• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

seeds Show me yur seed starting setups!

I originally started this thread over in the growing section and was directed to put it over here.
 
I'm thinking ahead here and want to get ideas for setting up an indoor seed starting chamber. I've perused the interwebs and have a basic idea. I would like to go LED for low power consumption and have enough room to germ and grow, to good transplant size, approximately 60 plants for next years grow. I have a roughly 2' x 8' space available in the garage. 
 
What seed starting trays do you all use? Seedling medium? Heat mats? Shelving? Etc etc. 
 
I'm quite DIY oriented for everything minus the LED lighting. So, recommendations for a good quality light(s) would be extremely appreciated.  Nothing to crazy as all my plants would go outside around late February/early March.
 
Thanks in advance!
 
 
I am extremely happy with my seedling stage. After years of questionable germination rates I started studying how the commercial farmers germinate their seeds. Theres some great commercial germination videos on YouTube. I then went all out and put together this setup which can handle 800 seedlings.

*Two large 5' heating mats controlled by a Herpstat. I keep it at 85 degrees.
*Eight 10x20 trays all covered in Mondo dome hoods which are ventable.
*Fourteen 4 ft T5 lamps
*One soil block maker for 1.5" blocks
(Look up Elliot Coleman's soil blocking video on YouTube--worked better than any other method I tried).

You can see the individual soil blocks and the golden looking stuff on top is Vermiculite which is what I cover the seed with after I drop it in the premade soil block dimple. One per block.

Very good germination rates! This is what made my season possible this year.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20180226_220931.jpg
    IMG_20180226_220931.jpg
    86.3 KB · Views: 107
  • IMG_20180226_220455.jpg
    IMG_20180226_220455.jpg
    62.7 KB · Views: 104
  • IMG_20180226_213515~2.jpg
    IMG_20180226_213515~2.jpg
    85.7 KB · Views: 97
This is my seedlings after their second transfer. The first transfer was containers I will not use again and only stayed in there a few days. I'm using nothing but the "tree pot" root trainers next year which are the long cylindrical containers in the picture. They need to be cut open along the side with razor upon transfer, but the nice long organized roots that form are never root bound and explode into growth once transferred.

So to sum up I go from soil block which prevents root binding into "tree pots" which also prevents root binding.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20180422_173948.jpg
    IMG_20180422_173948.jpg
    202 KB · Views: 103
Empty at the moment save for a few Lil ones for a GDTD but you get the idea, and yes! Shelving I'd say beautiful wonder to utilize vertical space to save horizontal space! I have photo, I believe it'd my profile photo, of it completely loaded and I was able to have like 90-100 medium sized planta covered. 3x 130w quantum boards with a single driver wired in parallel plus a blurple kingbo 50w(30w actual) ufo light for the far ends red and blue spectrums. The boards are a 5000k, 4000k, and a 3000k. The 5000k plus single 120w driver not shown in picture. All run on digital timers and heatpads on certain shelves when needed. Low cost, max efficiency is what I was going for as electricity ain't cheap and I ain't rich! All dimmable as well to save money and acclimate plants..
317e67641fc11aa7b0f8ee9609193e20.jpg
5f53a8063ccc5311911ffd6abe9651fc.jpg
5f3b48a2d451c8777506a8e0ac5951a6.jpg
IMG_20180424_212354271_HDR.jpg
IMG_20180419_184835629.jpg
IMG_20180429_201316894.jpg


Sent from my XT1565 using Tapatalk
 
Back
Top