Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the 4 Shelf Indoor Mini Greenhouse.  I just love this little shelf system for starting seeds.  I have been using it for my Kratky Seed Starting System but it would be awesome for any indoor seed starting. Hydro, soil, etc it doesn’t matter.  Of course it pairs perfectly with the Barrina Lights I have been recommending.

Here is what I love about this thing.  First it is a little bigger than some of the competing similar shelves.  The actual shelf dimensions are about 27 inches by 19 deep.  There are a few companies selling this one, they are all I am sure made in the same Chinese Chop Shop.

This is the current one selling for the lowest price, at 29 bucks with free shipping and it will be in your hands within about a week despite some delivery estimates being longer.  With one of these and some Barrina or other quality lights you can start as many plants as most home gardeners could ever want to grow.

One thing I will point out and this is good or bad depending on what you are starting is that if you close up the greenhouse covering with a full set of lights on all shelves it gets pretty damn hot in there.  What I have been doing is closing it up when I first plant and then running it wide open once that happens.

Personally I have been running 3 lights to a shelf, I did run 2 to a shelf for a while it worked and seedlings were not leggy so it was enough but 3 just works a lot better.  Your choice, the good news is  you can fill it with 2 six-packs of lights that way if you want all four shelves full.  And you can daisy chain all of them on one timer.

On timers I am using my old favorite on my system.  Running my lights on a 18-6 cycle.  As starting plants is all about vegetative growth this cycle makes a lot of sense.  Think of it this way, vs. running a 12-12 cycle you gain a lot over say 4 weeks.

• 28 x 12 = 336 Hours of light the equivalency of say 33 ten hour days.
• 28 x 18 = 504 Hours of light the equivalency of say 50 ten hour days (almost 20 more “days” in the same period of time)

Last let me say when you get this in the mail and take it all out of the package, you are gonna be like, wow that is a lot of fricken parts.  Fear not, you don’t even need a screw driver to put it together it is easy as the Tinker Toys you played with as a child, you just push it all together.  I tend to measure assembly jobs in beers and F-bombs.  As in assembling that entertainment center took a six pack and 4 curse words.  This rack is half a beer and perhaps a “where the hell” at most.

So if you have been thinking of starting your own seeds this is a great tool for that.  I know spring is long gone at this point but depending one where you live you are about 4-8 weeks out from prime fall planting right now.   I don’t care if you do hydro or simply soil starting watering from the bottom up, this thing pays for itself fast considering the cost of buying plants.  And while keeping seedlings warm is important in the early spring right now keeping them out of the blistering hear is just as important.

So give the 4 Shelf Indoor Mini Greenhouse because like I said it will quickly pay for itself.

Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com

P.S. – If you want to see one of my past runs of plants see this Facebook Post, even if you don’t use Facebook it is set to public so you can see it.  Most of those plants are only 20-24 days from seed.

Also you will notice a Parks Biodome 120 in the pictures.  These fit fine at 1 per shelf but  you have to slide them out to work on them to remove the dome.  I liked the bio dome but found it largely redundant to my system.

Additionally if you are going to do conventional dirt starts, each shelf with hold 2 1020 trays, with about 2 inches of over hang front and back.  The plastic will still close but it is a bit tight that way.  But you can do 6 packs, 9 packs etc, just fine in standard trays.

Last these greenhouses are sold by tons of sellers, they go in and out of stock and up and down in price.  The one linked here at the time I am publishing this (11-18-20) is the best deal at 38.99 with free shipping.  Some are up to 50 bucks.  If this one goes out of stock just look under 4-Tier Mini Greenhouse on Amazon and as long as it looks like the one in the photo it is the same thing.  Honestly this one is pretty hard to screw up.  The only thing to really look at is the height, some of the cheaper options are a little shorter and that reduces your clearance and I really advise you to stick with one that is 63 inches tall.  Again other than that they are all pretty much the same.