DIY Seeding Center
As promised, here are my ideas on a Do-It-Yourself Seeding Center or Lighting System to propagate your early plants. Remember when I was on an organizing binge a while back? I took this utility shelf and loaded it with my craft and printing supplies.
Later, I used it for books, photo albums and even a stand-up desk in South Carolina! (When you have small spaces, you have to be creative!!)
Now that I've moved AGAIN (sigh), the shelving unit is loaded with storage boxes, but that will change when I get my seeds planted in the coming days.
Sidenote: I spent the evening driving around looking for rental housing, so I'm hoping to have a home soon and a spot for my raised-bed, square-foot garden! If not, I'll get creative with containers and place them in a good spot at my parents' house. Of course, I'll share tomatoes and peppers with them to "pay" for the garden space! They would like that.
You can use any type of shelf, but you need to realize, it will come in contact with water, so I like to use metal shelves, since that's what I have.
My grandmother's smaller shelf (shown here) would work fine, too. Just take a look around your house, in your basement or garage. You probably have something ideal.
Or use your imagination with plastic milk crates, securing them together with zip ties. Also, there are plastic shelving units you might be able to pick up at a garage sale that would work perfectly!
Once you've found a sturdy shelving unit, you need to gather your materials. You'll need 1-2 under-the counter lights for each shelf on a 24" wide unit and a shop light or box light for each shelf on a 48" width.
Since I'm going to use the 48" wide unit, I'll proceed with those instructions.
The shelves are adjustable on my unit, so I used each shelf in the following manner:
The bottom shelf is used to store garden tools, watering cans, and other necessary supplies.
The top shelves have more room between them because I plan to use them for house plants and more mature, tropical plants. (I've been growing a mango tree this winter!)
The middle shelf is shorter so it can be used for seed starting. The seedlings will only stay there for a short time, then move up to the taller shelves, before moving outdoors.
For the light boxes, you at least need one for each of the three shelves that will hold your plants. Ideally two for each shelf would be best, for even distribution of light, but one each will suffice. I'm always looking for ways to save money.
Here is a photo of an example, so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about.
Be sure to purchase shop lights or light boxes that come with chains so you can adjust the length for the shorter plants, but don't put the lights too close. The plants need room to grow!
As far as the light bulbs go, you should purchase one T8 cool white and one T8 warm white for each light box. This ensures that the differing light is evenly distributed. You can purchase a timer to plug the lights into, since seedlings need 12-16 hours of grow light time each day, or you can set an alarm on your smart watch or phone.
If your room is cold, you can purchase heat pads (kind of like a heating pad you use for aches and pains, only plastic or rubber, and much longer) to put on each shelf under your plants. If you use heat pads, place inexpensive boot trays or rubber mats under them so the heat pads don't touch the metal or melt the plastic!
Use caution when watering, because you don't want water from the upper shelf to drip into the lights below. Place pieces of thick cardboard under your plants, if you don't use heat pads.
I choose to use small biodegradable containers (shown here) found at most home improvement stores or garden centers for my seedlings, so that they can be put immediately into the ground, container and all, once the plant is mature enough to place into your square-foot garden. Of course you will want to wait until after the last frost to plant!
And there you have it!
