Starting plants under shoplights - a greenhouse alternative

Oh, to have a greenhouse.  If dreams came true according our wishes, we would have a greenhouse already.  But, alas, life does not automatically convert wishes to realities, and we must do our best with what is available and affordable.  If you're like us, the variety of garden vegetables available for sale at the local nurseries just doesn't cut it. We love to experiment with rare and heirloom varieties, and the only way to do that is to order seed and start it ourselves. A greenhouse will cost at least $600-700, and that would be an itty bitty greenhouse - not the one we really want.  We also know that starting seeds in the window sill doesn't work very well, and you're likely to end up with weak plants with elongated stems that tip over in the slightest breeze, or no breeze at all.  After doing some internet research, we turned to a system of shelves and shoplights.  These setups are really pretty cheap for the amount of money they save in the long run when you have to buy all your plants.  With shoplights we get strong, healthy plants with thick stems that survive windy days after transplanting.  The best part is that you don't need any specialized equipment like expensive grow lights, everything you need can be found at a hardware store.

We start with a simple set of shelves you can buy from just about any department store.  The one requirement is that you must be able to fit 4 foot shoplight fixtures in each shelf, so you want shelves that are open on the end or over 4 feet wide.  As you can see in the photo, we use cheap wire shelves.  From each shelf we hang a pair of 2-bulb T12 shoplight fixtures, so each shelf has 4 bulbs.  It is important to use wide spectrum bulbs, or those labeled for plants and/or aquariums.  Two of the flats that are commonly used for seed starting will fit on each shelf.  Seed starting cups come in many sizes, and we use the size of cups where 32 fit into one flat.  We have three shelves set up, so we can start 6 flats of 32 cups each, for a total of 192 plants.  We're considering hanging a set of lights from the ceiling above the top shelf, or perhaps even rigging another whole set of shelves with lights.

The lights can be raised and lowered as the plants grow.  An alternative approach is to raise and lower the plants using books, 2x4's, or something similar while leaving the lights in place.  We have little hooks on the ends of the chains that hold the lights, so it is simple to raise the lights when we need to.

Hopefully you'll find that this is an acceptable substitute for a greenhouse, even though it won't hold nearly as many plants.  It is much cheaper, and also easier to assemble, so it is a nice set up for those that don't want or can't afford a greenhouse.