This is my third year growing peppers (or anything, for that matter), and my first year trying
to grow under artificial lights. I usually start germinating mid-March, and just use
natural light through my windows, but then I have pepper plants scattered around the
house, and moving them around where the best light is throughout the day was a pain.
So was carrying them inside and out multiple times to to harden them off.
So I needed to try something different this year. I wanted to build a self-contained
workstation to grow my plants. My requirements were:
1. It had to have grow lights for the seedlings.
2. Make the height of the lights easily adjustable.
3. Make it large enough to hold all of my plants from seeds until they were 8" tall or so,
for planting outdoors in garden beds in May.
4. Make it mobile.
5. Make it cheap.
So I built this two-tiered growing station on wheels. I keep it in my basement, which has a walkout.
The plan is, when it comes time to harden the plants off, I just unplug the extension cord feeding
power to my lights, and wheel the whole thing out the door each day during the hardening off period,
and just wheel it back in at night. When I 'm ready to plant, I'll just wheel the whole thing up to
the garden. No moving individual plants around ever.
So here it is framed up.
The basic frame is made with 1x2 furring strips (1.22 at Lowe's) and the bottom is a 4x8 sheet of
1/8" hardboard that is less than $7 per sheet (in the paneling section).
I cut it into three 16" x 8' strips and framed it with the 1x2s to make the three shelves.
The entire cart (without plants and lights) is less than 70lbs.
To make it less flimsy, I reinforced the corners like so.
...to be continued...
to grow under artificial lights. I usually start germinating mid-March, and just use
natural light through my windows, but then I have pepper plants scattered around the
house, and moving them around where the best light is throughout the day was a pain.
So was carrying them inside and out multiple times to to harden them off.
So I needed to try something different this year. I wanted to build a self-contained
workstation to grow my plants. My requirements were:
1. It had to have grow lights for the seedlings.
2. Make the height of the lights easily adjustable.
3. Make it large enough to hold all of my plants from seeds until they were 8" tall or so,
for planting outdoors in garden beds in May.
4. Make it mobile.
5. Make it cheap.
So I built this two-tiered growing station on wheels. I keep it in my basement, which has a walkout.
The plan is, when it comes time to harden the plants off, I just unplug the extension cord feeding
power to my lights, and wheel the whole thing out the door each day during the hardening off period,
and just wheel it back in at night. When I 'm ready to plant, I'll just wheel the whole thing up to
the garden. No moving individual plants around ever.
So here it is framed up.
The basic frame is made with 1x2 furring strips (1.22 at Lowe's) and the bottom is a 4x8 sheet of
1/8" hardboard that is less than $7 per sheet (in the paneling section).
I cut it into three 16" x 8' strips and framed it with the 1x2s to make the three shelves.
The entire cart (without plants and lights) is less than 70lbs.
To make it less flimsy, I reinforced the corners like so.
...to be continued...
