My seed trays are in a heated room in the basement. Shelves can hold 4 flats with 2 shop lights per shelf. I posted a link to my blog which shows what I have growing now. I will post more pics over the weekend

Here is a link that might be useful: gardening by the seat of my pants

Ok, but I'm setting ground rules.

No laughing.

EG, you hear me? No laughing. :)

The man built or rather wedged this for me last weekend. All it shows here is the board wedged between two support columns in the basement and the ladder I have to climb to get to it. I have another tray there now as well as a box top supported on a ruler that is balanced on the ladder.

I hear you laughing.

Honestly, it sure is funky looking, but darn it if it isn't working!!!

ribbit - Ok....i'm not laughing. Get the man to buy a little bit of jack chain, so he can lower it for you. Falling from the ladder, or knocking the seedlings over would surely suck! Meanwhile...if it works, use it. See, now that didn't hurt a bit. :)

EG

Who's laughing? I had to use sunshine for my seed starting down here, but once I get home I'll be jerry rigging up a seed growing spot myself.

I wish I had a basement or a heated garage so I'd have enough room. I have a pretty good place for it though. I have a small bay "plant" window in my laundry room. It faces north, so not great for starting seeds but it has two movable shelves that are made of a metal mesh-type material, which holds hooks really good. I had a 2' light in there last fall and it fit well in just half of the width of the window, so I think it would be possible to use 4' shop lights. If so, I could suspend double four footers from two shelves, each serving a 4'x10" growing area. That should handle all the plants I need (probably not all I WANT). There is another shelf that isn't in place in this picture.

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Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

This is mine:

That's just a lid from one of the future swc's with dixie cups. Pretty fancy eh? Pfft...Ribbit, I'm making you look like a pro. That's how we does it backwoods in PNW.

Yeah Ribbit, at least you have insulation in your walls, hehe.

Mine seems like a cross between many of yours, though messier... But hey, it's a storage room (read junk).

Last year, I tried to grow my tomato seedlings without lights, by using windowsill greenhouses. Boy, was that a complete failure. Although.... the cucumber and cantaloupe did fair. Don't believe those people that insist you have to use a very powerful light to grow good,strong tomato plants. My current plants look perfect, and were grown with 2 four foot t8 fixtures. They were growing so good, I went ahead and removed them from the chamber - and placed them under my light at work. They'll be ready to pot up next week.

EG

Falling? If I removed that aspect where would all the fun go? Actually, they're high up because the dogs stay in the basement during the day (we've all seen the damamage they can do) and it' too high for the crafty one to prop his paws up on. That's all that matters since that rotten dog ran through the beds again ripping up my grid. The light is on hooks so I can raise it when needed which is what I'm about to have to do for one over achieving spinach seedling. I may just move that one elsewhere.

Sinf, that one wall seems to be insulated, yes, but the dogs can't climb that high either. They've removed 5 pannels of insulation on the other wall.

But going back to above, I don't want to hijack the thread, but I have a question. If the dog's paw is able to totally sink to the bottom of the bed, the soil seems a bit TOO loose. What's going to keep the plants from just uprooting themselves?

One of the guys on the tomato forum was talking about his visit to this really cool raised bed exhibition and he said, "Their soil was so fantastic that you could put your hand down into up to your elbow with no problem at all." So, I suppose that is a good thing in some quarters Ribbit. Maybe you could add a bit more compost?

Here is my plan. I've got 2 sets of ballasts and sockets from a failed hydroponics idea I had. I'm going to make a frame out of 2x4s to hold 4 or 5 shelves. I'll screw it together so I can take it apart at a later date if I decide to. I have some left over chipboard that I'll cut down to make shelves.

I purchased 4 50 pack jiffy strip pots so i'm not limited to the 1020 flats, but I may pick up some of those too at later date when the stores start getting in more stuff.

Should I make them at least 20" deep so I can fit the 1020's longways on the shelf? How wide should I make the shelves? I'm obviously going to make them as long as the bulbs, but I'm not sure on width (or depth depending on your education).

