Gro Mat Alternatvies am I crazy??

OK- I start all my seeds in the basement which is chilly- on a pair of shelves my DH built me behind my dryer. I want gro mats but the darn things are $$$. So I thought of a couple of alternatives please tell me if I'm nuts....

1. there are twin size electric blankets on clearance at WalMart for $15 with creative floding I could use one twin size blanket and heat all the shelves- would this work if I kept it on low?

2. would regualr heating pads you buy at Walmart work? they have these new ones you can even get wet for moist heat....

3. doing something craetive with the dryer vent with pvc to pump the warm air into the sleving unit (I cover the front of the whole thing with plastic to try to create a green house type effect.

Somebody please help- I am on my 3rd spring and am addicted.... LOL!!!!

Heather
Proud Mama of Wyatt and Rhiannon
Queen bee of the Banana tree (don't ask my kids made it up)

Hey there: Don't use the folded electric blanket. That is one of the no-no's in the instructions. I think it screws up the thermostat.
The regular heating pads now have a government mandated cut off. They heat for 20 minutes or so and then turn off.
I don't think I would like the dryer lint in my shelving and it wouldn't be very consistant.
If you already have a plastic cover for the shelves a simple light bulb can heat a surprisingly large area. The trick is to do it safely. A couple of ceramic ceiling fixtures on the bottom shelf with guards to prevent contact with anything flamable or meltable would work.
You don't mention if you have any light for your plants. I solved the heat problem by solving the light problem. I use fluoresent shop lights for each shelf. The heat produced by the bulbs rises and warms the flats above. I also use reflective mylar ( which is plastic) to increase the light.
I aso use the heat mats but I bought them at the end of the season for $15 each.
Check out the propagation forum. Jessamine

This message was edited Mar 17, 2005 1:47 PM

What do you think of the idea of a heating mat from a water bed? A freind brought that up to me since they are supposed to run constantly, can get wet and have a thermosat.

Heather

Since I have no experience or info there, I'll have to pass. Jessamine

A folded back electric blanket can start a fire. Been there, done that. Threw the mattress out the upstairs window.

Don't use elec blanket - dangerous. And people heating pads are not the same as seed heating pads.

I haven't yet implemented this, but I've bought 1/4" copper tubing (used for iceboxes on the back of the refridgerator/freezer), a cheap hydroponic pump, and a hydroponic titanium heating element with a thermostat. I'm going to attempt to make the system closed by placing the heating element inside a piece of 4" plastic PVC pipe. I will proceed to wind the copper tubing in s-turns on the surface of a set of recessed shelves, and then set the seed flats on top of the copper tubing or some form of metal grate that sits on top of that.

Pump: Via Aqua 100 Water Pump - 100gph - http://www.bghydro.com/BGH/itemdesc.asp?ic=PWPVA0100&eq=&Tp=
Heater: Titanium-Tube Water Heater - 50W - http://www.bghydro.com/BGH/itemdesc.asp?ic=HWHVA050&eq=&Tp=

A lot of work? Maybe, but it could be fun and would be a really neat integrated germinating station on some homemade shelves. I'll send photos when I complete it.

Hmmm, after this is finished, I'll need to get a system going with an automated watering schedule to make the process easier.

Another option, depending on the size of the space, might be a small portable electric heater if you have one, or turning up the baseboard heating in your basement, if you have baseboard heating. Or, if you have central forced-air heating, there may be a vent in the basement ceiling that's near your seeds, that you could open up.

Or, like Jessamine said, the lights do put out a surprising amt of heat, mostly upwards (not the bulbs themselves, as much).

My seeds are all near an electric baseboard heater in our basement - I just turn up the thermostat, close the door and the place stays nice and toasty.

Good luck! :-)
Shannon

This is what my DH ended up building me.....he's a keeper.

It's a heat box shelf unit - I dubbed it my "Propagation Station" LOL!

Heather

How wonderful!!! Good Luck and keep us posted.

Judy

I will post a pic this afternoon - it's FULL now- each shelf holds 5 domed seed starting trays plus a couple pots on the side I have been potting up a few things and giving up on the few things that just didn't germintate (5 weeks is LOOOOONG enough)but I would say I had an 85% germination rate.

Heather

Wow - great set-up, Heather! I'm impressed with your hubby ;-) Looking forward to pics.

here ya go.... not the best one- but the only one that you can see everything in-- notice all the babies that didn't make it in.. nevermind the fact that I have more on the dryer and on the shelf I am supposed to keep laundry stuff on.....LOL!

Heather

Looks & sounds familiar! lol Great pic.

What else are horizontal surfaces really for, anyway? :-)

It wont work if you have a ton of flats, but if you only have a few and you are germinating seeds that do not need light to germinate. The top of a Fridge or other similar appliance usually stays at just about the same temp. as a Gro-Mat. I have too many flats to use that any more but had great success when only using a few. Hope this helps someone out there.

mystic, Yes, I would agree your dh is a keeper in building and in looks. Great looking set up. It must be about warm enough outside so that you will be able to plant outside very soon, after harening of of course. Most of my flats are either out in open in front of my gh or out back in lath shade house. I am planting as fast as i can. i do hope our frosts are overwith. DonnaS

Okay, I'm going to admit this here. Until I had a greenhouse and built my heated seed beds, I used a regular heating pad on low and it worked great. I have an extra long one that was just about the size of a seed flat. I'd put that baby on the window seat in the kitchen, turn it on low, add the plastic cover for the seeds, and they sprouted like crazy. Probably not the best use for a heating pad, but it does work.

