seed starting question..... about bottom heat

Is bottom heat always necessary when they say it is ..... ?

If so are there other options besides a grow mat..... ?

Why are grow mats so expensive...... ?

Several of my seeds say bottom heat but I can't afford a bunch of these mats to put all my seeds I want to try on........

How many mats do most of you have ..... ?

i have a mini electric greenhouse i got from henerys for like 20.00 after their 25.00 coupon of spending 40.00. i spent 45.00 then the coupon brought the total down to like 23 plus tax.

another thing easy cheap.

jiffy puts out these mini greenhouses with the peat pellets. walmart lowes home depot carries them.

i stick it on top of my refrigerator. bottom heat with out paying for it. alot of people put things on top of fridges. tvs are good too( never tried it but some say it works.) the bathroom is always a great place for seeds houses.

in the spring take a coke bottle plastic two litter i think brugie or calalily had a thread on this. cut it in half plant in bottom cover back with top. mini greenhouse. look up the thread i think its called coke bottle greenhouses. something like that.

hope this helps some and gives you some ideas.


if its above 50 degrees out i usually personally dont use bottom heat.

va71099,

It's probably not recommended but I use heating pads. You know the kind you use for sore muscles. I bought extra long ones about 5 years ago at Walmart for less than 10.00. My seed containers are all in nursery flats without holes, so water never touches them. And they fit the nursery flats perfectly. I keep them set on low. I have 3 of them going now. Hope this helps, Linda

Good question - I hope you don't mind my piggy-backing my question with your!?

I have a 4 shelf planting unit, and I'm wondering: If I were to attach my grow light to the second shelf, would it give heat to the shelf above as bottom heat? (I'm not sure if that's clear enough, but I can't think of how to expalin it better.)

sequee i wouldnt see why it wouldnt as heat travels up and it will get warm. hmm never thought of that good idea! lets us know how it works.

bottom heat helps germinate faster but not always nessasary. mother nature doesnt have grow mats and things seem to grow outside with out help just fine. warmth helps and speeds it up .

i wish i knew why grow mats are so costly. its basically a heating pad with out the padding. hehe

I agree imzadi.... why are they so expensive....... and I thought about using regular heating pads but most of those these days automatically shut off after awhile......Linda must have bought all the ones that don't shut off ......

I'll give it a go without the grow mats and see if I have any luck or set up a deal like Sequee using the heat from a lower light ......

thanks for all the good advice ....

Sequee, that is exactly how I get bottom heat on many of my seeds I start. The heat from below does tarvel up to the top of the shelf.....it never gets to warm as flourecent tubes are pretty cool to begin with and the shelf insulates it even more. All in all I get good results doing this.

Oh, boy! that means I can germinate on the second row and put the pups on the 3rd row (under the grow lights), and the seedlings on the top shelf for the direct south and west light from the sunroom windows. Life is good!

My but your easily amused :-) hehehehehehe

You have no idea...(RLOL!)

I've found that heating mats definately help in germinating some types of seed. I have two mats that are not temperature controlled and if I had the option again, I would buy some that can be adjusted. I bought mine at a rummage for $1 a piece, so I stumbled across a great deal! An idea would be to use a candle/mug warmer if you want to germinate just a potful of seeds at a time.....you could easily fit a 4" round pot onto the heating surface. I paid $10 for mine when I thought I was going to get into candlemaking....now I think I've seen them for as low as $2 or $3 at places like Big Lots. Just a thought!

Sandy

I don't use the heat mats either, too expensive. My computer monitor puts out a lot of heat so I have a little thing rigged up that I can set my tray above it to keep them warm all day. Then at night I use the heating pad set on low.
Works really well for me on a small scale.

What about waterbed heaters? They are flat mats too. I don't think they have a thermostat on them, but must not get too hot. I bought one at a thrift shop for a couple of dollars, but haven't tried it yet.

Heat Box for Propagating Seeds Thread by "PaulGrow"

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/182057/

Great detail!!

Judy

What a GREAT idea...... thanks Judy for linking us in.....

I've used a similar method to Paul's heat box for a couple of years now. I have a metal shelving unit where I've rigged up grow lights (a couple of 40 watt fl. bulbs) over a shelf, and on the shelf below I put a couple of pot lights (aka up-lights) with 40 watt incandescent bulbs to generate heat. Seems to keep the soil temperature between 70 and 75 in my cool basement. YMMV. Did a great job of getting peppers and others off to a good start.

I'll have to look for old heating pads at yard sales..... :-)

I didn't read the whole thread (I have a really short attention span right now) but here's a few cheap ways:

Electric Blankets-
You can find them on ebay, garage sales, etc. I think new ones are expensive.

Heating cables/wires-(The kind they use to keep plumbing from freezing)
Fill a tray w/ sand and zig zag your wire and cover with more sand, the more sand, the less warm

Using the heating vents in the floors in your house-
This works really well and doesn't cost anything that you wouldn't already spend

So far, I've been meaning to do the first two but have never gotten around to it. But warmth DOES help germination and propagation on cuttings.