Also, what is the best price for a seedling heating mat?

Heating mat? Here is how I make it without one. I can usually find a warm place to put the first tray or two for germination. Once they need light, I place the new trays that need to germinate on the shelf ABOVE the light shelf and cover the top with a temt made of a survival blanket, the kind that have color on one side and silver on the other. I just loosely lay it over with the silver side to the inside and it also hangs down enough on the sides to reflect some light back at the small plants below and the ends of the shelves are still open enough to let the excess heat go out. I was amazed at how much faster than germinated on the shelf above the light.

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I really liked this design, so I've decide to go with it. I picked up 6 more 2z2s and 2 more sets of lights from the store. I'm sure I'll still need more 2x2s, I didn't have a chance to figure out how many I needed exactly before I went. Once again...Wifey was rolling her eyes and complaining about costs.

I know I won't get enough yield this year to cover my costs, but these things I'm investing in will be there for years to come, so in the long run their costs will be minimum over time. Tomorrow I'm going to start building it, and I plan on sanding it smooth and maybe staining it with an outdoor stain so that it looks nice. That way I can use it to store stuff on when I'm not using it to start seedlings.

That is so cool jleiwig!

That's similar to the PVC one that was suggested by a reader of my blog. I'm using one shelf of the PVC system because I don't need three shelves of seedlings at once.

Oh and a way to recover costs is to grow more seedlings than you need and sell them cheaper than the nurseries. Advertise on craigslist. Hehe I may do it for grins since I'll have the room.

well here it is after a half day of work.
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In all it took 11 2x2s for anyone wanting to duplicate it. I pocket screwed the whole thing together with glue. The sides are lag screwed to the shelves, so if I ever decide to take it apart it is easy enough to do. It's very sturdy, and I'm happy with it. It's just mocked up for pictures, but I can fit 120 jiffy strips on it, but I still need to get the 1020 flats under them to hold water. I have 2 more ballasts and sockets, which I haven't decided if I'm going to use to overdrive 2 bulbs. I'm not sure how many seedlings I'll have to sprout, so once I have a beter idea on that I'll know how many lights I need. I did pick up the wrong bulbs though. I need t8 bulbs and I accidently picked up t12 bulbs, so I have to take those back to the store. I still want to get some heating cables and some 1020 "greenhouses" to sprout the seeds. I picked up a timer too, but I'm not sure it will handle everything. I may have to get a couple more.

sinfonian- A couple relatives and friends are already on the list for seedlings this year, but I never thought about selling them on craigslist. I think I'd rather donate them than sell them though as i'm not sure I want to devote the time to have people come over and check them out.

hi J,
i really like your set up. have you thought about winter sowing? that might really help with some of the worry on some of the things, AND, you don't have to worry about mildew, flies, and dampening off, and finally when its all over, you don't have to worry about taking them out, and bringing them in, ya know that time that you have to spend so they have to get used to the sunlight and outside. LOL if your interested you could go to wintersown.org ~Medo

Here is a link that might be useful: barehanded totally nutso gardener :'}}

I do both.I like the idea that come spring I will have annuals near bloom stage or already blooming If I was to WS annuals my weather would have me bringing them inside worried about frost or freeze. Perennials can handle the swing of temperatures.An indoor setup is ideal. I have my annuals in the basement along with some veggies.

Here is a link that might be useful: gardening by the seat of my pants

Ok, I finally put all the pieces together last night and threw it upstairs. It's definitely not in the final position or anything like that, but at least you can see the frame.

And it will give me a good reason to clean up the mess. Can you say garage sale anyone? hehe

Just wanted to update that you all have inspired me to start a blog! I'll continue to update here as well as my blog. There is some additional information there on overdriving flourescent lights for seed starting.

I'm looking for a good price on heat mats. Anyone have a source? I can buy them locally for 39.95 for I believe the 20x20 mat.

Here is a link that might be useful: My New SQFT Blog!