Well, I have made my first step in putting together a do-it-yourself plant stand. Found a 4 shelf metal unit at Home Depot, and it's not all that unattractive! It's 54" high and the shelves are 14" deep by 36" long. I can hang shoplights underneath 3 of the shelves, the lights with any needed hardware to make them adjustable may cost me another $50, bringing the whole thing to about $100 + or - !!! Better than the $700 for the one I saw online that I liked. Right now most of my violets are under flourescents that I have hanging below my kitchen cabinets, since all of my window space is taken up by the hoyas.
I would love to see the set ups of all of you who grow under lights!
Plant Stand
I have the IGS shelves. They are expensive, but I wanted it all together in the mail and I just love them, SO MUCH. DEEP and wide. They are very large. I have large plants and they look small. I love the trays, lights, the fact that they can roll if needed. I like the way they look too. I wish there were some made of dark cherry wood, but I didn't want to have that built. I think built in's would be gorgeous. I did want to take them if I move though.
I have my plants off of the reserviors now the pic. shows when I wick watered. Here they are.
This message was edited Jun 17, 2009 1:37 PM
This message was edited Jun 17, 2009 1:38 PM
That does look nice Sally. You can tell the shelves are deep. I was thinking, I am going to have to put something down on my shelves, because they are mesh and anything leaking from them will land on the top of the light fixture below. Not good.
What kind of lights are you using, and what type of bulbs?
I thought of asking my brother to build the whole thing from scratch using wood, which he is certainly capable of, but he's so busy, the little spare time he has I would rather see him spend with my nieces. Maybe somewhere down the road, when I can afford a big ol pile of cherry lumber....for now, the metal will have to do. I think the wheels are a great idea too, but since I will probably put my shelves in one spot and leave them there, the wheels can be a future luxury as well.
The way i see it, ANYTHING looks better than my current setup!
I'm thinking of making a set of shelves out of pvc pipe. I saw an article in an AVSA magazine from 2004 (I think) that showed the step-by-step process of building the frame. The way it is built, I think the 22x12 permanest trays would rest on the pvc pipe just right . . . I priced the pvc pipe at lowe's and h.d., and the pvc would come to just under $25.00 . . . a bit more if you added wheels and/or the pvc glue stuff.
I saw something about building out of PVC too. It probably would be the cheapest. I was just wondering how easy it would be to install lighting on something like that.
I may just start with the bottom shelf or two . . . I've got a spare 4' shop light, and a few of the 24" ones . . . practice, you know?
jmp, the lights come with it and I can't remember the exact kind. Yes, the trays are SUPER nice. There is one LONG and wide one on each shelf. When I was trying to find the right ones at IGS, the lady was helpful. She said more plants fit on the really big one, instead of two smaller ones on each shelf. I am glad I talked to her.
This is in our home office so I wanted them to look good. I have some cute Baker's shelves in the sunroom too. I added small lights. HOT out there so no av's there right now. All epescia plants and orchids, Hoya, etc.
One of my favorite stands is just a used one from Deanna (club) made out of pvc pipe..........my others are either from Lowe's or The Container Store..........I hung all the light fixtures with s hooks and lightweight chain so they can be moved up and down depending on what I am growing. I don't know where you would find light fixtures for a 3 foot long stand. My understanding is that 4ft. shop light fixtures are the standard.......The depth of the shelves is a standard 19".........on all my stands............with only one fixture to each shelf unless I am growing sinningias and then I use 2 fixtures for the big sinningias.
I order my full spectrum lights from IGS on line...............but you can get the gro lux from Walmart and I think they are just as good.............4 ft fixtures, too........but then I think they fall down to 2ft sizes............
I can't find any old pictures of my gro light stands............sorry..............
