Inexpensive Grow Light Shelf Unit for Seedlings
After having a relatively bad run of some of my vegetables last year in the garden, I researched exactly why. I know this might be obvious to a lot of people, but I had no idea that the growing season in Tennessee was much too short to grow broccoli from seed in the garden without starting from seed. After some research I noticed that everyone starts their seeds inside for the plants that aren't able to grow full term in a shortened season. I know, obvious. I also wanted to grow all of my tomatoes from seed, so this gave me a chance to get to it.
As you know, from an earlier post, I had started some broccoli seed inside. Well, I'm here to say that they didn't make it. They all were very leggy and also suffered from a small cold spell. Again, I set out and researched as to why my plants were so leggy and what I found was that I wasn't getting the seedlings enough light. Not only was I not giving them enough light, I had the light source much too far from the seedlings themselves. I had to find a remedy for that and here is what I did. Grow light shelving!
I looked at all kinds of grow lights and most of them are quite expensive and consequently became a DIY challenge. First of all, I had a couple of shelf units that we were going to use to organize the garage but were never used. They are shelving units much like this:
- Plastic Shelf Unit for Growing Lights
The shelf unit already had holes at the end of each shelf, which I could use to hang my growing lights. What I ended up using for growing lights are just your run of the mill fluorescent shop light. The ones found at your typical big box store or local hardware store. The lights I purchased were less than $11 at my local hardware store:
- Shop Light for Growing Seedlings
I simply hung the lights on 3 of the shelf bottoms and I now have a wonderful growing light shelf unit. I also purchased a simple timer so that I could keep the lights on 16 hours a day. The timer was just under $4 at Home Depot. I've now started seedlings for 6 different types of tomatoes, bell peppers, lettuce, eggplant and more broccoli. I'm very happy with the results and we plan on planting snow peas and transplanting the broccoli this weekend. This is a very cost effective way to get a setup going for starting your own seeds. If I were to buy the same shelf unit with the lights I used, the total cost would have come to about $45. Well worth the ability to start your own plants before the planting season. Here are a couple of photos of our setup:
- Growing Light Shelf Unit
- Growing Light Shelf with Seedlings
Broccoli Seeds Sprouting
Click for fullsize
Just over a week ago, I started our broccoli seeds inside. Last year, as I stated in the previous blog post, we didn't plan our garden out very well. We did have quite a few vegetables last year, but broccoli was not one of them. The reason we didn't have any broccoli was because I was unaware that the growing season is too short here in the Southern Interior for broccoli without starting your seed early inside and then transplanting to the garden. Well, that and the fact that when the broccoli did try to make florets, the deer were on it in no time. This year I started the seed early (42 plants) and have a plan to use row covers to keep the pests out. I'll create a write-up about the row covers at a later date when I set it all up.
Starting the broccoli seed was very easy. Since we don't have a greenhouse on our property yet, I had to settle on something a bit cheaper. Strike that, a lot cheaper. Like less than $10! I bought a couple of Jiffy Greenhouse kits from the Ferry Morse Seed Co. You can buy some of your own by using the link at the bottom of this post.
The process of starting seed is quite easy.
- Use peat pellets, like those in the Jiffy Greenhouse, or just buy a bag of vermiculite soil or peat and place in planting containers/egg cartons, etc. Anything will do.
- Water the peat or vermiculite a bit and let it expand until it's like a sponge and then fluff the surface and level.
- Sow 2-3 seeds per pellet or every couple of inches if using potting soil. Cover lightly with peat.
- Place the dome cover over the tray of peat pellets and keep it in a warm location away from direct sunlight. I kept mine in the pantry and left a fluorescent light on 11-14 hours a day.
- When first seeds start to sprout, prop the lid open. When all seeds have sprouted, remove the dome and place in a sunny location. I kept mine in the pantry with the light on.
- After first true leaves appear, cut back all but the strongest seedling in each pellet or group of seedlings.
And that's it! Once you are ready to transplant the seedlings, it's best to harden the plants by placing them outside in the shade for several days and bring them in at night. All the while gradually exposing them to full sunlight. Once hardened, simply dig holes, place the seedling(s) in said holes and firm soil around it. Water.
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