Germination temperature - thermostat necessary?

I recently purchased a few Gro-Mats that I will be using with my set-up in our basement. My question is whether or not I need a thermostat controller. I have a lot of different seeds and would like to maintain the optimum temperature for each. Gro-Mats supposedly don't need temperature controllers, as they are 'self regulating' but I am skeptical. Will thermostat conrollers work with Gro-Mats? Stokes gives very specific temperature requirements with their seeds and I would like to follow this if possible.

This message was edited Feb 4, 2009 1:58 PM

I don't know if you can use thermostats with them or not, but I've been just fine using them as-is for all my seeds that need heat. If you've got something that's really picky then maybe the really tight temperature control is necessary but for most plants you probably don't need to go that far.

I was wondering why kind of gro-mats you bought (or is "Gro-Mat" a brand name?)

Some mats have a built in thermostat that turns off when temps are around 70º or so to keep them from overheating, other mats need a thermostat so there is not a non-stop current going thru it all the time.

The ones that are "self-regulating", as you say, normally tend to only have the ability to keep the temperature about 20º above the ambient temp. So, keeping that in mind, if you needed to have your seed flat at 70º your g-house (or room) temperature needs to be no less than 50º. Hopefully your house temp is warmer than that, brrr.)

Shoe

It is a brand called "Gro-Mat". I just want to be sure that the seedlings are getting the optimum temperature. Perhaps I'm being a bit over-careful but I would hate to lose some because the temperature wasn't correct and I could have fixed it. I'll call Park Seed (where I ordered them) and ask. Thanks!