My main plant stand right now came from Target,was on sale for $50,and is 48 X 20 on 5 shelves.It is the metal with open spaces,but I like that,because the light from each shelf pours down to the lower ones anyplace that is not totally covered.I think it is 54 inches high,but all I put on top are tall plants with a ceiling fixture above them.My fixtures,at the current time,are just the cheap 48 inch with the 99 cent bulbs.Everything seems to grow and bloom fine.I still have my 25 year old stands,a wood one with 18 inch grow lites on the bottom and 24 inch in the middle and just window light on the top,and homemade ones in the basement,about 7 foot long and quite wide.I use the basement ones for everything I drag in for the winter,but I may have to start moving Streps. or Sinns. down there LOL. Even though I don't heat it in the winter,Sinns. and many other Gessies never seemed to mind as long as I kept them on the dry side.
I really didn't mean to write a book ^_^,
Lynn
Gail, you may be right about shop lights being 4 feet - I hadn't thought of that. Rats. Maybe I will have to check Target, see if they still sell the one Lynn has. I like the open metal shelves, that is what the HD one has.
So cool to see and hear what everyone has!
All my shelves are open so the light comes through on down to the bottom like Lynn says hers do...............I always propagate strep leaves on the bottom shelves.........it is cooler and lots of light ..............close to the stuck leaves............
(we have to worry about the house being too hot here in the summer.........I really have to keep the thermostat down.............to keep the house at 72 or 70 degrees)
I bought a 5 shelf plant stand in Target last winter, on sale for $50. It is 36" wide and 18" deep. I have four shop lights on the shelves, one on each shelf. I found the 24" ones in Walmart for less than $10. each. Every week, I just shift the shelves around so the plants all get an even amount of light. The plants are all going great on the shelves.
The trays are so easy to clean. I use my little vacuum on it every few days. Easy to wipe up and vacuum.
Sally, your stands are awesome but the rest of us can't spend money like that...................or I will just speak for myself that I would rather have 100 new streps before I ever spent that on a stand.
That is fine, I just know he wanted to see all of our stands. You can have trays on other stands can't you?
Your stands are beautiful Sally. I always enjoy see them! It's what I would like to have someday For now, my mickey mouse plant stands will have to do.
Sally, I see you have your plants set on top of lidded tupperware...at first I thought you were trying to get them closer to the light, but now I am thinking that is your wicking system? Alot of my plants came with wicks, but I am still watering by hand.
I was thinking about what you said above about built-ins....now THERES an idea!! It probably wouldn't even be all that hard to do. Eventually when I get out of school and start working and making the big bucks, I will probably do a little of everything, with a greenhouse being the main thing. I like to live with my plants, not just have them tucked away somewhere where I can't enjoy them, so the built ins are a great idea.
Off topic, but while I was in Home Depot yesterday I could not believe all the plants they were throwing away. Three shopping carts full of beautiful healthy orchids, they had just finished blooming, thats all that was wrong with them. The lady doing the tossing said that they did not offer them for sale, but that she would call the manager and see if they would discount them 50%. I was thinkiing, well since you are just going to toss them in the dumpster, I will just take them off your hands for a few dollars...not $10!! But she acted like I was bothering her. I just think it is sad and wasteful.
Gail, I know you have alot of plants, and do alot of propagating - how many stands do you have?
I would love to have Sally's stands but that is out of the question for me. I have 7 big gro light stands plus the ones in the kitchen . The ones in the kitchen were made by a carpenter who put the gro lights directly under each wooden shelf so that i could have heat on the shelf for propagating certain plants that require bottom heat........I often start cuttings in the kitchen until they are rooted...........but never streps........they seem to even like it cool for getting rooted.......
I spent exactly 200.00 a stand............the stands were 100.00 each and the fixtures and bulbs came to another 100.00..................I just added a stand as I grew more..............
Those stores that don't offer 50% off I don't understand..............no one benefits from throwing them in the trash can.............
I used to wick with the little tupperware. I don't anymore. I may wick a few again in the future, but I didn't like it much.
The lights are adjustible, I do not need to raise the plants up or down. You just lower the lights if you like. That was one of the reasons I ordered these shelves. There are two on each level so it is bright, it needn't be very low.
Here is a picture I just took. There is a lot of room, the plants do not have to touch. I like a lot of air flow and the way you can easily see each one. You can't tell how many are on the top two shelves. Lots of mini's and young standards.
This message was edited Jun 18, 2009 10:01 AM
