In order to have fresh vegetables from your own garden in summer, and to admire the colorful flower garden, it will be necessary to grow quality healthy seedlings. This will require good lighting, nutrient soil, timely watering and picking. But if the numerous boxes are located chaotically, then it will be very difficult to maintain them and work with the planting material will not bring the proper pleasure.
To prevent this from happening, you should place the boxes on a seedling rack, which will allow you to grow a fairly large number of plants on a fairly small area, which is very important for small apartments. In depth the shelves are made as much as 70 cm, and along the length they are not limited. The distance between the shelves is recommended around 60 cm, so that the rack can be from the floor to the ceiling itself.
With or without light?
Shelving for seedlings can be purchased both with and without lighting , although even if they are placed on a sunny spot, it will still be necessary to lighten the plants for better photosynthesis in the spring-winter period.
Advantages of lighting are invaluable - with it the ubiquitous black leg will not start, the seedlings will not be pulled out and by the time of planting in the open ground the plants will be strong and viable and will perfectly transfer the stress from the transplant.
A shelf for seedlings can be purchased already ready with a backlight, and you can do it yourself using the right lamp. It is necessary to choose the highlight of the blue-red spectrum, which gives full illumination for the plantations, because it corresponds to natural sunlight.
Another undeniable advantage of the seedlit shelving with backlighting is its advantageous placement in any corner of the room. After all, including the phytolamp since the morning and turning it off in the evening, the plants will be completely provided with necessary even without light from the window.
But if the rack does not have built-in lighting, then it can be placed only in a well-lit place, which is often either too little or not at all convenient for placing additional furniture in the form of a shelving unit. Therefore, if you choose in favor of light on the shelf or its absence, the first option will be more relevant, despite the significant difference in price, which in the end will pay off with a plentiful harvest.
Shelving for window
Many gardeners, nevertheless, despite the advantages of using phytolamps prefer to install small shelves on the windowsill. Such a method has its advantages in the form of saving electricity, when during the whole daylight day there is no need for additional lightening. And only in cloudy weather and in the winter with a short light day seedlings will be little light.
To prevent this, you can install LED strips that have blue and red light, and together give a lilac glow. For their installation does not require special knowledge, and they are worth a penny. For economical owners, it will be important that LEDs consume so little electricity that it will not affect the family budget in any way, especially if it is switched on only in the evening and in bad weather.
From what to make a rack?
If you plan to build a shelving for sprouts yourself, then for this you can use different materials:
- wood and fiberboard;
- plastic pipes;
- metal (black or aluminum);
- glass.
The most simple and inexpensive are the wooden racks for seedlings, which even an inexperienced joiner can build. As shelves are excellent serve as sheets of fiberboard, and for racks you need a strong bar. But you should know that moisture, falling on such a structure, eventually lead to its uselessness and the lifespan of such a rack - a maximum of 5 years.
The aluminum staves are quite fragile, and the metal quickly rusts and has a cumbersome appearance. Plastic is quite another matter - it is lightweight, does not undergo corrosion and such a rack is simply mounted. As shelves here fit a strong glass or the same sheet of fiberboard.