The big-box stores offer tomato plants that are ready to set out in your garden, but you’ll pay $3 to $5 for each plant compared to $3 for one seed packet. In my book, this makes it worth a one-time investment this year to save money in all the coming years. Simple math.
Instead of raising spindly, rather useless tomato plants that reach toward a warm, sunny window, which it turns out doesn’t actually exist at my house, I installed a shop light, and am I ever glad I did! Yes, the shop light is a monstrosity hanging over one end of my kitchen table. But with such a simple set-up and fantastic outcome, I wish I had done it many seasons ago!
My shop light is 4 feet long and 1 foot wide. This is the perfect fit to hang over a domed seeding tray, mine being 2 feet long and 1 foot wide. Be sure to get a four-tube light. If you get a two-tuber, your plants will always be straining toward the middle, resulting in sad, pale, overly leggy little things. Instead, I suggest you get a shop light that can hang from a chain (as opposed to having to be hard-wired into the ceiling). The reason I got a 4-foot-long shop light for my 2-foot tray is so that when my seedlings are ready to be transferred to larger containers, I will have 4 feet of space for these larger cups.
I think I paid $50 for the light fixture, then I bought four T8 plant lights, which were about $10 each. I’m pretty sure you can use regular fluorescents, but true to my nature, I took it over the top.
It was easy (for my husband) to install the shop light using a strong hook into ceiling studs. He used 6 feet of chain that had links measuring about 1 inch each. The right kind of chain is important because as your seedlings grow, you’ll probably have to raise the light every day.
Together with seed tray and heating mat (see earlier blog entry), having a shop light is a great system that allows me to bypass commercial seedlings. For sure, I had to put time and money into this system, but let me tell you, it’s well worth the investment. Consider me a confirmed seed starter.
