Re: [CH] heat for seedlings

Harold Eddleman Ph.D. (indbio@disknet.com)
Sat, 13 Mar 1999 21:18:16 -0800 

H0T5AUCE@aol.com wrote:
> 
> Help! I am new at growing peppers and everything I read says that heat for
> starting seedlings is a great thing to do. Is it? If so, where do get the
> constant source of heat? I bought a heating coil, but it can't come in contact
> with ANYTHING and requires that I build a big wooden soil bed just to set the
> starting tray in. I was hoping for a simpler solution. I saw a rubber heat pad
> in a Burpee's catalog ... any info on if this works?
> 
> Thanks for the help,
> Brad
I have such a rubber mat but have not used it because I usually have
hundreds of trays. I micropropagate strawberry and brambles and use
bottom heat to speed rooting and reduce heatking costs perhaps 70%
  I use several systems. Mainly I have 3/4 inch black plastic pipe
coiled on my greenhouse benches spaced 6 inches apart. During night I
cover with floating row cover (Remay, etc) to help hold heat on them
plants. I use one 400 watt HPS (high pressure sodium) light per 5.5 x 11
foot bench.
  I also have a sand bed 6 inches deep which is in a black plastic lined
sand box. In the bottom are inverted trays covered with landscape cloth
and the sand is on top of that. I circulate warm water below the sand.
below all this is 2 inch insulation blue foam insulation board. Sweet
potatoes do nicely in that on cold March nights. I save a bundle on heat
costs.
  A friend has a 7 foot by 30 foot water box lined with plastic. He uses
a domestic water heater (propane) to circulate the warm water.
Corrugated plastic roofing keeps the trays up out of the water. He
germinates his seeds in that. 
  My master sweetpotato plant is doing fine under a 100 watt tungsten
bulb in my living room in a corner where it gets no daylight. 
  I have grown sweetpotatoes for years in a furnace room that has no
natural light. I use 4 foot shoplights spaced 20 inches apart and the
vines grow 10 feet long. 
  Someday I will get all this written up on my website.
-- 
Harold Eddleman Ph.D. Microbiologist.       mailto:indbio@disknet.com 
Location: Palmyra IN USA; 36 kilometers west of Louisville, Kentucky
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