Since I have a 12 month grow season I can start seeds year round. I will do several grow sessions using the lights and sprout 300-400 per session. The lights I use are plant and aquarium F40 nothing special but seem to work well. If growing with lights I do recommend sprouting your seeds first saves a lot of space. The fan is a must helps with damping off. The height is determined on how long you will be growing your seedlings indoors, if 3-4 months you will need a good adjustable height to accommodate growth. The tallest I have had under the lights was 12" usually after 3 leafs I either put them in the ground our in pots.

I use sponges but a good seed starting mix will work.These seedling are ready to move outdoors.

A good rot system is most important!

Hope this helps!

Nice set up Lyle. I'm fairly new to the seed starting indoors. Here is my generic, working on a budget, adapt as they grow setup. hehehe

I hope to have about 125 to 150 seedlings indoors this winter. Little plastic cups contain seeds. Plasic covered starter trays with seeds that have germinated on the right. On the left are seedlings that got to large for the trays with lids so they were potted in 4 inch pots.
{{gwi:2102933}}

My lights are just metal domes with grow lights. Not much reflection so I hung Aluminum foil on the back of the rack. I have other racks in my room that as I need them I will adapt to them my needs. I'm hoping to keep them in 4 inch pots til next spring. If not I will move them up to 1 gal pots.

All my seeds were started in August. Not doing to bad in just about a months time. These babies are 2 inches.
{{gwi:2102934}}

Andrea

I use regular old shop lights you can buy at Home Depot or Valu, for $5.99. And any flourescent bulb that's cheap. I plant in plastic shoe boxes with lids, I think this method was started by Tom Rood.

If I have 500 seeds, that's a lot for me. My lights are on chains and I keep them very close to the seedlings so they don't get leggy. The lights are on a timer for 16 hours a day.

I put 3 lights side by side over a table in the basement, adn my boxes of seeds fit underneath all the lights. I don't have pictures, will try to take some.

Andrea - Very nice! I would recommend that you get some one gallon if possible. Those little guys can get big quick. I grew these thru the summer in 1 gallon pots using nutricote and alfalfa they will bloom this spring in the pot if I don't transplant them.

Lyle I stocked up on 1 gallon pots. I figured I'd need them by starting these seeds so early. I'm using Miracle Gro Potting Mix. It says it feeds for 3 months. After the 3 months not sure what I will fertilize with.

As I said I'm new at this. I tried several methods of seed germinating with spare seeds just to see what worked best for me. So far I seem to do best with the plastic containers with a small mixture of peroxide and water. Direct sow in potting mix seemed not to do anything and I had a few seeds rot.

Hopefully next winter I'll have more of a system down so I'm not just flying by the seat of my pants. LOL

Andrea

I can see my future... :)

I have a Sunlight 3 shelf system with 3 T9 tubes over each shelf. I start between 900 to 1,000 seedlings each year. It has worked very well for me, and I'm actually thinking of buying a second 3 shelf.

Linda

Everyone:
Thank you all for you replies and pics. THey have been tremendously helpful. Not that I've decided which way to go or anything!But it's getting narrowed down.

The link will take you to our low tech grow room built for the least amount of cash as we could. Home Depot cheapest electronic ballast "utility" fixtures are used.

The biggest problem to over come with indoor growing is the amount of light you give the plants. The more the better. If your going to spend the time and effort you may as well do it right.

Cheers

Here is a link that might be useful: Our Low Cost Grow Room

I use inexensive ($9) grow lights from WalMart- two tyewrapped to each shelf on an inexpensive ($45) 4-shelf "indoor greenhouse". I line the plastic "greenhouse" cover with emergency blankets (2 x .99) to reflect the light back in. The timers I use for the lights were probably more expensive than anything else. I manage to start 500-700 seedlings in this space using plastic "beer" cups with 5-7 seeds per cup.