- Welcome back to "Jacques in the Garden".
Today we are talking seedling tables,
and that's actually what's pictured right here behind me.
This is my current seedling table, which has been upgraded
with a special structure and a special cloth,
which we'll talk about throughout this video.
But first, I wanna talk a little bit about
what to consider when it comes to actually
building your seedling table, what things matter,
what you should actually think about.
And then in that process I'm also going to show you
exactly how I came up with this structure to help me get
my tomatoes, peppers, things like that
germinating way faster outdoors
by keeping 'em a little bit more protected
and warmer throughout the season.
So let's start off with the base material,
which is the seedling table itself.
First of all, you could probably tell
that it's entirely built out of scrap wood.
A lot of my builds have been built out of recycled wood.
So I have this random 2x4
that was saved from my patio build.
These decks which were, I guess used to pack a crate.
And then I have a couple little pieces here
just to give it a little bit of rigidity.
Now, I also have a little shelf here
and these are just fence boards that I've laid down
across these support beams.
I use that to kind of hold things like markers,
maybe some labels, some dog poop bags,
anything that I need to have easy access to.
And below it I actually have all the sort of
seed starting things I use all the time.
So I have vermiculite, I have the Worm Gold Plus,
which is my favorite thing to add into seedling mixes,
some extra pumice, and some ready made seed starting mix.
So when you're building your seedling bench
you want to think about everything that you need handy
to start seeds so you can make your life really easy.
Now, you probably saw earlier in the shot
that I have a shelf back there that holds
all of my seed starting containers as well.
So let me show you that really quickly.
So first of all, excuse the mess.
It's a little bit sloppy.
I haven't done a full cleanup yet for my spring season.
But first off, this little seedling shelf thing
is from Ikea.
It's an outdoor piece of furniture
that's designed to be outside.
So I'm not too worried about that.
And I didn't really wanna build something like this
'cause it would've cost me more to build.
So over on this shelf I have all my 4-cells.
This is what I start bigger seeds in,
and also I pot up into.
On the top shelf I have my 6-cells,
which is what I use to start every single one
of my seeds essentially.
And then below that I keep my trays.
So these are those new universal bottom trays.
They're very sturdy, unbreakable.
So I don't think I'll ever need to actually buy more trays
than what I have right now.
And on the bottom I have miscellaneous sort of pots
that I've collected from over the years
that I used to use more exclusively.
Now next to me, I'll just talk about this really quick
since I'm here, there's a little pop-up greenhouse.
Before you ask, I don't know where you could get this.
I bought it from Aldi on a random sale.
And right now what I have in here
is a flat of pepper seeds, 'cause they like the extra heat.
But, the seedling upgrade that we're going to do
to that table over there should help
for other things like this.
So let's go back to that seedling table.
So before we get into this upgrade build,
I want to talk about what is probably
the most important feature to any seedling table
that you ever build.
Now, it depends a lot on your materials
and where you're going to place it exactly,
and involves how level it is.
I'll bring you in a little closer in a bit,
but it's essentially level.
The bubble level is mostly between the middle two lines.
So if I put it across like a seedling tray,
like this guy here, it's actually smack dab in the middle.
And that's exactly what you wanna see.
The reason why that's what you want
is because when you add water to your tray
to do bottom watering, if there's any sort of misleveling,
like if say the table's like this,
well this side's gonna get watered really well,
but this side's gonna remain dry.
So before you do anything,
make sure that your seedling table is as level
as you could get it, 'cause that's going to make
your bottom watering so much more effective
and so much easier.
Let's talk about the actual build that I want to make now.
So I have the table already made,
but what we're going to be doing is actually adding on
the 6-in-1 Maker Pipe Trellis Kit.
It's something that I've used a lot in the past.
I used it to build my pepper tunnel,
which gave me the best peppers I've ever grown before.
So I'm definitely gonna do that again.
But now what I want to do is build a seedling table
that, for at least San Diego, will work all four seasons.
So I want it to be able to provide shade.
I want it to be able to provide extra humidity
and heat retention at this time of year.
So what we're going to do is basically
build a cage using this,
and then we're going to have the ability
to drape different fabrics over this entire seedling bench
and give us the exact environment we want.
I'm also going to include a thermometer in here
so we could see how big of a difference it makes.
But for now, we need to actually cut some pieces of wood
which we're going to use to mount these in.
So what is this build exactly?
It's going to be 1x4's.
They're gonna be butted right here.
