As promised in an earlier post, today I will share with you my new LED grow light setup for seed starting and seedlings! This is new to me this year, so I am unable to promise if it is “the best.” I can promise that so far it is working better than when I had seedling trays in literally every window of my house!
This past Christmas, I received grow lights from my parents and I hung them onto a metal shelving unit that we had sitting in the basement. It was the perfect size to fit the lights (although there is a little overhang, which I personally don’t mind… so almost perfect size)! It is amazing how much less space it takes when things can be stored vertically!
The lights that I am using here are from Smart Electrician and are the 44 inch LED grow lights. They came with chains to hang the lights, so it worked out well to use the metal shelving. This will also make it really easy to adjust the height of the light once the seedlings get a little bigger. I try to keep my lights 6-10 inches above the seedlings and adjust if needed. I use the seedling trays so water isn’t falling through since it is in the house.
Most seedlings need 12-16 hours of sunlight per day. I turn them on when I first wake up, then turn them off before I go to bed. They are linkable/connectable and I have them plugged into a power strip, so for me it’s as easy as flipping a switch! They also each have a pull string so could easily be turned on and off that way too!
So far, I have been very pleased with how well they have been working. With the direction our house faces, big trees in the yard, and not a lot of extra window space (I have many houseplants too… haha!) these have eliminated the stress of ensuring my plants get enough sunlight. As you can see here, the direction the plants are growing is also great! They are growing up! Last year my plants grew toward the window since that is where their source of light was.
I will give you a complete calendar of when I planted what, but so far I have tomatoes, peppers, Petunias, Canterbury Bells, Snapdragons, Marigolds, Impatiens, Zinnias, and daisies all in the dirt under the LED grow lights. I have more to start indoors, just waiting a little bit longer based on the “start indoors before last frost” time frames that are listed on the back of the seed packets.
I will keep you posted on how these plants do, but so far I couldn’t be happier with this setup! We have them in the laundry/guest room and they take up very little space. Not much space and happy plants make for a happy gardener!
Life on Lady Slipper Lane 
10 responses to “LED Grow Light Setup for Seed Starting”
[…] In the past, I always purchased my annual flowers (must be planted every year) at the greenhouse. Last year was actually my first time attempting to start them from seeds at home. The greenhouses do a wonderful job, but if you are like me and love to have TONS of flowers in your yard, it can get very expensive very quickly. Ultimately, that is why I decided to try growing them from seeds. It is significantly less expensive but does require some time. The key is making sure to give the seedlings water and light. You can check out my seed-starting setup for this year here! […]
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[…] this year in the town garden. I grew all of these from seed, which you can read more about in my LED Grow Light post and Seed Starting post. We love to use the Beefsteak tomatoes for burgers, BLTs, and other […]
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[…] So, this is not an herb! I don’t have any intention of eating the marigolds, but they are known for keeping the squirrels and other animals out. Due to the delicious aromas associated with herbs, I decided to try planting a couple with the herbs. So far, we haven’t had any issues with animals other than Cara HAHA! The marigolds were planted from seed and started indoors with my grow lights! […]
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[…] many of my seeds are started indoors months before they are ever transplanted outside. I have an LED grow light setup that I use to start seeds indoors. I am planning on expanding that this spring to accommodate the […]
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[…] know that I link to this post often, but my LED grow light setup has really made starting plants from seeds indoors very easy! If you have many windows with space […]
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[…] record keeping for our cut flower production this year. I am growing everything from seed using my grow light setup which has worked wonderfully for me for many years. My dad is actually the one who suggested […]
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[…] well the plant performs or anything beyond transplanting data. I start many seeds indoors using my LED grow light setup and wanted to find a way to keep track of this information in a quick and fairly organized […]
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[…] many of my seeds are started indoors months before they are ever transplanted outside. I have an LED grow light setup that I use to start seeds indoors. I am planning on expanding that this spring to accommodate the […]
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[…] In the past, I always purchased my annual flowers (must be planted every year) at the greenhouse. Last year was actually my first time attempting to start them from seeds at home. The greenhouses do a wonderful job, but if you are like me and love to have TONS of flowers in your yard, it can get very expensive very quickly. Ultimately, that is why I decided to try growing them from seeds. It is significantly less expensive but does require some time. The key is making sure to give the seedlings water and light. You can check out my seed-starting setup for this year here! […]
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[…] light to avoid them becoming “leggy” (long, thin, weak stems). I started out with this LED Grow Light Setup, and continue to use it now! When I expanded my growing area, I purchased 5000 lumen LED shop […]
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