My "IncuTainers" Are Now "Cooking" at 78 Degrees (pics)

[geeboss]

hmmmmm sound like a plan

Ray just add some solar panels to power it.

George

[rnewste]

I think for some, building (or purchasing) a mini-Greenhouse with heater may be the best solution to get an early Spring start. For me, this would be over-kill as I only want to incubate about 32 tomato plants, so a localized heat system for 2 IncuTainers is all that I require which won't spin the electricity meter at a high rate.

Unlike a greenhouse where temperatures are kept within a relatively narrow band day and evening, my goal is to attack the issue of optimizing the plant's growth for a hardening-off 5 to 6 week period just prior to in-ground planting. The task is to provide an optimal temperature environment during this time period only; then the IncuTainers are put away for the rest of the Season.

Goal Number 1: Maintain a soil / moisture constant temperature that will accelerate root development during this 5 to 6 week outdoor period. Here, I would want the root system to be warmed and be held to a constant temperature - day and night. The question is at what optimal temperature will tomato plant roots develop best? Sadly, I do not know the answer to that.

My aquarium heater that just arrived, can be set to temps between 70 and 90 degrees F. in 2 degree increments.



One could go "Rambo" and maintain the water in the reservoir at the full 90 degrees, which would probably keep the potting mix above the water at something in the 80 to 85 degree range once the closed system stabilizes after a few days. Maybe folks here who have Greenhouse growing experience could give some guidance on the ideal soil temperature for young tomato plants.

Goal Number 2: Keep the air chamber temperature from EVER getting below 40 degrees. Note that this Goal is relatively mutually exclusive from Goal #1. While the aquarium heater will have some warming effect within the air chamber of the IncuTainer, it will be minimal at best. Air leakage is for certain, and one doesn't actually want an air-tight environment as fresh air circulation is essential for leaf development and plant health.

I think of this Goal #2 as an "emergency" kind of situation when the ambient air approaches the freezing temperature, while the objective of Goal #1 is to maintain a constant elevated water / soil temperature of 75 to 90 degrees. So that is why I am researching a dual track solution to each of the 2 temperature non-related Goals. I think the Thermistor that turns on at anything below 50 degrees coupled with a low power hair blow-dryer would be the least expensive solution for Goal #2. Thoughts please?

Raybo

[rwsacto]

Hi Ray,

I'm late to the party but I did build and use earthtainers the first time this year. I started my first 2010 tomatoes in February with a 100w aquarium heater in the reservoir. I got good growth, but no early tomatoes.

For your incutainer, my first suggestion is to insulate. How about taking two more of the waste container bodies, split, and use them as outer shells. Put reflextex or sheet styrofoam between the shell and container and top. I would just bungee the shells together, but a more elegant system may be desired. Just to note that the overflow ports should be extended through the insulation and shell. Also set the incutainer on a sheet of insulating foam.

Once the container is insulated, your heating requirement should be significantly reduced. You have the aquarium heater for the water. Much of this heat will now flow upward through the media and keep it warm.

Your concern is nightime temperatures. Kinda like we are having now (28 deg in Sacramento). I would first try one or two 23 watt CFL's on timers inside the top. This would give the added benefit of extending the light growing hours. Another idea is to mount a seed heat mat vertical inside one side of the top.

I currently add a bit of heat to my coldframes with lightbulbs on cold nights. They also have vent openers on the covers to ventilate when the sun is out. A vent opener on your cover may help put your system in hands free mode.

Enough for now, hope this helps,
And thanks for the great job designing and instructing everyone on building earthtainers.

Rick

[Mrs.B _in_WY]

Ray,

I’m late to the party, too, and I see RinTinTin already mentioned part of what I'm about to say...

A bit of background to set the stage:

As a recovering fishaholic (tropical fishkeeping, that is), I’ve wrangled with the heat-the-water or heat-the-air dilemma, too. At the height of my insanity, we had something like 1,000 gallons of water in the basement. Most often the water was confined to its proper fish tank, but there were a couple notable exceptions. The way I was set up, all the tanks needed individual heaters. The electric bill was out of control. It peaked just shy of 4,600 kW or nearly $500. A fishy forum friend, with a much bigger set-up than mine, uses a hot-water circulation system to heat all his tanks and suggested I do the same. I was pretty well set to put his plan in motion before I discovered an even better way to get the electric bill under control – shutting down my fish-raising operation.

Back to how it might apply to your IncuTainers:

The basic set-up requires a container for a sump, a water pump, a heater(s) and plumbing. For the plumbing, I was pricing that flexible stuff … I think it’s called CPVC … It was a lot less expensive than the metal coiled tubing, just not as neat and tidy looking. The process started at the sump with the pump sending water through the CPVC. A few to several loops of CPVC (depending on the tank size) were to run through each tank before the line returned to the sump. The heater(s) would be set several degrees higher than the desired water temp. That’s the bare bones set-up. My fishy friend had his plumbed directly to the water heater. If I recall correctly, he had three or four zones. It was impressive!

Dunno know if any of this can be adapted to your IncuTainers, but I thought I’d throw it all out there.

PS – Fish tanks make dandy mini-greenhouses.

