I guess I should start with my conundrum. I started much of my garden from seed last summer. I didn't have a grow system, I barely had a starter kit. I didn't have any other place to keep the tray of seedlings so I let them grow on my kitchen table surrounded by windows.
The problem that I had with this method was that the seedlings would grow and the stems would get too long to support the weight of the leaf at the top. It made it difficult to transplant them when the time was right. Now, obviously I can't bring the sun closer to the plants, so this season I bought a couple of cheap shop lights (about $12 each at my home improvement store) and I plan on building a shelving unit to make this work eventually. In the meantime, I have set up a small table using plywood and sawhorses. I then hung the shop light from a pulley in order to raise and lower the light.
Here is the enlightening part. I originally went to my local garden supply store to look at grow lamps. They run about $80 for a small fixture, big enough to light a single planting tray. For almost a tenth of the price, I bought a stoplight, which I have read on many blogs will work just as well during the initial stages of growth as an expensive grow lamp will. You keep it close to the top of the tray and slowly move it up as the plants grow to keep the stems from getting too long. You also get the desired effect of having your plants grow directly upright instead of leaning toward the sunlight.
Here are a couple of pictures of the system I have implemented right now. I bought a jumpstart kit from the garden supply store and I hung the lamp with jute from an antique pulley I had lying around. Obviously, this is temporary until I can afford both the money and the time to build a shelving unit.
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| From Stuff I Made |
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| From Stuff I Made |
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