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 35 bucks with free shipping and it will be in your hands by Sunday if you order it today. 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 that entertainment center was a sick 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 year, get on it. You still have a lot of time but it is runnign out pretty fast. If for your spring planting you give yourself 3-5 weeks of starting time most of you should be getting started between about Valentines day and 1-2 weeks after that. Oh guys, there is your heads up, next Friday is Valentines day.
So give the 4 Shelf Indoor Mini Greenhouse even with the cost of lights and a timer compared to buying your plants in box stores, no matter if you go hydro like me or conventional it will easily quickly pay for itself.
Remember you can always find all of our reviews at TspAz.com
P.S. – If you want to see my most current run 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 am still trialing the Biodome but I really like it so far.
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.
