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I never love my setup, its a lot of work and I'd like to simplify. I normally start my seeds indoors under a shop light (those 4ft bulbs, 2 side by side), in order to get them to all fit under it I have to plant them in those peat disks or in a small peat pots, like little. then they get too big so then I have to transplant them to something larger but then they don't all fit under the light, so I have to move them outside to my "greenhouse" (which fell apart so I need to build something else). but its too cold at night so I have to bring them in when the sun starts going down. and put them all back out in the morning. its a pain. I'd rather think of a way to either keep them all inside or keep them all outside. is there a way around this?

I need to build a new greenhouse or a cold frame or something. I use it only until I can put my plants in the ground.

How much room do you have?
Immediate thought is to hang a shelf above the current set up, get another shoplight fixture, and double your seed starting area without sacrificing/devoting more square footage.

I started out with a 4' plant light equipment that I'd originally given my dad, but I found it languishing in the basement so I took it back When I ran out of space, I dug up some unused bracket shelf system and a couple of wire closet shelving from the back of the garage because, after staring at the plant light system for about 30 min. I realized that if I took it apart and put it back together again, I could push the two uprights supporting the hanging light fixture through the wire shelving after bending the wires open a little bit.

BIL found me a couple of shoplights and voila! I had 2.5X the original space because the extra fixture lit up a wider area. Of course, I'm running out of room again....

hmmm. thats an idea, IF I could do it in my basement... ya think? is it too cold down there? its probably 60*.

Applestar might be thinking of something like this:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12209&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=90

(scroll down near the bottom of the page for my thread titled update 3-16... earlier in the thread there are more pictures of it, earlier in the season).

It is in my basement, which stays around 60. There are heat mats for germinating the warm weather plants.

It is an 8' long counter set on top of kitchen cabinets, with two wire shelves hung over it. The first shelf hangs lights for the counter and has plants on it. The second shelf hangs lights for the first shelf and just is storage for trays and stuff on top of it. If you had enough room and ambition you could probably go one more level... But I'm already using a lot of electricity!

I think I have an idea. sicne the basement is ok, I shall use the shop lights that are hanging from the ceiling and rig a hanging shelf attached to the beams so that I can set the flats on the shelf directly under the light...

I could potentially sprout the seeds up here and then put them down there once they've sprouted

I agree with the 2 above. I grow in my basement which is cold as well. I started about everything in my garden last year down there. I also use a heat mat for germinating those pesky growers.

I also have a double high setup as well as 2 wide so I have basically 4 grwoing stations in a 8 ft wide area. It;'s nothing pretty but ti works.

Here is a pic of the madness
[img]https://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj185/gixxerific/Gardening/DSC03416.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj185/gixxerific/Gardening/DSC03417.jpg[/img]

ok, I'm definitely going to do it in the basement this year. now to figure out my set up. we're in the middle of construction down there and I have my diaper business thingie in progress down there so there isn't much place to do this. but I will figure it out I"m getting so excited though!

I'm hoping that my fish tank light gets warm on top and I can germinate some things on top of that