Re: Heating mats for seeds..

JMurphy97 2/8/2013, 1:21 pm

I have a smaller room that the temps stay about 71. Would this be ok for tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants? I will have a cfl bulb on them once they sprout. Also I'm turning a glass aquarium on it's side to set the light on. Thanks for the help, this is my first time seed starting indoors. I'm super pumped!

plantoid 2/8/2013, 4:14 pm

Temps of 71 o F sound might fine to me .
Make sure you don't over or under water the seeds and as soom as you can get the fully emerged seedlings into daylight within a few days of emergence or they will go yellowish . If the light it too high above them will usually also go leggy

JMurphy97 2/8/2013, 4:52 pm

I would be starting them in march for the spring crops. Wouldn't it be too cold to take them out right away or would going under a covered wagon help them?

plantoid 2/8/2013, 4:59 pm

Check out what mel says in his book wrt frost and sowing dates .. they work anywhere in the world .

Missed-Em 2/28/2013, 8:55 am

OK, I'm using a heating mat for my first attempt to start from seeds - tomatos and peppers. Not the best germination, but probably enough if I don't lose any in the up potting. The question I have is when do I stop using the heating mat? It's connected to the light timer so it's on about 15 hours a day and w/o the mat the growing area runs in the 65/68* range. Tomatos are starting to get true leaves and most peppers have sprouted. Thanks for your help.

**RoOsTeR** 2/28/2013, 9:05 am

Remove the heat mat when your seeds sprout Wink

Kate888 2/28/2013, 5:27 pm

I used a couple of heating pads last year and monitored with a thermometer. Worked great!

**jimmy cee** 2/28/2013, 11:23 pm

This was my first year starting seeds
Purchased a great little 4 tier shelf unit
Installed four 2ft grow lights on top shelf
Placed my seed units under lights.
Closed in entire unit with plastic
Under the seed kits I placed a slow cooker (crock pot)
Filled it with water and turned it on low.
Water temp's stayed at 140 degrees F (with cover off)
Unit inside stayed at 72 deg
28 hours later seeds were coming through
That crock pot's a great and safe warmer upper...

Hardcoir 3/1/2013, 11:15 am

Like some others posting here, we keep our seedlings in the basement. The heating mat is fine, but the room is about 58 degrees, so while the plants stayed warm, we froze our tushes working down there.

So, we bought a nice radiant oil heater, and it quietly heated up the room to 76 degrees. Now, the seedlings are happy, and we no longer try to work down there like a pit crew at the Indianapolis 500. In fact, it is warmer than any room upstairs.

We have a timer on the plug, and the light and heat turn on at 6 AM and turn off at 10PM.

**jimmy cee** 3/1/2013, 9:17 pm

A nice reason to heat the basement, also one never loses heat in a basement.
It rises up into the house.
I have a gas heater in my basement directly under the kitchen.
When heater is on we can feel the warmth of the floor.

cautery 3/25/2013, 10:07 pm

My grow station is in the garage... (as id my work bench and bicycle maintenance stuff, et al.) I surely will be happy when I finally get the insulation in and can finally heat the garage in good conscience. It has so many leaks right now, I can't make myself "waste" the heat....

So, I too freeze my butt off... Seedlings are a nice and toasty 80 degrees though. I don't keep lids on the trays, so I have to watch the moisture levels pretty closely... Between the heat pads and the 16 hours a day of 240 watts of grow light, a lot of water evaps...

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