Grow shelf for less than 100$

4 Tier Resin Shelf, about 2ft wide and about 1ft wide 20$
Some panda paper 10$
T8 florescent light fixture, 18in to 24in 25$
Some strips of velcro 3$
Small roll of duck tape 4$
A couple of extra screws 2$
Light timer with at least 2 outlets, or get a power strip too 15$
One of those seedling heat mats 20$
Jiffy tray
Seeds or cuttings

Luckily the resin shelving units snap together, at least they all have in my experience. One you get it up and standing then you can hang the light from the underside of the top shelf, coiling the power cord and putting it on the shelf to keep it out of the way while you wrap the shelving unit in the panda paper. You won't need nearly as much as you got at the store most likely since they sell the stuff in 50ft and 100 ft chunks, but it's good to have extra. Try to make the inside of the shelving until as light sealed as possible with the duck tape while still leaving a flap of panda paper open as a make-shift door to the inside of the grow shelf. Poke a hole in the side of the unit for the light fixture cord to escape, sealing it up with the duck tape once the cord is pulled through; repeat if you have a heat mat you're putting in there so the cord for this toy can escape too.
Now on the right side of the opening left my the panda paper flap we left loose, peel the wax paper off the sticky side of the velcro strips and stick to the shelf- fuzzy side of the shelf itself, teeth side on the flap edge, forming a sort of door that can be sealed up to control light and humidity levels. Plug in your heating mat if you have it, set your timer to 18/6 and make sure only the light is plugged into the timer, not the mat too- can't have the heat going off at night.
The top shelf will fit a jiffy tray with a taller dome nice and snug, with just a little wiggle room between the top and the bulb of the light. Can put your babies in right away and just watch them grow.

Works great- I have one just like this housing my seedings light now and they're growing fast.


All of the supplies can be found at your local hardware store, or the nearest big box hardware store, and the local grow store. Total spent 99$

id love for you to fill out this thread with pictures. your plan sounds good!


Blessings,

JP

Ya if you do this post some pics would be nice to take a peek at

I would like to know where everyone is getting panda film so cheap. Never have seen it for $10.00

I just checked ebay and home depot.
Ebay 10' X '25 ft $28.44
Home Depot 10' x 25' ft $37.97

Those are the small sizes too, once you start trimming those it would take a few rolls to even make a small tent.

Is there a generic alternative?

I'll got take a few pictures really quick and put them up in just a sec.
And I got my panda paper just from the grow store right by my work- they have a gigantic roll there in the store and they just sell chunks of it for 10$ or 25$ but I've never gone into Home Depot or any other store than a grow store for panda paper. I thought all places did that ^_^;

Ok, here's a few pictures of different angles, with the door open or closed, a close up that shows the velcro strips and another close up that shows the light screwed to the underside of the top shelf and a few full views.


I don't have anything growing on the second shelf, nor do I have it set up for seedlings yet, but I will soon enough. Don't want to get too big for my panties over here.