It's gonna be cut so that it sticks out
about 1 1/2 inches from the edge of the table.
And then using a spade bit, (drill whirring)
we're going to basically carve a little tunnel
down into this and stick the conduit
into that little tunnel.
That's going to hold everything in place, nice and rigid,
and just outside of the table so I could still use
the full dimensions of the table.
So first things first, I'm going to mark off five inches
and cut four 5-inch pieces of this 1x4.
Then I'm going to mark a 1-inch line,
and in the center of that
is where I'm going to drill my hole.
And we want to go just until the shoulders are buried.
Quick test fit.
Perfect.
So now we actually need to attach this block to the table.
What I'm going to do is use a clamp
to get that first screw in.
So I'm gonna clamp and get that good contact.
Make sure this is roughly kind of straight where I want it.
And then we're going to be using
these kind of trim head screws
'cause I want it to be below the surface of the wood.
I don't want to pre-drill,
so I'm using something a little bit smaller
to avoid splitting the wood.
Alright, that's not going anywhere.
All four blocks are now attached
to the corners where they need to be.
So let's go ahead and do some test fitting.
Now I have these fabric clamps,
which I'll talk about more later, but I'm gonna go ahead
and slide it on before I mount it here.
So there's one, two, three, and four.
So next up we need to cut some of these crossbars
for this section and that section.
Now to measure it, you could measure from end to end
and then subtract three inches
because basically from the end of the pipe
to where it actually starts measuring,
it's actually closer to two inches on one side.
So if I were to measure the top of this total,
I would need to account for two inches on either side.
So minus four.
And this is 57, so I need a 53-inch length section.
And that should span this distance perfectly.
Now, you can use a pipe cutter,
and honestly, it's probably the better tool for the job.
But I can't find mine, so a sawzall with a metal blade
is totally solid for cutting through conduit.
I gotta say, that looks pretty decent
and it feels pretty dang solid.
I don't think that's gonna have any issues holding up.
Now that we have the structure in place,
I could talk about what's going on it.
In this case, it's going to be AG-19 fabric.
This is a fabric that's sometimes called a frost fabric
because it helps retain heat, it lets light through,
it also traps a little bit of humidity.
So all those things are great for starting seedlings,
that's why I'm using it.
It is 10x50,
so I need to decide which way I want to actually cut it.
Now when I measure with a tape measurer
across from here to the other side,
it's almost exactly 10 feet.
So that means if I were to pull it over this way,
I'll have just enough length to cover everything.
Now, makes me a little bit worried that I won't have enough,
but if I pull this tape measurer around the other way,
it's closer to seven feet, so I'm gonna lose a lot.
Now one thing,
at the beginning I mentioned that I put these on first.
I've actually decided to take them off
'cause I think it'll be easier
to put the fabric on without them.
But if you've ever used one of these
and you've had problems getting 'em off,
I highly recommend getting a flathead screwdriver.
And there should be a little point you could start at.
And then what I like to do is ease it off.
So I sneak my screwdriver in,
it's a flathead, as I'm prying,
and this way it has very little chance of breaking,
and it makes it a lot easier to actually remove.
So let's go ahead and stretch this fabric over the top
and see if that'll work.
If not, we'll just do it that way
and cut some of the excess off.
So once you have your fabric all bunched up on this side,
you wanna pull it so that this face
remains flat against the table,
and so that this face is also pretty flush up
against that table.
So that's about the spot.
So what I'm going to do is bunch up some of this fabric,
grab that bunch, wrap it around the front,
then I'm going to pull it around this piece of wood,
and then I'm going to tie it to itself.
Now to secure this fabric to the front
so it's not flapping around,
I'm going to use binder clips for now.
These obviously are not weather resistant,
so they will get rusty.
But for now, they'll do a pretty good job
holding my fabric to the table.
Now that the fabric is roughly the way I want it,
this is where these clips come into play.
I just tied those knots as temporary measures
to make sure I knew when to put these on.
So now that one will go there,
one over here,
and two on the back.
Now in order to make it easy to actually get in and out
with the seedlings, I'm going to cut a door into this.
This will defeat a little bit of the insulating properties,
but I think overall it should be worth it.
All the cold wind that we get
comes from that way towards the camera,
so that means that I won't get any cold wind
blowing in this way.
I should be protected from any of those cold ocean breezes
that come in from the back.
So the idea behind this is that
when I'm ready to close it, I'll put a binder clip there.
