Our seed-starting rack stand – with room for almost 600 seedlings!
Our dining room table / mini garden area last spring.
For the last few years, in the late winter months, our dining room table transforms into our seed starting area – or as we like to call it – our mini garden. We actually had it down to a science, using a few inexpensive shop lights to grow our plants healthy and strong. The mini garden set-up unfortunately also rendered the dining area useless for the 6 to 8 weeks it took to germinate and grow all of the ornamental pepper and garden plants we use. Not to mention, some strange looks from company wondering what we were “growing” in there under the dim glow of flourescent lights 
.
So, for this week’s DIY segment – we thought we would design and build our very own lighted seed-starting rack. The rack will allow us to move the entire seed starting operation out of the dining room – and into an unused portion of our basement. It also allows us to double the seeds and plants we can start indoors in less space – from the 4 flats we could start on the table, to a full 8 flats.
We wanted it to be simple, strong, and of course, as always – cheap!
Using just nine simple 2 x 4 x 8 pieces of lumber, a single sheet of particle board and 4 inexpensive double-bulb shop lights – this can be made from scratch for around $50 to $70. Even less if you happen to have some old shop lights or scrap lumber laying around! It will accommodate up to 8 full size seed trays on the two growing shelves – and can grow up to 576 plants if using the 72 pack cell inserts. There is even shelf space at the bottom to store gardening supplies – or if you are really ambitious – another layer of plants! The best part of the project – it can be assembled with simple tools in less than an hour or two. In our case – we cut, built and assembled it in the time it took to watch the Houston Texans take our Cincinnati Bengals out of the playoffs! It’s also strong and can double as a great storage shelf when not in use the rest of the year.
Here is how we built it:
Once you have your 3 rectangles assembled – screw in the four 6′ vertical boards to the bottom shelf first
Materials List:
(9) ea. 2 x4 x8′s
(4) ea. Hanging Shop Lights
(1) 4′ x 8′ sheet of 1/2 strand board or plywood
(50) 3″ screws
(8 to 12) 2″ screw hooks
Tools Needed:
Circular or Chop Saw
Screw Gun
Tape Meassure
How We Built It:
(We have included extra photos at the bottom to help show the building process)
Start by cutting all of your pieces:
You will need to cut the 2×4′s into the following sizes:
4) ea. 6′ long
8) ea. 4′ long
8) ea. 2′ long
Taking the 4′ x 8′ sheet of plywood or strand board, cut three pieces, each 27″ x 4′ wide – these will become the shelves of the stand.
Next – attach the second rectangle wood square to the top of the 4 6′ support legs
The actual building process is a snap – especially if you have two people for an extra set of hands. We normally use construction adhesive when we build anything for extra durability – but we forewent that on this project in case we ever want to disassemble and relocate the shelves.
Start by building your 4 rectangular shelf supports from the 4′ and 2′ pieces. Create a rectangle by placing two 2′ boards flush at the ends of two 4′ boards. Drive a single screw in the middle of each connection to create a solid rectangle. Repeat until you have all four rectangles assembled.
Next, we will assemble the bottom shelf first. Take one of your 6 foot boards and place it flush on the end of the outside edge of where the 2′ and 4′ pieces meet. (see pictures) Then – making sure your 6′ board is straight in the air at a 90 degree angle – we screw it in place with a total of 4 screws. We put 2 screws that sink into the 2′ board and 2 more than sink into the 4′ board. Repeat for the other 3 “legs” and you are on your way to your plant stand.
Next – we screw in one more of the rectangles the same way – this one at the top – flush with the top of the 6′ boards. Once you have this screwed in – your stand will start to become very stable.
Attach the final two shelf rectangles for your two shelves.
