Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: George the Pigman on January 30, 2018, 11:19:42
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I have been looking at a way of starting my seeds earlier this year. I have an unheated greenhouse and the ones I start in the house always end up leggy if I start them too early.
Looking at options I have seen good reviews of the Vitapod Propagator which has a variable thermostat and, above all, a fluorescent strip light. However they are a bit pricey.
Has anyone any experience of using one of these?
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They look like the dog's dooberies. I suppose it depends on how many plants you want to raise that need those conditions.
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The cost for that 55cm model is nearly twice as much as I spent on my 8' x 3' hotbed.
OK that was quite a few years ago but I would suggest you price up a heating cable or a heated mat and add to that a rodstat and make your own hot bed.
With a little bit of thought you could build yourself a 'flatpack' hot bed if you are short of space or a solid one like I have.
Have a look here at my set up!
http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Content/G/Greenhouse%20heating/GH%20Heating.htm
(http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Content/G/Greenhouse%20heating/GH%20Heating.htm)
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I'm using the small version - Xmas present. Started some early leeks last Saturday and they were poking through yesterday with some more starting to show today. Don't know whether they will go leggy yet, but so far so good! A hot bed isn't very practicable for me.
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Well I bit the bullet and ordered the smaller Geopod today. I'll let you know how it got on.
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Has it arrived yet..? Interested in how it’s getting on.
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Yes I ordered the Geopod (smaller version) and in came in a couple of days.It comes with two strip lights, an adjustable thermostat with an attached probe, the base (which contains the integrated heating unit) and the lid (which seems a bit light and flimsy!)
I set it up in our attic which has one small loft window so the light is a bit low. I connected up the thermostat in line with the power plug for the base and fed the probe through the lid via one of the two vents. I set up the lights but did not initially switch them on. The first problem I had was getting a high enough temperature. I set it for 28C (for pepper and tomato plants) but struggled to get to more than 22C. I emailed the company and they replied promptly. Turned out I need to have the probe about one inch from the base. There were no instructions supplied with the Geopod (I had to download them) and this was not clear in these instructions! I still struggled a bit to get right up to 28C but had no problems when I switched the lights on as they generate a fair bit of heat.
Apparently the maximum "uplift" you can get with this is 12C above ambient temperature (this is said to be better than conventional heated propagators). This is going to limit its use early in the year in a greenhouse with a power supply (depending of course on what sort of seeds you are trying to germinate). I haven't got that luxury so I have to do this indoors.
Currently I have the lights permanently on and have a good germination of the seeds. They don't look straggly so it's going fine so far.
What I need to do when the seedlings get a bit bigger decide when to switch off the lights and for what period. I have bought a power timer from Argos that I can programme for that purpose. What one would like ideally is lights with a sensor that detects the background light level and gradually adjusts the light to deal with variations of light. I suspect the big commercial growers do this!!
In summary, a bit of a fiddle to set up and get right but so far so good.
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Well I thought,at the end of the season, I would give my final opinion of this propagator. Basically I was very impressed. Everything did well and healthy robust plants emerged to be potted on in the greenhouse or garden. The main problem was the instructions that come with it are unclear and important bits of information are missing. I had to email the company (Greenhouse Sensations) to clear things up. Once I got that information it worked fine.