diy propagators

[littlebabybird]

My husband wants to make me a propagator,
does anyone have any ideas of how and where to get parts?
ideally i need to be able to control and vary the temp
lbb

[littlebabybird]

[tonybloke]

you'll need a soil warming cable, with thermostat. any good garden center should have them, if not, try these, they are the best
http://www.simplycontrol.com/
post some photo's of progress?

[Barnowl]

Might be worth a look here as well, the thermostats look  a bit more economical.

http://www.jungleseeds.co.uk/HardwareOrders/index1.html

I got a biogreen thermostat from them which seems to work pretty well.

A cheaper way is to use an ordinary mains time clock and experiment to find the number of hours a day you need it on to keep the temperature up. (You'll still need a thermometer).


PS If you look at the ready made propagators and if you want an early start for tomatoes / chillies etc in a cold or frost free greenhouse, I'd avoid any propagators with under 40W (e.g. Biogreen Digital). They're too underpowered to give the necessary temperature uplift (as I found out to my cost).

[Tee Gee]

This is how I built mine;

I have a thermostatically controlled heated bench for rooting cuttings or germinating seed that require a temperature of between 50°/60°F (10°/15°C).

The 2.1m x 0.75m (7'x 2.6') hot bed is a box formed with treated timber and lined with 1" (25mm) thick polystyrene sheets, and filled with river sand.

In the sand, is placed an 25m (80') 300watt soil warming cable controlled by a 'Rodstat'



I hope that gives you food for thought.

[littlebabybird]

brilliant everyone thankyou
lbb