Starting Seeds Indoors

[jal_ut]

I too have used the "Daylight" tubes. I did have some natural light from a south facing window, but that in itself is not enough. I left the lights on 24/7. Hang the fixture on chains so it can be adjusted for height. It is best to have the tubes 4 inches above your plants. You can grow some nice robust plants like this.

[Canadian Farmer Guy]

If anyone has pictures of their seed-starting setups, I'd love to see them.
Might give me some ideas for building my own.

[The Mad Hatter]

I can not believe the wealth on information on this site. Thanks for the light help. I will be chasing some down tomorrow, then installing them tomorrow as well.

I have all my tomato and pepper seeds ordered, need more pots, flats, and jiffy pellets.

[jal_ut]

This is pretty simple. A table in front of a basement window, with a shop light hung on chains. The plants are growing in 9 oz. plastic cups with a hole punched in them for drainage. The cups are sitting in aluminum jelly roll pans that I got at the second hand store. These are for drip catchers.

[rainbowgardener]

http://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/v ... c&start=90

this turned out to be a 9 page thread on seed starting. There's other pictures of the set up earlier in the season on pg's 1, 3, 4. The picture I'm referencing here is on p7, but you have to scroll down near the bottom of the page.

I like my set up because it is double decker... I have 16 feet of grow lights that takes up a foot print of 8' by 2' against a basement wall.

[Halfway]

If anyone has pictures of their seed-starting setups, I'd love to see them.
Might give me some ideas for building my own.

Here is a pic of a light setup I use for starts and hydroponic lettuce and herbs. The amount of light covers standard 72 plug starter trays sideways for maximum space utilization. The items used to link the lights together are simple tent poles from a surplus store. Dowels or re-rod would work just as well. The trick is to get the lights all horizontal and fixed to allow the raising of the unit by only one fixed point.

Since the lights need to be very close to the plants, I quickly tired of adjusting the chains up and down, so I bought a set of locking rope pulleys. Those were well worth the $20 bucks or so. Not sure of the brand name off the top of my head, but they can be found online through hydro dealers.