compact table with plant lights?

I am starting my garden from seed for the first time this season. Since I live in a small apartment without direct sunlight, I am looking for a multi-shelf, compact table with plant lights that I can fold up when I'm not using it. Has anyone got any tips where I could find such a thing? Or other ideas?

Thanks.

I started out with a shoplight on a tabletop held up off the plants with canned goods. If you have a bookshelf, why not store the books under the bed for the seedling season and put a couple of shoplights hung by chains on it.

Use screw in hooks to loop the chains on if you have a wooden bookcase....if not, get creative and loop a piece of wire completely around the shelf to hang the light from...shoplights are cheap at any hardware or discount store and come with the little chains to hang them with. After your seedlings are transplanted, just put them under the bed, or stand them in a closet.

A shoplight isn't 'full spectrum' light, but will be just fine for seedlings that will not live for months under them. Use 1 warm and 1 cool bulb to help with the light spectrum. I've never used anything but cheap shoplights and start hundreds....or thousands...of seedlings every year. Remember to keep the lights between 1 and 2 inches from the leaves...any further and they will 'stretch' to try and reach the light.

If you just have room for 1 light...put plastic on the floor and use the old canned goods trick....that's enough room for 2 flats of seeds.

Here's a thread that might give you some good ideas to fit your needs. If you go with the style that I made, it might come in handy for extra storage space when you aren't starting seeds with it. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/683246/

Edited to note: The entire system cost me about $130.

This message was edited Jan 27, 2007 2:54 PM

Melody,

I like your 'canned goods' remark.

I use four tall tomato juice cans and one cheap shop light!

It works!

Corinne

I just posted this in another thread, it is easy, and simple.
The cheapest, and to me the easiest is a set from Wall-Mart, they are heavy plastic, comes in three tier, you can use all three or just one or two as they come apart, I drilled a small hole in the top to hang the lights, lights also were cheap at Wall-Mart. sorry I deleted my pictures.

In the very first issue ever of the Garden Gate magazine, they had a plan on how to build a grow light stand out of PVC pipe and fittings. It was made to be able to take sections of it apart when you are done to put it away. I built one, but I just store it in the basement intact. It cost, with the lights too, about 50 dollars. It holds 4 flats of plants. I looked at their web site and could not see a way to access it there. If you need further instructions, dmail me.

Hmmm, I've never heard of Garden Gate mag' before. Is it one that you would highly recommend?

My apologies, Wrightie. I forgot to click the spot to watch this thread... I am back now.

Yes, I would highly recommend this magazine. It has no advertising, so you get all information. It has three punched holes in it for putting into a binder too. Below is the link for you...

http://gardengatemagazine.com/

It is one magaine that I received the inagural issue, fell in love with and I have never stopped my subscription.

Here's a link to T's Flowers & Things. They have plans for a pvc plant stand that is quite inexpensive to make. I use them in my basement and start thousands of plants every spring: http://www.tsflowers.com/plantstand.html

Thanks, RBD. I may have to get a trial subscription...

I like yours too, Weezing. Does this one hold six flats? The one in Garden gate holds 4. It looks quite similar. I am glad you took the time to post yours. Let me know how many flats it holds.

The PVC stand is designed to be three shelves high, and each shelf holds 4 flats, or 12 total. We built our four shelves high, so each one holds 16 flats. Each shelf has two fluorescent shop lights, so a three tiered rack would require 6 shop lights that have two bulbs each. One of our 4-tiered racks cost approximately $125 with lights that were on sale. Living in Alaska, my costs are bound to be higher than most places. To stabilize the tall racks, we butted two racks together, back to back, leaving some 6" of space between them. He used those plastic ties to keep them together. It just makes the whole thing more stable. I have three of these double racks in my basement, so that means I can keep 96 flats going under lights down there. We glued ours together, but if you are making 2 or three tiered racks, you could probably not glue the joints and have the option to disassemble when not in use.

This is great. 12 to 16 flats...I like yours. I think that this one is on my project list this year. Thanks for posting your grow light plan for me and for everyone.

My DH made the first one for me after I read a thread here on DG... I think PoppySue started it. I believe she linked to T's site, as well. We sure sent a lot of people to that site in the last 5 years!

Thanks again. More plants are alive today because of those grow lights, you know?! I have to print it out and keep it available so when i am able I will be ready to go.