making a diy indoor greenhouse

There’s nothing more pleasurable than creating a diy indoor greenhouse and growing a plant from seed. If you live in the frozen North or the hottest of Southern areas, you might need to know how to make your diy indoor greenhouse. You can use some simple ideas or make them a lot more complicated. Simple always is better in my estimation.

how to make an indoor greenhouse

Create the frame.

For indoor greenhouse you need to estimate how large you want it to be. Taking measurements and purchasing the right amount of materials is the first step. Your height can vary, but make sure that it’s at least two feet taller than your tallest plant. If it’s just a small area for a few plants, use metal shelving material for the sides. Purchase enough metal shelving material to make the right length and width of your indoor greenhouse. You’ll need the metal framework for the top and the bottom and braces to make the sides sturdier. You don’t need to have metal braces for all the sides, just three of them.

Connect the materials and build a three-sided tower. Cut aboard the size of the bottom of the diy indoor greenhouse. You need to make sure that you waterproof the board to avoid it buckling. You can do one of two things at this point. Either cover the board you just cut with a water proof material like plastic and staple it down on the underside, or sand and finish the wood with a few coats of a waterproofing sealer. Look on the label to make sure that it’s safe for the environment and made for these types of projects.

Lights

Lay the board down as the bottom of the greenhouse. Connect either a single board across the top, or a metal brace to stretch from side to side. You’ll need this to connect your source of light. Purchase an inexpensive fluorescent shop light for this purpose. You’ll find that most of these run under $10. In addition, you need a good bulb for the shop light. Since bulbs have different color spectrums, choose your bulb carefully.

If you’re not sure whether to use a bulb that gives off more of a blue light or one in the red spectrum, just get a grow bulb that has both. Fluorescent grow bulbs have a full spectrum of light and the costs vary between $12 and $30. These are the most important part of your indoor greenhouse. Most stores that sell plant supplies and some that sell home project material offer the bulbs. Connect the light fixture to the board across the top of the greenhouse. Get an inexpensive timer to control the light.

Cover the greenhouse with a sheet of plastic that’s large enough when centered to come all the way to the floor. Fold the back flaps in like you would if you’re wrapping a gift. Do the same on one side of the front but put the flap so it goes toward the back. On the other side, line the plastic up with the corner and cut it with a scissors to the top of the framework. Snip the waste on other side of the flap so that you can pull it in to cover the front also without the Christmas wrap fold in it. Trim that piece so that it extends about three inches over the front opening and tape it to the metal frame at the top. The other side should cover the entire front and create a flap for you to enter to water and check on your plants.

Now that you know how to make your diy indoor greenhouse, you’ll need to find the amount of light your plants need, whether you need to increase the humidity and other information for indoor growing. The key to good indoor plant production is the right amount of humidity, soil conditions, type of light and amount of light.

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