How do I Build a Hi-Tech Grow Room?

A century ago, most gardeners had only cold frames and hotbeds to help them raise seedlings. Nowadays, modern technology enables home gardeners to raise seedlings more successfully and with greater convenience. In fact, if you convert some of your unused space into a hi-tech grow room, an entire garden's worth of seedlings can be grown in the comfort of your home. The many benefits of home-grown seedlings are well worth the effort.

• 1

  Set up a table (or some other sort of platform) to grow your seedlings on. You will use space in the grow room more efficiently if you move the table up against a wall.

• 2

  Suspend your fluorescent light fixtures above the table in a way that allows you to easily adjust their height. The size and configuration of your grow room and the materials you have available will determine the best arrangement. One simple method is to attach angle brackets to the wall and hang the fixtures from chains that slip over a horizontal bolt in the angle bracket; the height is adjusted according to which link is slipped over the bolt.

• 3

  Position the lights so they can be as low as a few inches above the surface of the table. Most indoor plants grow best with intense light, so the fluorescent tubes should be within one or two inches of the leaves. Since the height of the fixtures is adjustable, you can gradually raise the lights as the plants grow to maintain high light intensity.

• 4

  Cover the surface of the table with thermostatically controlled seedling heat mats. These allow you to maintain the ideal temperature when germinating seeds. Also, you can continue to use the hat mats to increase the growing temperature of heat-loving plants.

• 5

  Place small fans all along one edge of your table. Arrange the fans so that the moving air will circulate freely across your plants. This slowly moving air will strengthen the stems of your seedlings and minimize fungal problems.

• 6

  Install a small vent (or window that is able to open) in your grow room, but put it as far as possible from the seedling table. A small fan placed near the vent will provide fresh air for your grow room, which is important to minimize mold and fungal problems. However, if the window or vent is too close to the seedlings, it might disturb the controlled temperature environment that you are attempting to provide, or it might allow sunlight to disrupt your artificial cycle of light and dark.

• 7

  Use a lamp timer to automatically turn your fluorescent lights on and off. This allows you to fine tune the length of light that your plants are receiving and to provide consistent "sunrise" and "sunset" times.