Tropicals & Tender Perennials: I bet someone knows this plant., 1 by DaleTheGardener

DaleTheGardener wrote:
Mike, I lived in San Francisco for many years and had an unheated glass house that I used for growing tropicals. SF has a very cold climate, not good for plants from the warm tropics. I had good success with using heat mats (or propagation mats). My goal was to keep the pots (root ball) warm, especially at night. I built a frame of 1" X 8" redwood, making sure it did not rest on the mat, placed it on floor and put the mat inside on top of a layer of thin insulation. I set the pots on the mat and backfilled with 1/8" fir bark, you could also use perlite or some other fine material. It worked very well, didn't cost alot and energy cost was low (300 watts). On one of my trips to FL I picked some palm seeds, planted them in SF and they grew very well.