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How hot is too hot?

13 years ago

I had a malfunction with my heater/lights and the temp climbed up to 136F for about 3 hours! My seeds were 3 days in just wondering if the pepper & tomato seeds are dead? I'm going to let them go just wondering if anybody has had this happen to them and what the out come was!

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Comments (9)

User
13 years ago
Yep, been there, done that.

A year or so ago my heat mat thermostat gave up the ghost. I figured it was 10 - 12 hours before I caught it. My tray medium was in the 135F range.

My tray had been seeded two weeks earlier so I had sprouts in a number of cells as well as a number of un-sprouted cells. I killed the heat until I got a new thermostat. All my sprouts made it and a number of previously un-sprouted seeds as well. I'll never know what my germination rate would have been if...

Given that you're only 3 days in, if you don't want to take a chance and have extra seed, re-seed your cells. If you're short on seed, roll the dice. You should get something.

Just my humble opinion.

Bill
stquack
Original Author
13 years ago
I'm going to start some exrta just to be sure. If your sprouts made it i'm hoping my seeds will too. Thanks for the info................
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Awww, that's nothin'! It can get over 100 here for days in a row, with a "break in the heat" being a dip down to 95 or so. This goes on for 3-4 months, with a long stretch of high 80's / mid 90's book-ending on both sides of the really hot part of summer. I wouldn't worry about those fluctuations from night to day, or day to day, that's natural. All of my plants are fine with it, except Fuchsia, but I don't think you have one of those anyway. Everything else grows like crazy in the summer. Nothing gets much sun from about noon-1:30, except Sans. Everything is placed to get either morning sun before that, or afternoon sun (a lot hotter, especially for roots in a dark pot.) When in doubt, go with morning if you have the option there. Back it up a bit if you see some sunburn. My plants have been outside since mid-March. Once they go out, they don't come back in except in the case of frost which, if I've decided correctly on which day to do this, won't be until winter. The weaker the sun rays are when they get out there, the easier it is for them to adjust to much more sun, gradually as its' angle changes. I know that's way too early there, but just wanted you to have the info for reference, confidence. And I know you're the type to take them in & out, very useful in Z4. Look how lucky we are, supposed to be cooler all week until the weekend! We've almost hit 100 here a couple times already. If you click the blue "monthly" at the left, check out the end of last month.
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Nice pad, estreya! Anyway, I'm gonna go out on a limb and give you a little word of caution... all compost is NOT created equal. Do you know what this compost was made from? It looks like possibly wood shavings and some kind of manure. That's fine for compost that has been completely digested and cured. But I'm looking at what appears to be a significant amount of uncomposted wood fibers. Tilling this into the soil MAY cause problems (or may not... that's the thing about unfinished compost - you never know for sure what the final product will be or how long it will take to get there). It's tempting to think that manure, with a low C:N ratio and wood shavings, with a high C:N ratio, would balance out into a nice happy mix. And in the long run they will. But in the short term, nitrogen levels can swing wildly. A worst case scenario would be that the high initial ammonia content burns existing plants, but then the nitrogen levels drop rapidly next spring and now you are nitrogen deficient. OTOH, a best case scenario is that the nitrogen stays put long enough for the wood to decompose and everything grows wonderfully. Probably the safest thing to do is to use it as a mulch instead of tilling it in. If you feel compelled to till it in, then just keep an eye on plant growth and see how they respond. If you're tilling this in for a garden next year, then burning won't be a problem. Watch instead for possible nitrogen depletion, and have a bag of blood meal or something like that on hand in case things look poosley. And don't worry - in the long run it will be fine. It will probably be fine in the short run too, but just be watchful. -Diggity
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jennq
13 years ago
I came here to post this very question, thinking I was the only one who would have done something like this. So glad I'm not alone! :-p

Mine only climbed to 99, so I'm hoping (based on Bill's experience) that they will be okay. I don't think I'll re-seed, so that I can see how everything works out. I'll just use it as a learning experience!
User
13 years ago
stquack and jennq,

Please post a follow-up in the coming weeks on how your starts made out. The more experience the better!

Bill
stquack
Original Author
13 years ago
Ottawapepper- I'm going to let them go for another 2 weeks. I'm going to start more seeds on Thursday just in case.
stquack
Original Author
13 years ago
Well its been a week and i have nothing! Tomato seeds are dead. I'm glad i replanted and didn't wait. I'll give the hot pepper seeds another week after that it time to clean the trays.
User
13 years ago
Most tomatoes come up in a week at most.

Peppers can take anywher from 3 to 30 days to sprout even at a constant 80-85F.

You can't rush a good thing. Give them some time.

JMHO,

Bill
jennq
13 years ago
Mine turned out okay. They didn't get as hot as stquack's, and the ones in the center that got the hottest were peppers, and the tomatoes were at the end of the tray.

{{gwi:1156592}}

Even the seed I dropped between the peat pellets came up! The only ones that didn't were a few serranos, but I think that's because I took them out of the germination chamber as soon as the rest were up. They may still come up, I'll let you know.

After those few hours at 99, they were kept in the upper eighties 24 hours a day until the majority of them were germinated, about ten days later.
stquack
Original Author
13 years ago
Still nothing! I'm not out i planted extra as soon as this happened. When I opened the lid there was steam. After seeing that i thought it was best if i replanted!!!!

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1156591}}

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