Greenhouse staging

[Lord Steve]

Hi there. I am looking at buying some greenhouse staging and need some advice! What are the pros/cons of trays vs slats? I am probably going to use it for growing seedlings and cuttings and some storage (lower tier) and was tending towards trays, but slats seem to offer good ventilation etc. I am a bit confused!!

Can anyone recommend a good place to buy some staging fairly cheaply? I have surfed a bit online for some ideas but it seems quite expensive. Many thanks! Steve

[Doris_Pinks]

Steve, hubby made mine from wood, and it is slats. The MAJOR disadvantage is that I can't remove it when I want to grow other things such as peppers, toms and the like, so I would advise, whatever you get, make sure you can take it away when required!  DP

[Mimi]

I have the 'best?' of both worlds Steve.  My greenhouse staging came with the greenhouse, care of ma in law     But I also have some galvanised shelving which is handy for over wintering my fuschias and geranium cuttings.  I also have a handy device which I keep on the staging like a plastic potting tray with handy little areas for keeping labels, string, dibbers, etc.  to be honest I cant see what advantage the slats are... Yes they do help with air moving around, but they make it difficult to stand pots on.  The trouble with the shelving though is that they are not wide enough to work on.  I tend towards a solid work surface and some shelves but echo Doris make sure that you can get it out when you need to.  So it must be dismantable(is that a word) fold downable, or fit through the door.

[Lord Steve]

Thanks. That is very sensible advice. On balance I think I will go for solid surfaces and will check that they can be removed if necessary.

[Kerry]

my staging is homemade-it's solid but removable. my OH's dad made it from large pieces of twin walled polycarbonate he had from when he was a builder. very easy to clean, and lets the light through to stuff below.
he fixed some metal supports to the frame and the sheeting just lays on top.
i made my own shelves though, out of old skirting board, cut to size and placed on some bolt in shelf brackets. again, all removable.

[sandersj89]

I have staging or wire mesh shelves in my greenhouse’s. I prefer these over trays as they are more flexible. Slats do not normally have gaps of more than a inch so standing pots on them is not a huge problem.

I have both aluminium and wood slats, all of which are easily removeable. The way I have them set up is the slats can be removed but the frame stays in place, this provides very useful support to plants, peppers, toms, cucumbers, melons, etc, as they grow.

If I was doing this again I would prefer aluminium slats. Never rots, dries out quickly and does not harbour any pests, very easy to clean down, will last for donkeys years as no rotting.

HTH

Jerry

[Garden Manager]

I thought long and hard about this subject brforte choosing the staging for my new 'house.

In the end i went for staging with removable/reversible trays (with the option to change to slats later).

In addition to this i got a work bench and side table with shelves for storing stuff like pots and small tools.

For the winter i also have some temporary shelving (old mini greenhouse frames)  on the border for overwintering stuff. This will be removed in summer to make way for tomatoes 

[Apple Dumpling]

I chose slats, but what was most important was that it had to be removable. Mr Dumpling made them for me with tannalised timber. They have folding legs to make them easier to move and store.............However saying that I like Jerry's idea of permanent frames with removable shelves. Wish I'd thought of that myself.

[the_plotter]

One thing to remember about slats is that if you keep anything under the bench,when you water it gets soaked too. can be dangerous if you have an electric heater.
              the plotter