PVC Indoor Shelves for Indoor Seed Starting

Allyn · Sat Jul 18, 2015 10:30 pm

I'm just days away from building a two-foot-wide, three-tier indoor shelving unit out of PVC pipe for seed starting and some indoor growing. I have two light fixtures (I'll add a third later) that each weigh about six pounds. I plan on spacing the shelves 24 inches apart, so it'll be fairly tall. I don't know if 3/4-inch PVC is sturdy enough to handle the weight of the light fixtures and seed/plant trays or if I need to go 1 inch. Does anyone have experience or expertise to make recommendations?

Allyn · Sun Jul 19, 2015 2:14 pm

Because of the difference in cost, I was hoping I could use 3/4-inch; but you're right; that raises a doubt.

Allyn · Mon Jul 20, 2015 4:12 am

Well. . .. everything you said was valid; but standing in the store looking at the different PVC pipe, we went with 3/4. It is the thicker-walled 480 psi PVC, though, which is much more substantial than the thinner-walled 200 psi PVC. We got the 200 psi pipe for the tunnel greenhouse because it is flexible enough to bend into an arch. This 480 psi stuff is quite stiff and doesn't bend. (Sch 40? Sch 80? I forget which, but I do remember the psi rating.) We built the shelf unit tonight, and it seems quite sturdy. I don't have batteries for my camera tonight, but I'll pick some up this week and take a picture.

applestar · Mon Jul 20, 2015 4:41 am

I'm looking forward to seeing the photo(s) -- I didn't reply to this thread because I couldn't picture how you were building it -- and hoped others with more experience and know-how would. It will be interesting to see...

Allyn · Sun Jul 26, 2015 6:31 pm

It took me longer to get into town than I thought, but I have a picture.

It's not "done" yet. I need add a light fixture to the bottom shelf. I also plan to zip tie those wires to neaten them up. I'm going to attach a power strip to one of the uprights so everything can plug into the strip and I have only one cord going to the wall; and I have to add the shelves. Right now, I have two boards that I salvaged from a bookshelf unit on the middle shelf to hold some trays (seedling lettuce, spinach and venus flytraps), but I'm going to cut a sheet of plywood into proper shelves.

(The black drape is just to reduce background clutter so the unit shows up better.)