Quote:
Originally Posted by clkeiper
Cjp. if you drop your seeds off to me I will start them, if I had an extra heat mat to let you borrow I would. let me know if that works for you. I would be happy to do it. Menards had them a few weeks ago at about 15.00. maybe they still have them.
"My Home Depot and Walmart sell the heat mats off the rack for about $25. Thay can cook your tomato babies without a thermostat.
As mentioned in another thread, it helps to put a foam slab, such as a drink cooler lid or a packing material sheet under the pad and cover the top of the tray with a few layers of towels or sweatshirts, etc. to insulate the seed tray. Its been a really cold winter and the heat is going non stop so I have lots of floor space near heat vents and I haven't used my heat mats. A first for me.
- Lisa "
I have never had those heat mats cook my seeds or plants. I have had sunshine cook them, but that is it. I have heat mats with thermostats which can get pretty hot and the plain old black "plug them in ones" and they don't get that hot. if you don't water the trays if they get dry you can kill off newly germinating seeds, though.
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Carolyn,
I have my cheap Hydrofarm/Jffy heat mats on a foam slab. I use the thinnest 10X20 that I own (too flimsy for carry) with a plastic top. I cover the plastic top with several layers of towels and stadium blankets.
I plugged in the heat mat for a few hours without the thermostat. The Jiffy mix was fully moistened. Yipes it was hot when I went to install the thermostat. An soil thermometer showed the temp as 100, probably more but I got busy pulling everything off to let it cool. The thermostat showed 90 when I plugged it, about 5 minutes off the mat.
My word to the wise is if you are placing the mat on the floor or table without insulation underneath you are heating the surface below and not optimizing the heat. Also using the plastic lid without covering wastes heat (and electricity and the life of the mat.) This works great for hot pepper germination. Without a thermostat it works too well for my sweet peppers and tomatoes.