After attending the Mother Earth News Fair, I was inspired by Jack Spirko’s indoor grow tower and built a tower of my own. Overtime my grow light stations have evolved – which I’ve highlighted in this blog further below. I also wanted to highlight a few window shelf solar grows, including a unique Chia Pet!
Using a barren shelf unit in the living room, I attached my grow lights to shine on each level. I started using them to get my houseplants growing better and rooting deeper. Then I moved my plants to the window shelves and swapped in seed in biodegradable cups sitting in muffin trays. I didn’t see a whole lot of success except with my green beans and a couple of wildflower seed cups.
After some of the seedling cups failed, I swapped them for houseplant and succulent cuttings. I did have one successful gourd seedling sprout out of the eight cups I planted!
I found this plugin grow light and wicking basin as one of my Goodwill finds! I put a potting soil hybrid mix in each cup and cuttings from my outdoor tomato plants. They were thriving for a while until they got an infection and contaminated each other.
After I started renting out the garage, I moved my grow station into a few configurations. I started off with grow racks for my house plants on a shelving unit. Once it got colder, I moved the plants into the garage and used stacked 5-gallon buckets for an elevated light tower. My girlfriend also got me white light bars that I attached to a small rolling cart I found at Goodwill.
Natural Sun Grow Light
Just wanted to highlight a few “micro-plants” that I grew with straight natural solar light! The first setup was for microgreens, one of my fastest sprouting plants I’ve ever grown! I added them to a salad and they had a spicy kick to them. Wasn’t a fan of the taste but still proud I grew them!
Another Goodwill find! (Couldn’t believe this was still on the shelf.) I picked up the Flo Chia Pet with seeds and water tray included! These seeds took some nurturing to grow by maintaining a constant moisture level. The Chia seeds produce a slimy residue that help them attach to the terracotta and your fingers.