I've used a heat cable for many years, they are cheaper than the heat mat, I put it in the bottom of a seed flat. I also do cuttings in 1/2 perlite, 1/2 vermiculite hostajim1

Gosh Mystic, in re-reading all this I hope I didn't get too "wordy".

Since you guys are all mentioning different options for making heating devices I feel that I should mention that there is a product called flex-watt tape (sold by the foot) used for reptiles (I love reptiles almost as much bugs). Though I've never used it I am a bit familiar with how it works. It's thin (Iike a thick sheet of laminated paper) and is made of copper (probably almost identical to the currently-sold heating mats used for propogation). The largest width I've seen is 11" widths. You can run it as long or as short as you want, and just cut it. You can run additional lengths to apply it to wider setups. It is my understanding that you can cut it anywhere accross (like you would cut tape or ribbon) but you can never make a cut that follows its length or you ruin the circuit in doing so. I hope that all of this makes sense. The wiring is supposed to be easy to do or you can buy it with the wiring already done depending on the source. There are inexpensive temperature controllers (it's all relevant, I know) that you can buy to controll these. These controllers used to be SUPER expensive but they've dropped in price quite a bit just in the last few years. They are now something between $50.00 to over $100.00 depending on what you want. If you plan on making a large scale heating pad, this should work beautifully but in smaller setups it's not a very cost effective due to the cost of the temperature controller. These also have safety features like auto shut-off in the event of a malfunction. A really neat place to look into these and other similar stuff like is a site called kingsnake.com. You can do a search for this under the "classifieds".

I was thinking that (in my oppinion) the only thing that would make this better would be radiant heat using water to distribute the heat. I went back and read ALL of the posts (so as to not repeat anything already mentioned).

Drewl,
I LOVE your idea. Sounds like a definate plan that might have to be "tweeked" as you go along. I'm sure you know that sometimes with projects like this, things don't always go as planned. The only potential problem that I see (correct me if I'm wong) is that the water leaving the pump and entering the area being heated, would release it's heat closer to the pump along the heated area. By the time it reaches the end further away from the pump it will have transfered most of its heat at the other end making the side closer to the pump warmer than the other side. Maybe I'm thinking TOO large scale or maybe you already have a solution to this. Also, the heater that you mentioned... Can this be allowed to come in contact with the PVC? I would like to understand that part a bit better. The only approach that I have regarding this is to place a submersible water pump and thermostat controlled heating device in a small coleman or Igloo cooler to retain the heat while the water is being circulated from there. Obviously this would be drilled to complete the setup. In your setup, is this process taking place inside the 4" PVC pipe? If so, where is the pump located? It sounds like your plan attempts to make this a more "closed" system (which I like) so I would love to hear more. Feel free to email me directly so as to avoid drowning this thread down any more.

bumped because we've been discussing bottom heat over in the pepper forum....

edited to add, I did my own version of a light box before my seedling heat mats arrived last spring.... I think there's another thread somewhere about it, but it's easier just to repeat it... I used the electric light in my oven! With the door propped open by about an inch (held with a kitchen towel tucked into the opening) and the oven light turned on (not the heat, just the light!), I found my oven stayed at a nice, even 79 to 80 degrees. Monitoring is key until you figure out what works... temps over 84, or is it over 86, can cook seeds to death.

This message was edited Mar 15, 2006 11:28 AM

If you'd like to ck out the heat mat I made up several years ago, I have pics and info here:
http://www.pbench.com/gh-info.htm

Ed

Thanks for sharing your heat mat idea Ed.

Deb

Ok well everybody will have comments but I bought 2 heating pads- one at "Big Lots"- my 1st trip there had been avoiding it like the plague, for 7.99- and I have been using them and they have done fairly well. I don't have my plants in a basement, I don't live in PA and for most of the day my seed beds/plantings rec've large amount of sun and therefore are pretty warm anyway.

And one more thing, do keep you DH- I don't let mine near anything too sharp. LOL.

LOL!!!! Great to see this thread back! My dh is still a keeper. We added more light areas this year (un heated - for already germinated plants) and he is building me a passive greenhouse for my birthday. Good thing because I already have well over 1500 seeds planted and more to go. I am haivng a plant sale in May a (and there is stuff in there for my garden and my freinds gardens) whatever I don't sell will go to my extension office's plant sale.

Heather

My little experiment seems to have worked. This is a very small trial but I intend to go larger next year and perhaps add lights. I used items on hand so it was basically free. Planted 12 seeds on 3/8 I had gotten from moby. Today 6 have sprouted and I am so jazzed! I have never planted tender seeds before and I consider this an unqualified success... I would have been thrilled to get just one sprout! LOL