Specialty Gardening: Join Us! Seed Swap Seed Starting & Conversation #8, 1 by Meredith79

Meredith79 wrote:
Okay now I have time to tell about this rack. The way I have the lights hung was kind of a design flaw. There are 3 pieces of wood across which could be used to screw the hooks for the lights into, however if they are on the outside 2 there is no light in the middle, so as you can see in the picture I laid two pieces of wood across and put the lights in those so they could be centered. On the side with the 36" lights it works out fine because 4 flats fit nicely in between the pieces of wood. Now on the other side where the 24" lights are, I had to put some plywood over the wood to be able to fit the 2 flats. (I hope this is making sense) I kinda used a plan I found on the web as a guide and it used 3 so this is why I did not think of this prior to building it. Ideally there should be 3 lights rather than 2 because I notice the seedlings further away stretch toward the lights. However I already have a hard time running all the lights as it is. (without blowing a fuse) but if I had 3 it would work out perfectly! Oh and make sure you use hooks with a wide enough opening to hang the chain size you use, so you can adjust easily. I had to pry the hooks open more than how they came. And choose a good size chain, the bigger the loops are the easier it is to adjust them without accidentally hitting the tops of your seedlings. The measurements are 7' wide, 2' deep & 6' 2" tall. I put wheels on the bottom so I could roll it outside to harden off - but this was not a practical idea - this thing is a monster and what are the chances everything will need hardening off at once! Plus all the lights and wires! OMG what was I thinking there! But the wheels do come in handy for pulling the rack out to get to the plug behind it and to move it if needs be. Okay I want to add that the shelves are spaced 22" apart. Which is enough room for the seedlings to get tall and still fit. This was one thing I did plan out well. Another design flaw is the flats do not fit between the ends if there were even just a 1/2" more depth -*they would- so keep this in mind when planning your size out.
Okay enough already! right! - I just wanted to share my mistakes so anyone thinking about doing this can use them to make there's even better! I put a picture so you can see more detail on the construction – I am really bad at explaining stuff like this so I do apologize if I am too confusing for you to follow! :) It just took me about a half hour to type this up!
*added


This message was edited Mar 26, 2008 10:07 AM