Heating Mat

18 years ago

Can anyone recommend a good/safe heating mat for my seedlings- Maybe one I could leave on when not present.

One that will not make my husband not cringe everytime I plug it in and will not feed his OCD making sure I turned it off....

Thanks

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Comments (4)

ljrmiller
18 years ago
The one in the Ferry-Morse peat pellet seed starting kit would probably give him fits, because it doesn't even have a thermostat on it. However, it's completely coated in plastic, and after leaving it on all night (and getting up several times in a minor panic to make sure it wasn't getting too warm), I can tell you that it's not exactly likely to melt the flats, melt the pots, or catch anything on fire. After last night's frequent potty/pot-checking trips, I'm not going to worry any more.

Lisa
calistoga_al ca 15 usda 9
18 years ago
The wattage,or electricity used is usually Low enough that if left on forever it would not be able to heat the mass enough to be a hazard. I would recommend one with a fixed built in thermostat of about 70 degrees. Al
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The cables are meant to be buried in the potting mix and not laid on top of shelves. I used a heating cable from Stokes several years ago. We built a heat table by making a framework of 2x4's, stapling hardware cloth to the bottom (to allow drainage), laying a sheet of landscape cloth in the bottom (to hold in the potting mix) then filling the "box" with several inches of ProMix, with the cable being buried in the mix. The whole thing was on folding legs that are available at HD etc. The table was setup in front of a large window and worked well for sticking cuttings for a couple months. Then suddenly the cable just quit working.....That was the end of that table. I went to using heat mats and found them much more versatile. I have now been using mats for about 5 years. I have one 4 foot one and 3 single tray size ones and they have been reliable and useful. You only want to put your seeds on heat for germination. Seedlings themselves prefer cooler temperatures and if left on heat will become elongated and weak. In fact, different seeds have different temperature requirements and some aren't put on heat for germination, such as columbines, delphiniums, coneflowers. You will need to look up the requirements for each kind of plant you intend to start.
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Joyce I have a couple Hydrofarm mats and all heat unevenly. The only mat I have that has even heating is my 5' x 3' and that's made from a different material. Instead of the thin black plastic it's a thick heavy duty rubber. I bought it from a farm supply store years ago. I even out the heat on the smaller mats by placing a 1" thick piece of wood over the hot spot and setting the pot on that. That doesn't help when using the heat mats for a flat but it works well with pots. I've never tried a thermostat to see if that makes a difference but don't think that it would.
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Rina - these plants and some other tropical succulents are very temperature sensitive. Although my apartment probably won't get colder than 65 degrees F, I'm worried that the draft from the windows will make it colder, especially in like January or February when it get bitterly cold here. Minty - the indoor temps would be at least 65+, but for a lot of Somalian and Soqotran succulents, that is literally the lowest advisable temperature I have seen on the internet. I would probably want to put all my Dorstenias (gigas, lavrani, foetida, barnimiana, cuspidata, and zanzibarica), all my Pseudolithos (2xcubiformis, dodsoniana, miguirtinus), some of my other Asclepiads (Whitesloanea crassa, Stapelianthus madagascariensis and decaryi, Echidnopsis specksii) and a few Malagasy Euphorbs (tulearensis, bongolavensis, cylindrifolia var. tubifera, maybe a few more small species) on the heat mats. cactus - yeah, these species are kind of tricky that way! their winter is more of a dry mild warm season that a cold one. I think you're right, I wouldn't want to give like 80 degree bottom heat during winter, but I've been reading online and some people say that keeping their root zones around at least 70 degrees can help these plants survive the winter more easily dog - thanks for the info!! your gigas is beautiful :-) i see you have some D. lavranis heating up as well! if you don't mind me asking, does running the heat mat during winter raise your electric bill a lot? you can PM me about it if you like, or you don't have to answer if that's too personal!
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If they've been outside during the day, I don't see the purpose of bringing them back in at night unless it's going to get really cold. Peas are semi-hardy vegetables, they'll do fine at cold temps overnight but not too cold (not much below 30-ish F). If they just germinated, give them another week or so in the house until they get a little growth on them, then slowly acclimate them to the outside; once fully hardened off, leave them out. The big question is, though -- where are you located? Where I am the ground is rock-hard frozen and we just had a snow dump. We don't even think about checking to see if the ground is ready to work until maybe April, depending on the weather. If you're in a colder zone, you really jumped the gun with the peas, but obviously if you're in a warmer zone it's a totally different scenario.
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hill_n_bog
18 years ago
Park Seed has 17 watt heating mats ($20 each). In a 60 or 65 degree basement I leave my on all the time and they get the seed trays up to about 75. The only downside is the trays dry up quickly.
ellen_inmo
18 years ago
I have been using them for years and I promise you there is no danger! In fact, I have about 12 of them going right now.......and need more!

If you are a beginner with using a heat mat, may I make a suggestion? You really need to have more than one of them--one of them for germinating seeds, and another one for seedlings that shouldnt be removed from heat just yet. The only problems I have ever had with damp off have been seedlings that had germinated with bottom heat, then I moved them to a shelf without bottom heat, and they got too cold. Seedlings from the same batch but in a different container that never left the heat mat did not damp off once.

My set up is to have several domed flats going for germinating seeds, and once they have begun to sprout (any signs of green) I remove them from the domed flats and put them in uncovered flats that are still on the heat mat, and under grow lights. I dont remove them from the heat until I am quite sure they have all germinated and are sturdy seedlings.

Just something to think about!

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Heating Mat

Comments (4)

ljrmiller

calistoga_al ca 15 usda 9

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hill_n_bog

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