The set up. In our basement I’m using an old etagere as my seed-starting station. It was my parents from the 70’s. Told you it was old! It has glass shelves and is really sturdy so it works quite well for this purpose. It has 4 shelves and each shelf holds two trays. I use shop lights with one cool bulb & one warm bulb. Nothing special or fancy, just 2 light fixtures above each shelf. Everything is plugged into a timer which stays on 16-18 hours a day. I’ve never used or needed a seed warming mat. My method is to cover the tray with the clear plastic dome when I first plant the seeds, then placing them 1 or 2” below the lights. As soon as the seeds emerge, I take the clear plastic dome off… but always keep the plants pretty close to the lights. As the plants grow and get taller, I just remove one of the wood pieces underneath the tray to keep them from touching the bulbs. I’ve seen professional set ups that have the light fixture on a pulley system. I’m sure either works fine, I just grabbed what I had handy and it seems to work just fine. I am so not a professional or a properly trained grower of plants, but through my trial and error I’ve found a system that works for me. I’m on my third year of starting everything from seed. Yay!
