watts of heat per foot, giving about 190 Watts for each 2'x4' tray, which is in the range the commercially available units supply. It heats a flat of soil in my 72 degree house up to about 82 degrees. I found it important to make sure the rope light contacted the aluminum, so that it can be the heat sink. Otherwise, most of the heat is conducted out the back through the masonite, which the lights also contact. So, this has been a fun project. Now let's see if I can grow anything (newbie here)!!

[akgardengirl]

Very professional looking. I need something that breaks down to put away each year. I saw some instructions a long time ago to make seed starting shelves with plastic pipe. That might work for me since I only use 4 shop lights, a pair end to end. Looks like the nursery has its own room.
Sue

[BattleOfBennington]

ooOOOO I like that Idea

Originally Posted by akgardengirl

Very professional looking. I need something that breaks down to put away each year. I saw some instructions a long time ago to make seed starting shelves with plastic pipe. That might work for me since I only use 4 shop lights, a pair end to end. Looks like the nursery has its own room.
Sue

[Jimche]

Sue,
The pipe approach would be good for you. This one can be disassembled, but it'll take some time, even using a cordless drill and socket attachment. I wish it could stay up year round, but space is really limited .
Jim

[stormymater]

Wow! Those are magnificent dude! No kidding about wanting to keep those around all the time. Can you say centrally located jungle of tropical plants! Covetting hard! You did a fantastic job!

[kevokie]

That is a really nice setup! Good job!

[Polar_Lace]

Originally Posted by Jimche

Here are a few pics of my new seed starting setup. <snip>

Does my face look green to you? (no pic to show!) If so, that's not for St. Patrick's Day, and not for the leafy green things that will be growing in there.
It's Envy! I wish I had someone who could do that kind of shelving.

Originally Posted by akgardengirl

I saw some instructions a long time ago to make seed starting shelves with plastic pipe.
Sue

PVC plant light stand

Googled search:
PVC growlight stand plans

~* Robin

[BattleOfBennington]

Ok, built mine. Was pretty easy. Cost a chunk more then his predictions (I will post pictures and costs later).

Used 6 pcs of 1 inch sched 40 PVC. I had 7 pcs. I kept the 7th, and cut it into 2 and 1/2 foot pieces so that I could make one shelf taller if I needed it (the plans have the shelf height at 14 inches).

I also created a set of wheels for it that i can take on and off as I need them. Just bought four caps, drilled through the center and bolted a small piece of plywood to it. Then I attached my 4 casters (got the kind that used the roller blade wheel) or which 2 were lockable.

Right now it is in my basment "Casterless".

I may decide to string a bungee or two across the shelves, to prevent the trays from sagging in the middle.

Originally Posted by Polar_Lace

Does my face look green to you? (no pic to show!) If so, that's not for St. Patrick's Day, and not for the leafy green things that will be growing in there.
It's Envy! I wish I had someone who could do that kind of shelving.



PVC plant light stand

Googled search:
PVC growlight stand plans

~* Robin

[bboomer]

Give it a try! I had no experience working with pvc pipe but four years ago I was able to make a beautiful light cart with two shelves based on the instructions provided by an Ortho garden book. It was cheap and easy.

[akgardengirl]

That's it Robin..looks like I could build it myself. Thank you for finding it.
Sue

[newatthiskat]

That is a great light stand setup Jimche! Yup everyone is now jealous of you!
Polar_Lace thanks for posting that pvc light stand maybe next year?? HMMM
Kat

[ContainerTed]

I built one of these for a co-worker a few years back. It also had to be easy to disassemble. If you don't glue a joint, something could bump or stress the frame in one direction or another and the pipe can come loose from the "tee joint" piece.

The fix is to pick the shapes you want when in storage, glue those joints and then plan for using screws to reinforce joints that you don't want to glue. These stands are usually two flat sides with cross pieces. On the joints where you don't want to glue, use a course thread screw that will go thru the both the pipe and the "tee". This will allow your construction to take a bump and not come apart dumping your plants.

Ted

[Jimche]

to take a bump and not come apart dumping your plants.

Yup, sounds like the screws are a good idea!!

[amideutch]

If Jimche turns out to be half as good a tomato grower as he is a carpenter, look out. Very nice work. Ami

[Jimche]

Thanks, everyone, for the nice compliments. Can't wait to get some things growing! It is so nice to have a forum like this one with so many enthusiastic and knowledgeable tomato people. I'm sure we will have lots of questions for you all. Jim and Galina