The Back Quarter » GLOG activity on March 5, 2012

Here's my seed starting bench from 2011. The frame is build from a combination of PVC and wood simply because that's what I happened to have on hand at the time.

I've got a timer in the back plugged into the wall, connected to power strips to hook up the lights. Lights are the standard T12 shop lights from Home Depot which run around $10 per fixture.

The green totes are Rubbermaid. They're the perfect size and strong enough to allow me to pick up the entire container and move it outside when I'm hardening the plants.

The planting containers are the large size plastic cups purchased from Costco. I use a push pin to poke holes around the bottom edge of the cups (not in the bottom, on the side), fill the cups with soil, place them in the tote, water the cup to start the wicking process, and then fill the tote with about an inch of water and leave to set for a day so the water can move evenly through the soil. From this point I just have to put water in the tote about twice a week or so to keep it from going empty and the cups water themselves perfectly - this greatly simplifies the watering process.

The entire frame I cover with black pastic (it's pulled back to the top here to allow you to see inside, and on the back side I just staple it to the wood). The black plastic keeps in heat released from the lights (all electricity burned by a light either becomes light or heat), and absorbs excess light turning it into heat which it then radiates most of back inside the enclosure. I often have in excess of a 20 degree difference inside and outside the plastic.

If you look close you'll notice the lights are suspended by long chains. I raise or lower these chains as needed to keep the lights as close as possible to the plants for maximum light.

I didn't have the bench fully utilized at this time of the year, so you can see two of my worm bins hiding under the bench on the bottom right.