So obviously this is permeable now,
but that might be actually a little bit beneficial
'cause a little bit more airflow and breathing happen
when it gets really hot.
But the nice thing is that now I could go like this,
clip it to the top, clip it to the top.
So now we could go ahead
and put all of our seedlings in here.
But for now, this tray's actually going to stay outside,
and that's because it has things like cabbages,
kales, bok choys, nasturtiums,
nothing that really needs a little extra heat to germinate.
Totally happy to germinate in our current temperatures.
And if I put it in there, I could be doing some harm.
So I'm gonna leave this one outside.
And there we go.
Now we have seedlings that should be a lot warmer,
a lot happier, less wind stress, less evaporation.
But every once in a while, if it's a hot day,
I'll come by, pop this guy open,
like today actually it's pretty warm,
and that way it could still get plenty of airflow
without overheating.
The last thing I'm gonna do today
is put this wireless thermometer inside
so we could gauge how much of a difference it is
compared to the outside.
So what I'll do is I'll put one in like so,
and then I'll put another one on the table next to it
outside, unprotected in the elements,
and then we could compare that tomorrow morning.
Welcome back to day two of this ultra budget build.
I've made some modifications
because basically, and honestly not too surprising,
the temperature difference in here versus right outside
was only about two degrees.
So this stayed warm a little bit longer
and it didn't get quite as cold in the morning.
So that wasn't quite the extra boost that I was hoping for.
So what we did here is we made a couple modifications.
First, the ultra cheap, AKA free,
cardboard on the bottom here.
This cardboard is to fill in the space
between each one of these planks so that there's
no air that could seep out through the bottom.
That should help a decent amount, I think.
But the other major thing that I've done here
is I added a little piece of tape here
to stop this seam from continuously ripping.
So that should control that.
But I also actually built a little curtain
so you could scoot it off to the side,
move it back forward when you need it.
And the idea behind this is that since hot air rises,
this gap, when closed, was quite significant.
And so a lot of that hot air could have escaped.
By adding this little curtain here,
now what I could do is undo this,
bring it down with the curtain.
So what I've done here is I filled in this gap
where air could have escaped.
There's now an extra layer of that cloth here,
so it should be a lot harder
for that cold air to make its way in,
and for the hot air to make its way out.
So we'll do this, we'll leave this overnight,
and we'll see how it does in the morning tomorrow.
Since the initial build,
I've been keeping an eye on this very closely
and looking at how the temperatures differ
throughout the days, whether it's cloudy,
or a nice, clear, sunny day like today.
So the things that I've added are this curtain in the middle
to help trap in any of that heat that floats up to the top
from escaping from the slit.
I also added a little bit of tape to where I slit the fabric
so that it doesn't continue to rip.
The last thing I did was add some cardboard
underneath the base of all the trays
to provide a little bit of heat capture
throughout the nighttime.
So that basically I'm not bleeding out any heat
or letting any cold air in through the base.
I added that just as a little extra piece of insulation.
So let's clip this side,
and then you'll see that I could just move this curtain
by just basically dragging it,
and now I have full access to my inner seedling bench.
Then let's take a look at this thermometer.
So that's saying 73.4 and 44% humidity.
So over here, right behind the seedling table,
is another thermometer,
and that is reading 63.7, 56% humidity.
So the overall effect of this structure here
using the Maker Pipe 6-in-1 kit,
this AG-19 fabric, and a little bit of cardboard
at the bottom of my trays has increased the temperature
during the daytime by about 10 degrees.
So remember, we're not adding any supplemental heat.
All it's doing is trapping the heat
that's naturally occurring in the daytime
creating a sort of mini greenhouse effect.
So at night, it does get just as cold,
but it stays warmer for a little bit longer.
It cools down probably two degrees slower per hour.
So that does still help a tiny bit.
But the nice thing is that when the morning sun hits this,
it heats up much faster than it does outdoors,
and that's just going to help these seeds germinate
a little bit faster in my sort of cool spring
that isn't that cold.
So to me this is highly worth it.
One thing that would've made it even warmer and stronger
would be if I made this actually this tall
'cause that's less space to actually heat.
But, I wanted to reuse the conduit that I already had,
so that's why I did it like this.
I'm just looking for a little bit of an edge.
If you wanna do something like this,
hopefully this video has shown you
everything you need to know, and some of the advantages
and sort of modifications I made
as I played around with it.
If you have any questions about this
or seed starting in general,
please drop it down the comments.
But until then, I'll see you next time.
(birds chirping)