Now, we just simply repeat with the final two rectangles, screwing them in to form the bases for the growing shelves. For our set-up, we set our two shelves at 23″ apart – this allows us plenty of room to adjust the lights up and down with chains as the plants grow, and lets our plants have plenty of room to grow big. As another option you could also evenly space the two middle shelves and actually grow on the bottom shelf as well for 3 growing areas. For us, two is more than plenty – and we will just use the bottom shelf as for storage items.
Next, slide in the 3 27″ x 4′ shelf boards you have cut from the plywood or strand board to make your shelves. Simply drive a few screws into the support frame to secure.
Once you have all of your shelves in, its time to hang your lights. Simple screw hooks work great here. A small pre-drilled hole will help you screw them in. We install 2 hooks on each side – spaced evenly on the 2 foot end bars. Most of the inexpensive shoplights at the big box stores will come with a small chain and S hook for the light – just install and your set. To make ours even easier to operate – we are going to install a small power strip on the side, allowing the lights to be turned on with a single flip of the switch.
There you have it – an inexpensive seed-starting stand! If you want more information of starting seeds – you can see our article from a few weeks back – How To Easily Start Seeds Indoors
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- Jim and Mary
Shared on Savvy Southern Style, Gnowfglins
Close up of the rectangle shelf supports attached to the post. We attach 4 screw on the outside of each shelf angle support to add extra strength to each
Four screws are driven in to the outside of each post at every shelf corner
Side View of the shelf supports
Measuring Down For The Shelves
Use a level to make sure your shelf supports are level when attaching
I’ve been using a metal shelving unit for ages, but this looks so much better!
I would love to have you join in several hops that I host or co-host! Starting today there is the seasonal Winter on the HomeAcre Hop at:
http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/01/winter-on-the-homeacre-hop.html
This gives you a chance to bring out archived posts on winter subjects
Tomorrow is Wildcrafting Wednesday, you’ll be able to find it from my homepage at:
http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/
And on Thursday I host The HomeAcre Hop, another good place to bring out great posts that you would like to share again. I’d love to see posts on homesteading, farming, cooking, homeschooling…the list goes on
You can also find that on my homepage. Hope you can join us for all of these fun hops!
Thanks for sharing this on the Winter on the HomeAcre Hop!
Sounds like a fun project for these winter months. Thanks for sharing!
http://theredeemedgardener.blogspot.com/
Thank you for these plans. Now I know how to get her a great way to start the garden inside. We have a very small space and this will help.
Glad it helps! Good luck on your garden this year!
I love the creativity and no nonsense, practical approach… and frugal too! This could also be used year-round for certain herbs and plants. One question comes to mind (cannot be helped): Now that the dining room table is free, what other project will end up there?
Thanks so much Granny! I am sure we will fill the table with some sort of additional project
I have an outdoor green house. Does your method depend on the heat coming from your home as well as the lights? I do have heating pads, if I did this in the greenhouse with the lights and heating pads would I be as successful? Thanks!
This is such a great idea! I started seeds indoors last year, but as you mention they kind of take over their location. Something like this would be such a great idea! Thanks for sharing!
Could it be adjusted to allow for 3 shelves of flats? Or is there a required space from the top of the shop light to prevent overheating and fire hazards?
Absolutely – we just give ourselves more room with the 23″ on the two shelves. You could set them at around 18″ and have plenty of room to grow on all three shelves, including the bottom. The lights should be more than ok at that height as well – they by nature stay fairly cool.
Thank you so much for your reply and the wonderful plans to follow! I see a project for me this weekend!!
I built something similar and use it in the dining area. I’d like to move it to the basement, but fear it is a bit chilly down there for some seedlings …….. what is the temp in your basement?
Our basement stays between 60-70 degrees. With the lamps on for 10-12 hours per day, the seedlings should have more than enough heat.
The picture looks like you have 1 shop light on each shelve but you say to buy 4 .
Ronald – you have good eyes
We do use two lights on each level – but for the picture I had just put up the ones in front.
