Grow-light Stand

Origins

We’ve had these grow-light stands for a couple years now. They let us get a jump on the greenhouse growing season by a couple of months by starting the seedlings indoors. In the middle of the season, before the batch in the greenhouse is totally spent, I can get a new bunch to the ready.

They are meant to be put on a table, but they take up a lot of room that way. Last year I tried to get clever and I stacked them on top of each other, which was a great space-saver. And it worked great… until it didn’t. The structure collapsed and left a muddy mess all over the basement floor, and took me over three hours to clean up.

Under Construction

A Blank Canvas

Open Spaces

So rather than tempt fate and risk it happening again, this year I decided to do it properly and create a suitable stand, and bolt it to the wall so it would not go anywhere.

Just Needs Seeds

Sturdy Stacks

The wood is just your standard 1″x3″, which isn’t very thick but more than enough to support this weight.

It better be.

It’s also bolted to the studs in the back, cause I am super paranoid now. It was quite the mess.

Each of the four outer support posts had to be individually cut and fit to length. I think I mentioned the horrible unevenness of basement floors in a previous post. Yes…yes I did. Theatre Kitchen

In Production

All seeded and seated. The grow light stays on for about 16 hours a day, giving them a good head start. It uses low power LEDs, so power consumptions isn’t too bad.

Dwarf Curled Scotch Kale on the bottom, and Grand Rapids Lettuce on the top. Look, I don’t make the names.

Grow now

Materials

• 1″x3″ strapping Plywood from Home Depot
• Pocket holes and screws from Kreg
• Grow lights from Lee Valley