My Seed Starting Setup

[Polar_Lace]

You're welcome Sue and Kat!

T says -

Each shelf will hold 4 standard 18" nursery flats. This unit is narrow enough that you can use the nursery flats to hold your plants and so no shelves are actually needed.

This is true. I've used only the regular flats in it myself.

Ted says -

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.

Yes I agree with you on that point, Ted. But I've come to notice that the screws should be no more than the half inch size or you could mess up the system by driving longer screws into it. (I screwed the vertical pieces only.) Using thicker PVC will also give it more strength, makes the stand less bendable with a bump, plus soil and water weight.

I also used 2 bars in the middle instead of just one, a little more cost for more tees. and cut bars but it just seemed sturdier that way. Gluing the the cross-bars only was good too, for storage purposes.

~* Robin

[BattleOfBennington]

I am going to try the PVC thing, but cap the bottoms and add wheels. Thought being able to move it around could be helpful.

[clara]

Jim, it really looks great! Absolutely professional! I would like to copy it if I had more time.
clara

[Jimche]

Originally Posted by dcarch

This is the best example of a seed starting setup I have seen both in the thinking and execution of the project. Congratulations! Thumbs up.

Having said that, in the spirit of exchanging ideas, and not as criticism, I hope no one is going to get mad because I have these suggestions:

• It does not look like the structure has much lateral stability. When it is fully watered, it gets heavy and possibly can collapse. It should be easy to provide bracing to prevent this from happening.
• If you enclose the setup with mirror Mylar, you will get a lot more light to your seedlings.
• If you enclose it with Mylar, you will not need electric heating. You are getting over 5,000 BTUs of heat from the light fixture alone.
• If you enclose it with Mylar you will need to water less frequently.
• For your heating system, it’s best if you paint the bottom of your aluminum plate black. Aluminum is a very good reflector, up to 95% reflectivity; it will reflect most of the heat to the Masonite board. The purpose of the aluminum plate is to distribute heat more evenly to the seedlings because it is also a very good conductor.
• It would be a good idea to install the heating light strips over (cheap) kitchen aluminum foil to reflect heat upwards.

I see you understand reflectivity is important. You have everything white, including the seed pots.
First class.

dcarch

OK, first time trying reply with quote, so I hope it goes correctly.

Thanks, dcarch. Having seen lots of your posts, I certainly take your ideas as constructive input . The two units are screwed together, so that the whole thing is more stable than either one independently. The notches in the 2x3s, the 1x3s on edge and the strong tie-in with lag bolts makes it pretty strong, but I'll definitely be watching out as it loads up with watered flats. Too bad that it has to be disassembleable (if that is a word ), otherwise I would have made it more monolithic.

Awesome ideas about painting the bottom of the aluminum black and putting foil beneath the rope lights! Fortunately, my fiance Galina convinced me to build the heat tray so that it could be disassembled. Since the rope lights last about 30,000 hours, I was planning to seal it all up permanently. Instead, the last piece of side trim is only screwed in. So, I can modify the trays as you suggest.

Also agree with each of your comments regarding the Mylar (I've followed your postings and those of others in that thread). I will probably add a 1 mil Mylar curtain around it, but wonder whether I'll be able to get good air circulation with it in place. Any suggestions? Is this really important?

BTW, I'm guessing that you might just be an engineer. Am I correct? Thanks again for the great ideas!

Jimche

[Jimche]

Originally Posted by Jimche

Also agree with each of your comments regarding the Mylar (I've followed your postings and those of others in that thread). I will probably add a 1 mil Mylar curtain around it, but wonder whether I'll be able to get good air circulation with it in place. Any suggestions? Is this really important?

By "this", I meant, is the air circulation really critical...

[Jimche]

Originally Posted by BattleOfBennington

I am going to try the PVC thing, but cap the bottoms and add wheels. Thought being able to move it around could be helpful.

Wheels would be great. Mine lacks them because it is a bit too tall to move easily and because I need to shim the feet up to level the shelves - floor in the house is way out of level. In an ideal world, I would be able to wheel the whole thing out the front door onto the porch for hardening off during the day, then right back in at night. Maybe next time.

[dcarch]

If you have notched the joints it will help a lot. Otherwise A few thin steel wires can do the job and prevent collapsing if someone happens to lean against them.

By the way, I have alway feel that it does not take anymore time to create something that's aesthetically pleasing. They are beautiful enough to be in your livingroom.


dcarch

[01GTB]

That's really nice, Jimche. Very professional looking work.

Mine is just kind of thrown together. It only has two shelves and is bolted together. By putting it together like that, the bolts can be loosened and the stand folds up. I never thought about making it folding, it just kind of happened. It's still over 6 feet long when folded, but is under 12" deep. Of course, you have to take the lights off to fold it.

I used nursery table slats that are 4' x 2' for the shelves themselves. I tore it apart a couple months ago and made the support legs longer so that I could put bigger plants that had been transplanted to 1 gal containers on one of the shelves, to get a better start earlier in the winter.

But again, mine looks like a hack job compared to yours.

[ContainerTed]

Originally Posted by Polar_Lace

Ted says - Yes I agree with you on that point, Ted. But I've come to notice that the screws should be no more than the half inch size or you could mess up the system by driving longer screws into it. (I screwed the vertical pieces only.) Using thicker PVC will also give it more strength, makes the stand less bendable with a bump, plus soil and water weight.

~* Robin

Robin, you're right. When I did my answer, my brain was thinking Schedule 40. It's heavier, and if you pre-drill for the screws, the possibility of stress fractures of the PVC is almost nil.

Ted

[Penny]

Great set up you have there!!

[Jimche]

Thanks GTB and Penny. Got about 2/3 of the seedlings started. The soil in the flats above the heat trays is about 92 degrees in the central pots and about 85 degrees in the pots around the edges. This is within the germination temperature range noted in Seed to Seed for both tomatoes and peppers (75 to 95 degrees). I wonder whether it might be a bit too warm...do they germinate better at temps closer to the middle of that range? Definitely don't want to cook them!

[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

[Jimche]

An update, with a few lessons learned.

1. The heat trays provided more heat than was needed, but this went undetected. The thermometer stuck in a one pot read 80 to 90 degrees, which seemed fine, until I noticed that only the pots situated around the edges of my setup were germinating. Probing around, I found that some of the pots were at times as high as 95 to 100 degrees, particularly in the central part of the setups. Re-seeded in the same pots, turned the heat off (on the tomato plants, spaced the trays up on the pepper plants for cooler temp) and everything germinated, including, I belive, the original seeds (though somewhat later). The high temps prevented germination but did not seem to harm the seeds - the plants are growing well and look normal but we'll see how they come out.

2. Dcarch and everyone else who said so - Heat was definitely not needed for the tomatoes. I got four of those Mylar foil heat blankets inexpensively at a sporting goods store and secured them with Velcro at the top of the rack. Their static effect makes the lower parts cling perfectly to the seedling rack and they contain the heat from the fluorescent fixtures very well. It is a humid, warm environment in there.

3. We learned to be watchful for leaves touching the fluorescent tubes. We want to be as close as possible without touching, because if they touch for more than a day or two, leaves do get yellow.

Thanks again for the help and good ideas. We will post some pictures shortly.

[huntsman]

Great looking system Jimche.

Would love to see some pics!

[Jimche]

Thanks, Huntsman. I imagine you have some tomato varieties different than we see here and perhaps some unique growing conditions. It would be interesting to hear about gardening in South Africa. Our website www.solanagardens.com has some pictures of the plants growing in the seedling stage and then later in the garden. We had a decent year despite the Late Blight, though probably less than half the production that might have come otherwise.