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  • From: Richard Robinson <rrobinson AT nasw.org>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Basement seed room
  • Date: Sun, 13 Dec 2009 21:55:51 -0500

yes--I meant a room for sprouting seeds and growing young seedlings. Thanks
for the good advice.

--
Richard Robinson
http://www.nasw.org/users/rrobinson/


On Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:18:39 -0500, Road's End Farm wrote:
>
> On Dec 13, 2009, at 4:48 PM, Richard Robinson wrote:
>
>> I am busy getting ready to install a seed room in my unheated basement, and
>> wonder if any of you have any general or specific words of advice. I am
>> thinking of 6'x12', with two 12'-long sets of shelves on either side of a
>> center aisle. I will enclose it with rigid insulation, and include a vent
>> to the outside for excess humidity. Light will be from 4' fluorescent
>> fixtures fixed in place over the shelves;  I plan to raise and lower the
>> seedlings, rather than the lights (though would be interested in easy ways
>> to move the lights instead). I will include a plug-in electric heater (one
>> of those oil-heating units) to keep the temperature up.
>>
>>
> Do you mean a seed room, as in a room for the storage of seeds, or a
> transplant starting room, for growing transplants from seed in? The phrasing
> of the name sounds like the first, but the rest of your description sounds
> like the second. Requirements are going to be a lot different.
>
> If you mean for growing transplants, I would hang the flourescents from
> chains, and raise and lower those instead of the plants; it's much easier,
>as
> the lights will weigh much less than the plant trays. All you need to do is
> put in open hooks to attach the chains to, and just move the chain so a
> different link is hooked over the chain to raise or lower the lights. Most
> lights I've seen come with an attachment point at each end for chains; any
> hardware store should have chains of various sizes. -- This also allows you
> to raise one end of the light more than the other, if some of your plants
>are
> taller than others. If you tried that with shelves, things would slide on
> them.
>
> I would also recommend some heat mats to provide bottom heat for germination
> of heat-loving seed. You don't want to have to heat the whole space into the
> 90's F to get your hot peppers to come up, when plants of other species, and
> even the peppers themselves once they're up, don't need nearly as much heat
> and will do better without it.
>
> A fan might also be needed, to improve ventilation, possibly angled to allow
> you to get some air movement across the plants so stems will grow sturdier.
>
> -- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
> Fresh-market organic produce, small scale






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