• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

seeds How hot is to hot for germination?

Sneaky6

Sneaky6

Hey everyone,

I started my first plants from seed 2 days ago and had a little concern about germination temperature in the dome.

My sensor read a max temp of 105F yesterday when I lowered the light a bit. Is that too hot for them?
I raised it back up and it chills between 95-99F

I have read a lot about not being warm enough but have not been able to find a max temp.

Help is greatly appreciated.
 
Yes, 105F is too hot - you start to cook the seeds at that point. Best temps are between 75 and 85 - shoot for 80. If you have a heat mat, you'll want to get a thermostat for it so it can't get as hot. I just put mine into a sealed plastic container with a damp coffee filter and put them on top of the fridge until they sprout. 
 
Awesome. Thanks for the help. The room stays pretty warm so I'm gonna pull the heat mat.

Do you think the seeds are ok or did I kill them?
 
Hi,
 
I am also in San Jose and am wondering if now is a good time to start germinating? Do you grow inside until March or ? I have cleared an area inside with nice diffuse light for germinating and wondering when is a good time to start?
 
I find probes in the soil much more accurate. Inside my grow trays the air temp was about 31c while soil was about 25c. I have accidently due to work have my seeds hit 35c but they germinated just fine. Not sure how it will affect their overall growth. Now nothing runs without a thermostat.
 
illWill said:
105! Are you germing under HID? lol
Click to expand...
 
No a 200w CFL. But I have very poor (Actually non existent) ventilation right now. I also had the unit pretty close to the tray. A few more weeks and I will have my door properly modified.
 
Trever1t said:
Hi,
 
I am also in San Jose and am wondering if now is a good time to start germinating? Do you grow inside until March or ? I have cleared an area inside with nice diffuse light for germinating and wondering when is a good time to start?
Click to expand...
 
I am strictly growing indoors. It gets too cold in the winter here in San Jose for them to survive. Even though the weather is still not dropping too cold right now I brought my other plants inside about a week ago and chopped them for some new growth over the winter. 
 
I don't have a backyard so I couldn't tell you when to germinate (Probably January though) and I run indoors most of the year. A few smaller plants get a spot on my balcony when the weather is good though.
 
Sarge said:
I find probes in the soil much more accurate. Inside my grow trays the air temp was about 31c while soil was about 25c. I have accidently due to work have my seeds hit 35c but they germinated just fine. Not sure how it will affect their overall growth. Now nothing runs without a thermostat.
Click to expand...
 
Yeah this is exactly what I did. I put the probe into the rockwool so now I get a seed temp reading.
 
Today is day 3 so I figured another week or so before I see the Thai Dragons pop up as I think they are early germinators.
 
Yeah.. I agree with the 75-85 range... with 80 being perfect.

This spring my new heat mat got too hot (90+F) and I eneded up with very poor germ rates.  So that also bring up antoher issue... make sure your heat mat has a nice thermostat.... and test it before actually using it with your valuable seeds.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top