Germination chamber
In previous years I had florescent plant lights in an upstairs bedroom. The mess from carrying them up and downstairs was more than we liked. Last year I moved the plant lights to the basement. We had left over tubing from the infloor heat, and the boiler and controls are there, so we ran warm water under the tables for heat. It wasn’t enough heat. Most seeds like the soil around 70-80 to germinate quickly, and the seedlings roots grow faster at those temperatures than colder.
This year I started a few plants in the bedroom while Tony ran an electric outlet into the (now turned off) walkin cooler. Then we moved all the plant lights out there. My plan was that the insulation of the walkin cooler would keep in the heat from those lights. It works almost too well. I have to keep the door open to let heat out. I have two soil thermometers and they both have been reading about 85. It is actually so warm that the plants may get leggy. And lettuce does not like that heat at all – it tends to not even germinate when it is that warm.
I have one nice 3-tier stand with florescent lights. The other stand has been old closet doors stacked on the blue plastic totes that I store veggies in in the summer. I set those doors up and then turned around and looked at the nice metal shelf unit that I use to store eggs and veggies when the cooler is on. It is 4 feet long, the same as the florescent fixtures that I hang under the doors. It has heavy metal wire shelves, perfect for hanging the lights from. So, there are 3 sets of lights on that shelf unit. I took the doors and put 2 of them side-be-side to make a large table. The fancy 400 watt plant light I bought last year (don’t waste your money) is over that.
So far this is turning into an excellent germination chamber. The next step is a mini-greenhouse inside the hoophouse. I hoped to hold off on that until mid-April to minimize heat costs, but may need to move stuff out so0ner.