[rnewste]

Hi Mrs. B,

I guess folks here have multiple desires with either growing inside while elevating the ambient temperature to foster plant growth, versus my (original) goal of simply getting a 4 to 6 week jump on more robust plant growth in the early Spring. Certainly for indoor growing in the basement, keeping the water temperature at 75 to 85 degrees would seem to be desirable. This, in addition to top heating / lighting for the leaf and stem systems would seem to be the ideal approach.

My initial goal was to simply keep the plants from freezing when I set them out to harden-off in mid-February. I thought the aquarium heater might keep the plants warm, but this was not the case, as there is air leakage, and the walls of the container air chamber are themselves not a good thermal barrier. So, that is why I am leaning to a dual system of heating the water in the reservoir as well as a blow-dryer to keep the plants above 40 degrees on those cold nights.

For me, a slightly increased electricity bill for this 4 to 6 week period is not an issue. I could see however, where doing this in the basement grow throughout the entire Winter could be expensive.

Raybo

[lowlylowlycook]

Hey, Ray. What do you use to attach the cold frame to to the top of the container? I'm thinking some short bungie cords might be good but I'm betting you have a superior plan.

By the way I'm testing out the 300W heater in my first Earthtainer right now. Exciting!

[rnewste]

Originally Posted by lowlylowlycook

Hey, Ray. What do you use to attach the cold frame to to the top of the container? I'm thinking some short bungie cords might be good but I'm betting you have a superior plan.

By the way I'm testing out the 300W heater in my first Earthtainer right now. Exciting!

llc,

I just use some long nails that go down through the 2 drain holes on each handle, from the upper cold frame, on top of the IncuTainer.

Be careful with that 300 Watt heater - - you may end up with "Green-Fried-Tomatoes"!!!

BTW, I planted out today.

Raybo

[davespitzer]

Hi Ray- I read this thread and the pdf about how to build an "earthtainer" with interest, not having seen one before. The "incutainer" looks like a workable alternative to heating mats - from the photos it looks like an earthtainer with a bottomless tote inverted on top of it, covered with clear plastic. Is that correct?

[rnewste]

Dave,

With the "old" EarthTainer II design, the upper 3/4 of the second container was literally thrown away. I simply attached a Plexiglas sheet to the inverted section, and used 4 small "L" brackets to hold it in place. This piece sat on top of a normal EarthTainer to act as a Cold Frame.

With the new EarthTainer III design, there is no such left-over piece (which is a GOOD thing).

Raybo

[davespitzer]

An ingenious design! I've tried other containers with limited success, mostly because of irregular watering which this would eliminate. It should also eliminate gopher damage! I will build a couple for my daughter this spring, as she has almost no space to garden. Thanks!

[rnewste]

Dave,

When you do go to build them, be sure to check at this link for the latest Construction Guide. I will be updating it with better photos as the current version was compiled in the middle of Winter, and I could not do very good planting photos, for obvious reasons.

http://earthtainer.tomatofest.com/

Raybo

[lowlylowlycook]

One thing that I noticed while waiting for my LakeTainer to thaw out is that potting mix is a pretty good thermal insulator. I'm thinking that that's why the aquarium heaters aren't keeping the air warm. It's much easier for the heat to escape through the thin container walls.

[davespitzer]

Originally Posted by rnewste

Dave,

When you do go to build them, be sure to check at this link for the latest Construction Guide. I will be updating it with better photos as the current version was compiled in the middle of Winter, and I could not do very good planting photos, for obvious reasons.

http://earthtainer.tomatofest.com/

Raybo

Thanks, Raybo, I will do that. You've obviously put a lot of thought into this!

[rnewste]

I updated the Guide yesterday (March 20). No significant changes, just a few better photos and text clarifications.

http://earthtainer.tomatofest.com/pd...tion-Guide.pdf

Raybo

[cushman350]

Originally Posted by rnewste

The least expensive solution I have found to keep the temperature in the plant's air chamber from going below 40 degrees, is to use 2 devices (in addition to the assumed aquarium heater in the water reservoir).

First, I have found this 110V thermostatic switch:



Easy Heat EH-38 Freeze Thermostatically Controlled Valve and Pipe Heating System

Features

• Thermostatically controlled pipe heating system
• For use with Easy Heat Freeze Free cable
• For dry locations only
• Power indicator light that lights up when the thermostat is energized
• shuts off power when the temperature rises to 50-degree F/10-degree C

The second device is (Dear Wife's) electric hair dryer suspended in the middle of the IncuTainer. This, set at "ON" in the 500 Watt ("LOW") position plugged into the above thermal switch should keep the plants nice and warm when the temperature in the air chamber falls below 50 degrees.

An additional "benefit" of the blow-dryer is that the air motion it creates inside the chamber will simulate wind, and should help harden off and strengthen the plants inside.

Switch cost: $18.00 on Amazon.com with Free Shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Heat-EH-3...0127974&sr=1-3

Hair blow-dryer cost: About $15.00 at your local Drug Store

MAKE SURE YOU PLUG THIS INTO A "GFCI" PROTECTED OUTLET ONLY.

Raybo

The Easy Heat EH-38 thermostatically controlled valve and pipe heating system automatically turns on heating cable only when needed (35-degrees or below).

Not coming on until ambient temp get down to 35° is a little too low, isn't it? I guess I could spend alot more for an adjustable low and high limit.