Thank you for this article… one of those “why haven’t I thought of this” so I can stop eating at the counter for several months out of the year? lol! Do you use special tubes in those shop lights? In my initial walk around the hardware store I found that there is quite a variety to chose from these days, including “plant” lights, warm lights, cool lights, natural lights and day lights… they vary not only in the amount of light they output, but also in the light color spectrum… enough information to make me wonder, do you think it makes a difference which one is used?
Hi Ceclia – Sorry – I must have somehow missed this comment! We use the standard inexpensive 40 watt cool light bulbs and they work great! I am glad Ronald (below) asked his question today or I would have missed yours! Hope that helps and sorry I was late answering yours! Jim
Thanks for your reply.
I was going to ask the same question as Cecilia so I’ll just wait for your reply to her . I also went to Lowes to get lights and came home empty handed and confused on which lights to get . The plant lights are expensive $80 . They had 25 watt 4ft shop lights and 40 watt 4ft shop lights both about the same price $12 to $15 a light , that is without the bulbs , but the bulbs are inexpensive. The plant lights come with the bulbs but to replace them are $10 to $12 a bulb .
Ronald – We use 40 watt cool lights in our system – and they work just fine. You certainly do not have to spend the money on the plant” lights – we have found that for growing vegetable and annual flowers from seed- they work great. The important thing is to keep the lights close to the plants – about 1 and 1/2 and 2 inches above the plants. Hope that helps!
Thank You !
Ron-
Here is what has worked for me (on a rack I built which I have used in my dining room) … regular shop lights. Each light gets one warm bulb and one cool bulb. I don’t remember the exact wattages(?), but if you google something like ‘plants shop lights’ you might find more specifics. My plants have done extremely well …I had giant tomato plants to put out last year.
Thanks much……
Hi,
FYI, started to make shelf. Bought my wood and made cuts. Started assembly and realized supply list is wrong. You need 8 of the 4′ pieces and 8 of the 2′ pieces, to make what you have pictured. Back to the lumber yard for more wood.
Burt
Thank you for bringing that to my attention Burt – just changed it on the post so it is correct. We had originally made it as a three shelf unit – and then added the fourth and I forgot to update that part! Sorry about the extra trip to the lumber yard – but hope the shelf turns out good for you! Jim
Turned out great, thanks for the plan.
Hello,
I plan to build this tomorrow, and I have similar 4′ electronic ballast lamps with 32W T8 gro-lux bulbs. Going to add heating pads since the sun room is not heated, power strip, light timer, and maybe wheels from a furniture dolly. Thanks for the plans!
Plans worked out great. I used 12 6′ 2x4s, and used a 23 1/2″ spacer when attaching the rectangles instead of a level. Thanks again!
Here’s a link the wheel system I plan to use: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/30738
Loved seeing your plans and hope to someday build something like this . Is there a lighting schedule to use or can you safely leave the lights on all the time . One concern I do have is here in Nova Scotia , we often get a sudden shift back to winter so plants that are already of size to transplant outside can,t even be set out in the day to start the hardening off process If I built tne unit and simply attached supports for the shelves ; then let the shelves sit on these , would that allow me to remove shelves which are above plants which are outgrowing the headspace they have ?
That actually sounds like a great idea to allow for that! As for the lighting schedule – we give our plants about 10 to 12 hours of light and it seems to work out great for them. For us we usually turn them on in the morning when we get up, and then later in the evening. Jim
Thanks for the response . We often have sudden weather changes in this area . and I was also pleased to see info added regarding the bulb size and type . Bev
It’s nice to have the lights on a timer too.
One nice thing about having my shelving unit in the dining room … I see them multiple times each day and tend them a lot. If I put them in the basement … out of sight, out of mind??
looks great hope to build right
I was curious, the 23″ marked down from the top… Is that the top of the shelf or the bottom on that 23″ mark?
Hi Noah – The 23″ would be from the top of the shelf. We also built a second and made that one at 18″ and it was still plenty of room. We just like a lot of space to allow for plant growth. Jim