Hi I just got a heating mat with a thermostat set up in my basement. It is on the bottom of a three shelf unit with lights. I've set pots of leaf cutting on it and finally have got some roots starting. I set the temperature at 21 degrees as I thought that should keep it at a good room temperature. I had this heat mat without the thermostat last year and gave up on it by spring because without a temp control it got way too hot. This fall I got the thermostat and it really works well. I've ordered another heat mat and thermostat for another set of shelves. Of course it only really heats the shelf and plants which are set on it. I do wonder though if the shelves above benefit from the heat coming from the lower shelf. The older plants aren't as heat sensitive. I have my unit enclosed in plastic at night. But I don't have any scientific evidence of that. Good luck Wendy

So it’s been almost a decade since this post was active, but i have the same question as the original post, except i live in zone 4 (-20 to -30). Sorry in advance for a long post. I’ve been growing roses for 4 years (135+ in the ground and 10 in pots lol, since i forcibly retired). But every early Winter has been different. Like tonight we’re getting our first snow but the lows are going from low 40’s down over 4 days to 24,14,then 9 and 8, then next week it’s back up in the 60’s high/40’s low. My general rule of thumb is 3 nights at 25 or less (not lower than 15) then in the garage til Spring (May 15 is our last frost). Haha - but Mother Nature hasn’t cooperated the last few few years, as noted above (Sudden dive down to single digits after being 23 to 45). Last year i watered them with warm water before i went to bed down to 13, put them in the garage if lower than that. If the leaves still had green and weren’t crunchy, would leave the garage door up in the day (faces NW) if over 35. Overall worked, except 5 newly planted pots (Kashmir) in July were dead in the garage in May, before the last frost. My wife won’t let me put quilts around them outside, despite us never using them ( my granny in Gatlinburg made over 20 quilts just for me over the years, so we have plenty🤦🏽). And yes, for the TN’ers, Johnson City in the 1990’s was way colder and snowier than Knoxville/Maryville/Athens where i grew up in the 70’s. Montana is quite a bit worse haha as you can imagine, but worth it. Though last year in December, it went from 60 down to -30° for a week. Unusual, but that’s Montana. One Winter it never got below -5. And Billings (where I live) is way warmer than Bozeman (zone 3), so I should be grateful. Any suggestions when i should put the bigger pots (Pope John Paul, Munstead Wood, New Dawn, Plum Perfect) in permanently? Some pots are 16” w x 33’, most are 32” w x 25”. And the few Emily Carrs i started late Summer are only in 12” x 8”. The latter will go in after 25°. Help me pick options for the bigger ones: (most likely) i’m probably going to do the trolley shuffle back and forth at least from the South deck (somewhat exposed) to the pavement up against the NW driveway (although the big pots weigh 50lbs or more DRY lol, so my back would prefer not to lift and put them on the trolley unless permanently going in the garage for the Winter). I could leave them on our South facing deck which is full sun and elevated, and against glass walls, but it would likely still be single digits up there. put everything in the garage if below 15°, then back out if higher. warm water them at bedtime and put in the NW driveway. warm water but put them on shady NW ground. put them on a full shade North concrete floor patio/brickwall alcove with warm water for single digits, and leave them until consistently below 25, with the shade hopefully getting them dormant quicker, although the garage may still warm up to 50 in a few weeks. Sorry for all the options, but you guys sound as obsessed as I am about my babies haha. (Wife thinks i’m crazy, but the roses at least keep me out of the house and away from her for part of the day lol, again, now that I’m retired). And the neighbors go ape over all the flowers, so it’s fun. Thanks for reading this long post, and for any suggestions on what you’d do.☺️🌹

Andi, I don't know how to graft a tree, but a ton of info can be found on Gw. I guess once you know how it's done, it's a cinch..I'd need to watch someone actually do it, would love to learn. I think growing a fruit cockatail tree w/4-5 different citrus on one tree would be a great idea. Suzanne, you're sure correct about growing other things in mid-winter..I know plants like geraniums and petunias grown from seed need to be started in January.. Dale, wow, that is expensive for a tangerine!! What type did you buy? Will you sow the seeds then after it grows graft? I planted key limes seeds, but doubt they'll germinate. First, they're in a cool room w/o bottom heat, so that's a negative right there. It was an experiment, and if they work, they do, if not, so be it. Andi, if you have a camera you can alway take pics..that is time consuming. Yesterday I spent more than 2 hours taking pics of my cactus and succulents, then dl'ing online. If you get garden/tropical catalogs, browsing through them, making lists of what you want next spring is fun. I get a ton of catalogs, too many.. I also enjoy reading plant books. It's a good time to sit back, and like Suzanne said, sip a nice hot cup of cinnomon spice tea, or the tea/coffee/hot chocolate of your choice and read away. If you don't have books, check at the library. The computer is informative, but sometimes it's relaxing sitting on your favorite chair, under appropriate light. Andi, you never answered, do you have plants other than citrus? Toni

One post mentioned if I install on top of the plywood, there needs to be a layer of thinset under the mesh..is this the same thing as putting the mat on the plywood, and then troweling on thinset? Or do I need to put a layer on first and let that dry, and then attach the mesh with another layer of thinset? The only system I know of that needs to have thinset under the system before you put it down over the plywood Nuheat. You need to trowel down fresh thinset, lay in the mat (which is basically the same mesh as cheesecloth with the wire running thru it), and then thinset over the top, so that the mat is basically sandwiched in the fresh thinset. I'm not Mongo, but I'll answer anyway. A wet room is a bathroom where the entire floor is waterproofed so that no curb is needed for the shower. It's basically for handicapped showers, and the entire bathroom floor is more or less the shower pan. Is anything bathroom a wet room. Usually only the shower. Is Ditra overkill for a bathroom floor If you don't have a movement problem, or if you don't need to knoch the height down that extra 1/8" that the Ditra gives you in place of cement board, then 1/4" cement board should more than suffice for most ceramic jobs.