Heat Mats, Perma Nest trays, Humidity Grids

We built this in order to start seeds this year. But now that I have been reading more about it, I wonder whether I would have been better off just buying plants. I didn't think about trays that didn't leak. Seems that all the plastic seedling trays all have drain holes. So...

1) Do I need to order Perma Nest trays?

2) Then, someone told me that I needed humidity grids and heat mats.

3) Someone else mentioned that our lights weren't good because they were fixed and not able to go up and down.

4) Do I need domes over the trays?

5) Is there a certain kind of seed starting tray that most people use?

6) Where does everyone order the materials? The prices online vary so much. My local stores don't have much.

What do you all recommend?
Thanks for any help!
Dee

Hi Diva-Don't give up, you've done the hard part and it looks great. What fun you are going to have!

Yes, you will want trays that do not leak all over your floor.

Check out Greenhouse Megastore on the web. PermaNest is great, because they are rigid and strong, some trays are flimsy and if you pick them up fully loaded might be a problem, but if you double them up it is ok and much cheaper.

you don't need domes, you can use Saran wrap to keep it moist until they are growing, domes are just convenient.

you do not even need big seed starting trays at first, you can put lots and lots of seeds in a 4" pot, then after they sprout you "prick them out" into the divided tray things. However, you have such a nice big setup you might just direct-seed into the trays. Greenhouse Megastore has many sizes, or your local Ace Hardware will soon have them for spring too.

Yah, you might want to rig the lights so they can go up and down, to keep them close to the seedlings. you can buy chains and hooks for this at Ace too, a fun project on a cold February day.

If it is in your house at room temp, you don't require a heat mat for most things. If you get more into it later you might want one, for tropicals and such.

Make sure you keep us updated on your project. I am totally jealous and will live (sprout) vicariously through you this spring.

You can use cat boxes instead of Perma Nest trays. I get them at the Dollar store. Your set up is beautiful.

You can also use aluminum trays (15 pack at Sam's club for less than $10) for drip trays. These are the big deep pans (for lasagna) or you can get a 30 pack half trays for about the same price. Poke holes in the bottom and they become seed/cutting trays. You can move them outdoors without a drip tray but indoors you would need to use an extra tray for drips.

Also instead of adjusting the lights you can adjust your trays by stacking boxes, wood, Styrofoam blocks under your seed trays (six of one, half a dozen of the other).

Jiffy and Burpee seed starting trays are a cheap way to get started as well for not just seed but cuttings as well (buy at your big box stores now). They are divided into cells with either Jiffy pellets or you can find the empty cells where you add the soilless mix. They come with a low humidity lid to get cuttings and seeds started much quicker this way.

On the steel shelving (same set up I use) I'd recommend four shelves per unit since plants often get taller than you'd planned for - school of hard knocks). So if you get a unit of six shelves set aside two for future use. When you get another unit and set aside another two shelves you now have enough for another unit but you will have to buy the posts (legs).

Here is an example of a couple of my shelving units in the basement with the aluminum trays.

I have shelves like yours, and I have them set at different heights from narrower at the top to wider at the bottom. Then I can move the trays down as the plants get taller. I move the shelves - not the lights - when necessary.
Maybe it is just my alkaline water, but I had bad luck with using disposable aluminum pans for water trays. They got little pin holes etched into them and they started to leak, too.

Moving shelves on these steel units is quite a job though. Often I have to use a mallet to loosen the friction between the shelf and the plastic cones so I try not to adjust shelves once in place but will move plants about as the need rises.

Pin holes in aluminum trays can develop after a few years of use (probably because I used gravel at one time and fertilizer) but again pans are cheap. The Perma-Nest trays are a lot more expensive and can (and will) break which turned me off on those years ago.

I have about 15 steel shelves and 5 wooden shelves (twice as long - 8 feet) running around 75 shoplights. Each steel shelf is capable of holding 3 to 4 pans under a four foot light, wooden shelves hold 7 pans per shelf (two lights). So 75 lights times say 3.5 pans would be a lot of Perma-Nest pans. Anyhoo, I have my seven or so Perma-Nest pans sitting idle as dust collectors. The high humidity domes I got for the Perma-Nest pans are cracking and I rarely use those anymore.

Jiffy pellets are a good way to propagate a lot of plants and the trays are cheap (72 cell for less than $10). Here is a photo of a more expensive tray with a wicking mat and only half the size of the longer 72 cell tray.

hcmcdole:
That is a lot of lights. But I notice you are starting a lot of house plants with lower light requirements. Do you do anything different for garden veggies? And how many hours per day do you run your lights? I do 12 in winter for house plants, 16 in spring for veggies, but I am still on a learning curve.

I quit growing veggies 30 years ago and concentrated on trees, shrubs, and perennials.

You could double up your lights for higher light requirements if need be but then that is double the cost of running lights.

I run lights 12 hours a day from November until May and move 95% of everything outdoors for the summer (takes about two weeks to move them indoors and maybe 1 week to move them outdoors). Yes, that is a lot of plants but when you have OCD for plants, what can you do?

I like these sources for trays, but you don't need "official" kinds of trays. Cottage cheese tubs and yogurt cups work, too.

But if you like plastic gadgets:

"inserts" like tear-able 6 packs, and solid trays (scroll down to "1020 Greenhouse Trays (No Holes))
http://www.growerssolution.com/page/GS/CTGY/inserts

sturdy, re-usable plug trays and propagation trays:
http://www.growerssolution.com/page/GS/CTGY/plug

Or here:
http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/category/flats-trays-inserts

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