I built this table a few weeks ago. I flood it with a pump in a 100 gallon stock tank to bottom water everything at once and then drain it back into the stock tank. I use RO filtered water with a half strength fertilizer in it. Eleven shoplights that are adjusted very easily. The lights are up for the picture.

The lights are like this when lowered. I used a lot of rope and screw eyes to raise and lower the lights by wrapping each rope around a pair of nails on the wall.

I just put together this shelf yesterday. Not as nice as the big table but I needed more room. It has 6 shop lights over it. The right side is for the bigger hosta that were taking up too much room on the big table. The left side is all of the smallest seedlings.

I have started doing a lot of pinching back to keep things from getting out of hand. I started some things sooner than I should have. I have more flats upstairs on a three tiered Sunlite seedling cart. I am going to have to buy more lights and set up another table before the month is out. I still have about 5 weeks before I can safely start putting things outside.

What I have started:
Lobelia(three colors)
Aster
Castor Bean
Morning Golry (three colors)
Sweet Pea
Verbena
Impatiens (three colors)
Geranium (three colors from seed)+(two colors from cuttings)
Wave Petunia (three colors) around 150 plants
Amaranthus
Celosia (two types)
Tomato (three types)
Eyeball plant
Begonia (two types)
Coleus
Sunflower
Pansy
Zinnia (three types)
Snap Dragon

ZM

but what is the flooding doing to the humidity in the house????

what the heck is an eyeball plant.. i guess i will have to google that one tomorrow ....

ken

I have a dehumidifier down there that I run on occasion. I would have a problem with the humidity if I were doing this during the Summer. The dehumidifier likes to run constantly when it is hot outside even when I don't have a ton of plants or aquariums in the house. I have the dehumidifier, an oscillating fan and an oscillating heater that I use alternately. Heater is on 65 at night and 70 during the day. Lights are on 16 hours a day.

I will be getting into urea free fertilizers for the African Violets.

it seemed a bit over the top for me .. but then.. i suppose the point of your post .. would put you squarely within the definition of over the top ... lol ..

there arent many things i fear ... but electricity and water in the same room is one ... so it would be cost prohibitive for me to hire an electrician ... FOR ME

ken

I installed our electrical service and breaker box myself a few years ago. I just add circuits as I need them so I don't overload any of the existing circuits.

I did learn a valuable lesson over the past few days. I noticed some yellowing leaves on petunia seedlings. Did a little research to try and figure out why. It wasn't any of the usual suspects. It started a few days after flooding the table. The other day, a few days into the problem I dipped some water out of the stock tank to take upstairs to water a few things. I got a whiff of ammonia. First thought was where did the cat pee. I smelled the pitcher. Bingo. I went and checked the stock tank. I kept it covered to keep things out of it. Very strong ammonia smell. The fertilizer in the water broke down.

I dumped about 50 gallons down the drain and started making clean water. I started flushing out all of the seedlings trying to help the situation a little. The wave petunia seedling were the first to show signs of distress so I had been watching things closely. I think I caught the problem in time only losing about a dozen seedlings. Last time I flooded the table. the water didn't have that ammonia smell or I would have caught it. I won't be adding anything to the water in the stock tank. When I want to feed, I'll do it by hand and drain any runoff into a bucket to put it down the drain.

"I didn't see that about adding a ballast. For overdriving tubes?"

That was over in the Has anyone grown Zinnia Park's Cutting Blend ? message thread. Admittedly, an odd place for it to be.

"Very strong ammonia smell. The fertilizer in the water broke down."

Just out of curiosity, what was that fertilizer in the water? Plants can use a little ammonia, but for there to have been a smell, the pH must have been too high. Some farmers use ammonia injection as a method of nitrogen fertilization.

Hi Ken,

"...there aren't many things I fear ... but electricity and water in the same room is one..."

That's not an irrational fear. Plant water, with a little fertilizer in it, is an electrolyte, and a good conductor of electricity. I did buy and read a few books on home electrical wiring from Amazon. It's not rocket science. But there is a lot to it. When I get done refurbishing a fluorescent fixture, it is better and safer than new. I always make sure that everything has a very good ground connection to the household ground wire in a three-wire plug. I would never use a two-wire connection. Incidentally, the common practice of attaching the ground connection to a metal plumbing pipe is very bad, and any credible electrical inspector would fail any such setup.

But I understand your hesitancy to re-wire a fluorescent fixture. I did a fair amount of reading before I converted my first fluorescent fixture. I hope that I never fall into the error of letting "familiarity breed contempt".

ZM

thank God for high electric prices... it saved my life ...

ken

"The fertilizer is a 24-8-18 Miracle Grow granular made with Ammonia Sulphate. The smell of ammonia was pretty strong."

I would recommend urea-free soluble formulas like Better-Gro Orchid Plus and Better-Gro Bloom Booster. Both products include the trace elements magnesium, boron, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, and zinc in addition to the labeled amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

The directions for the Orchid Plus for orchids are to feed at every watering with one teaspoon per gallon or every 14 to 21 days using one tablespoon per gallon. To promote flowering of orchids, the directions are to alternate with the Bloom Booster for every fourth application.

I modify those recommendations somewhat for my zinnias and other plants. I don't grow orchids, but I do use those products as high quality urea-free soluble nutrients that can be used for any plants. I have been avoiding paying shipping by purchasing some at a local Lowe's Home Store in their garden department. I am in Lowe's from time to time anyway, so I haven't had to make a special trip to get the stuff. A little of it goes a long way, so it has been over two years since I bought any.

For prolonged use, I usually dilute it weaker than the recommended amounts, but I include it in every watering. Sometimes I include both products in small amounts in the same watering.

I also supplement the Better-Gro products with a little magnesium sulfate (Epsom Salts) and a very small amount of additional boric acid, because zinnias and tomatoes seem to prefer that. I also have a custom formula of additional trace elements that I use "traces" of, and, of course, I feed some calcium in the form of calcium nitrate.

As I mentioned above, almost all hydroponics growers use some calcium nitrate. Plants use a fair amount of calcium and it is a macro-nutrient rather than a micro-nutrient. If you don't use calcium nitrate (or calcium chelate as an alternative) and there isn't quite a lot of calcium in your water supply, you can expect to see calcium deficiency symptoms in your plants.

I think possibly the granular Miracle-Gro product was not meant to be used as a liquid feed, but instead was formulated for sprinkling on outdoor soil as a top dressing. I could be wrong about that.

ZM
(not associated with any product or vendor mentioned or linked)

Martha