Hi all,
I've got a couple of heated propogators that I've put some tomatoes, chilies and aubergine varities into.
The seeds are planted into 9 cell half sized trays and placed directly into the propogators.
Unfortunaltey the reading of the soil temperature in them is around 30 degrees C which seems way to hot when compared to the avergae temp on the seed packets being in the 20 degrees C area.
So does anyone have a suggestion of how to bring the soil temp down a bit?
I was thinking of perhaps lining the propogator with sand or propping up the trays with some kind of support so they are not in direct contact with the surface of the propogator.
Has anyone tried these idea? If so what did you do?
Regards,
Chappy.
I agree about putting a layer of sand down, also you could leave the covers off so some of the heat dissipates into the air - just a thought.
Hi Chappy
i have a propagator that gets a bit hot I to have put sand on the bottom aprox 2" and then a sheet of backing foil shiny side down and another 2" of sand on top seems to have worked with temps about 20- 22c . :D
You could go all the way and fit a new reostat if you were inclined, Maplins electronics would possible have one :-\
Pickle ;D
Quote from: Stevens706 on March 20, 2008, 12:06:20
I agree about putting a layer of sand down, also you could leave the covers off so some of the heat dissipates into the air - just a thought.
hi Stevens, Yes I did think about that but wondered if these kind of plants axctually liked the humidity of having the lid on?
Chappy.
Quote from: Pickle on March 20, 2008, 12:15:09
Hi Chappy
i have a propagator that gets a bit hot I to have put sand on the bottom aprox 2" and then a sheet of backing foil shiny side down and another 2" of sand on top seems to have worked with temps about 20- 22c . :D
You could go all the way and fit a new reostat if you were inclined, Maplins electronics would possible have one :-\
Pickle ;D
The sand/baking foil techniqe sounds like a plan Pickle. I'll give it a go. And hopefulyl I'll have less leggy seedling this year.
Chappy.
Buy yourself a cheap plug in timer and set it so it s on for an hour then off for an hour. It works great with my two that don't have stats on them.
Quote from: northener on March 20, 2008, 13:38:22
Buy yourself a cheap plug in timer and set it so it s on for an hour then off for an hour. It works great with my two that don't have stats on them.
Doh! Never thought of that and I have one of those timers to turn my washing machine on so my washing is done when I get up. :)
Chappy.
I use a piece of capillary matting in the bottom of mine, and I use sand on my hot bed.
The sand always wants to be moist so to ensure this I put a bit of plastic over the sand and this stops a lot of evaporation.
Indeed. You should have a heatsink of some sort, for efficiency. But this doesn't necessarily reduce the temperature. As TG, I use a double layer of capillary matting - but to hold moisture.
Propagators should be shaded from direct sunshine or they can be like an oven.
I do the same as Northerner but just have it on overnight. Toms etc have germinated well and hopefully there is not such a shock when they are removed.
I did the same last year after someone here suggested it, and it did work!
Thanks all. Sounds like a combination of lining the tray and using a timer will sort me out.
Hi all,
Just a quick thanks to you all for your advice.
The sand for use as a heatsink and the timer to control the heat works a treat. Now able to get a nice range of temperatures to suit.
Tomato seedlings are looking the best I've grown in my short gardening career and first true leaves on their way.
And peppers/chilis coming through now and not reaching for the stars!
Turning them every day and taking the lid off as soon as the come through, watering not too much and not letting them get dry and the afformentioned heating tips have changed my fortunes.
A little TLC rather than leaving them to get on with it is the new strategy. :)
Thanks again.