How To Set Up Grow Lights

example of diy grow lights

In this post, I'll show you how easy it can exist to build your own DIY abound lights so you lot can master the art of growing organic vegetable plants at home. I'll give you a video bout of my home prepare up and share links to the short list of materials you'll need to go started.

Subsequently you've been growing your own food for a while y'all might start to wonder virtually starting seeds at dwelling for your garden. It'due south a ritual many gardeners eagerly look forwards to every winter.

Growing your ain vegetable plants is a fun way to become a spring on the gardening season and start getting your easily dirty earlier you're able to become out into your one thousand.

A huge globe of interesting and unique vegetable varieties are available to gardeners who start their owns seeds, and then you tin can experiment with lots of unusual choices you probably can't detect at your local farmers marketplace or nursery.

And once y'all learn the process of seed starting it's hands repeatable year afterwards twelvemonth.

1 of the showtime questions near people take nearly seed starting is, "Tin can I starting time seeds in forepart of a window?"

Although it sounds great – so simple and easy! – information technology's virtually impossible to grow healthy seedlings at home in front of the window.

The #1 reason it's not a good thought is that seedlings need overhead lite .

And when they don't get it? They beginning to extend themselves towards the sunday that'southward coming through the window, and end up growing really alpine and stretched out (this is chosen "gangling", and it's not skillful).

A tall and skinny seedling is the contrary of what you want. Short, stocky, and strong seedlings are much more than able to withstand the wind, pelting, and other atmospheric condition pressures they'll face once they exit into your garden.

Growing under lights is the best way to ensure your seedlings are healthy and potent when they finally make that trip exterior to your garden beds.

If you're going to spend the fourth dimension and money to grow your own plants at dwelling, I highly recommend doing it right and assembling your ain DIY grow lights. (Keep reading for a fleck and then come up dorsum to watch the video.)

healthy seedlings grown using grow lights

If y'all browse online you'll discover that conventional seed starting lights are quite expensive. Luckily, I accept corking news — y'all don't need one of those fancy calorie-free racks. You can easily gather your own seed starting rack with materials from your local hardware and large box store.

Come along on a tour of the DIY grow lights I've been using for the last 15 years and acquire how to build your own.

If yous'd like, you can scout the video above where I show you the unproblematic list of parts that make up my home grow light stand and then y'all can read the mail below to find links to all of the supplies I talk about in the video.

How to Brand Your Own DIY Grow Lights

light for building your own diy grow light stand

This post contains affiliate links.

The Rack
I highly recommend using metal wire shelving for your grow light stand. They're versatile, and then afterward the seed starting season is over y'all can use them for storage in your basement or garage.

I move mine to the garage and employ it to cure my onions for winter storage after their harvest in the summer.

The shelving units come in different sizes, and so you can choose one with fewer shelves if you have a small garden and only need to start a scattering of seeds. I accept a big garden and grow a lot of seedlings, and so I have a tall unit of measurement with 5 shelves.

Important note!! Make certain y'all cull a rack whose width matches the length of your lights. For instance, most shop lights are 48″ long, so you would need to choose a wire shelving unit that has shelves that are also 48″ long.

Come across the exact shelving unit I accept at home here.

I besides created DIY abound lights Amazon list with all of the supplies I share in this weblog post.

.48″

Easy Seed Starting Rack

.
The Lights
For many years I've been using standard 48″ long shop lights that hold two fluorescent bulbs. Only, recently I've started upgrading to high output fluorescents and LEDs as my old lights terminate working.

The options for grow lights for seed starting are overwhelming, so I researched and wrote an article breaking it all downwards for you! Swoop in here: How to cull the best abound lights for seed starting.

I currently have iii dissimilar types of lights that I'thousand comparing to ane another. Old shop lights, High Output Florescent Lights, and LED shop lights. I haven't invested in LED grow lights nevertheless, and I explain why in the above article.

lights need to build a grow lights

Whatsoever lights you end up choosing, they're easiest to use when they're hung with metal chains and s-hooks so you lot can move them upward and down. This is essential! Y'all'll need to be able to lower the lights when your seedlings are small-scale and continually enhance them as they grow taller.

There are different gauges of chain, and so I suggest ownership the chain from your local hardware store once you lot take the s-hooks. That fashion you can make sure they fit together well. The store should be able to cut whatever length chain you demand.

I gathered all of the supply links for DIY grow lights into an Amazon list here.

use a bike water bottle to water the plants on your grow light stand

The shelving unit of measurement, lights, bulbs, hooks, and bondage are the main building blocks of this easy to build DIY abound light stand. Pretty simple, right?

Once yous get those things in identify, there are a few other supplies you'll need to continue setting up your successful seed starting operation.

Although y'all'll need some extra cash to get started, most of these things are a sometime investment. You can use them over and over again every yr.

Boosted Materials For Your Abound Lights
Timer: Your lights should exist on for 12 hours per day and off at night. The easiest fashion to ensure this happens is to plug everything into a digital timer.

Extension Cords & Power Strips:You lot'll need to plug all of your lights into the power strip and so plug the power strip into the timer so they're all turning off and on at the same time. Depending on your fix you lot may need some extension cords to aid all of the lights reach the power strip.

Watering Device: I like to apply bike water bottles because the stream of water is easier to contain than a watering can. That means less spills on my living room flooring! I discover mine at the local thrift shop.

Bulb Estrus Mat: Optional. The heat mat helps with the germination of rut-loving vegetables like peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes. I've found that I can't successfully get pepper seeds to germinate without an extra bit of rut. (Read more almost that here.)

Near of the supplies you need for your DIY grow lights you can probably find at your local hardware and large box stores. It may assist to go in person and then you lot can visualize how everything will fit together.

If yous prefer to store on Amazon, find all of the supplies here.

supplies needed for a grow light stand

Assembling your own grow light stand up will allow you to abound higher quality seedlings at home, which will salvage you money long term, especially if you take a big garden!

It's also a fun skill to add to your gardening tool chugalug. Information technology might seem complicated, just once yous get the hang of it you tin can use the same procedure over and over once again every winter. Yous'll be a pro in no fourth dimension, believe me!

If you lot think it would be helpful to take a knowledgeable and thoughtful instructor (me!) to guide yous through the process this year, check out my how-to video series, Super Easy Seed Starting Masterclass.

Whether you're new to seed starting and don't know where to start, or you've tried growing your own plants just could use some help refining your process, this seriesvolition help you achieve excellent results this year. Observe out more than hither.

Want to read more about seed starting?