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Plant Light Stand
Shed some light on a growing problem.
By Thomas R. Fox
IF YOU AREN’T FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO
have a heated greenhouse but still want to
start your own plants from seed in the winter,
this inexpensive plant light stand will get your
plants growing — even in a dark, dungeon-like
basement. It’s made primarily from common
2× 4 boards, 2" plywood, and fluorescent
shop lights.
A neat feature of this stand is the adjustable
height of the lights over the plants. You can
easily raise the lights as the plants grow, which
keeps the leaves from burning and gives the
plants plenty of light for good, healthy growth.
This free-standing, 4-shelf plant light stand
can hold as many as 8 shop lights and 16
standard-sized 10"× 20" plant flats. If you don’t
need that much space for growing plants, you
can start out with just 2 shop lights over one
shelf and easily expand it in the future if you
1. Mark the legs.
Mark the 66" 2× 4 legs where you’ll attach
the shelf supports, following Figures A and B.
You can download the full-sized drawings
at makeprojects.com/v/28.
Note that the shop lights, shop light
supports, and power strips are not shown
in Figures A and B; you’ll install them later,
after you’ve built the shelving.
2. Cut some corners.
Make the special cuts required on the ends
of the eight 21" side shelf supports to make
simple corner laps with the legs, as shown
in Figures C and D.
want to grow more. In the meantime, you
can store your growing supplies on the
unused shelves.
Thomas R. Fox
132 Make: makezine.com/28
