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seeds Germination Station Ideas

C

cmpman1974

I'm looking for all ideas on how to build a decent germination box. I"m just not thrilled lately with my inability to control temps precisely with heat mats. I'm having some difficulties germinating some wild peppers and I believe it's temperature fluctuation issues.

I'm not handy. I know AJ and ThePodPiper have built some nice ones. What kind of temps are you getting in the boxes w/o bottom heat? If you were to install a few regular light bulbs on top of a sealed chamber, does this provide a stable temperature within the box of around 86-88 deg?

Other ideas? I'm looking to make something that can hold at minimum four flats and preferrably maybe six.

All ideas welcome. Please show pictures when possible for ideas. :)

Chris
 
Wet paper towel ziplock works consistently. I've seen willard post his instructional :) Never germed wild peppers but works for pubescens, chinenses, annuums, baccatums. Even works for small tropical fruit seeds including mango. Just have to be patient with certain seeds. For example papaya and culantro may take a month to germ. Fortunately peppers have been easy for me and generally sprout in week. Of course all seeds have to be viable.

Used to use thermostat controlled heat mat, but found any warm source like monitor, cable modem would germinate even though temps may fluctuate. Seems as long as it was consistently warm and not specifically in certain narrow temp range i got sprouts.

Good luck growin.
 
Also, if you are using a bottom heating pad, and still getting fluctuations, you could buy a temperature controller. The controller would have a probe that you put in your seed starting medium, and you set it for what heat level you want (ie 85 degrees F), and it will shut the heat pad off when it hits that temp, and turn it on when it falls below.
 
I use that already Nova. I just don't believe they are as accurate as we think. :) I try paper towel and it works OK, but I sprout a LOT. Imagine hundereds of varieties at once. Impossible to manage with paper towel. Willard has a lot more self-control than me. He's the most disciplined grower on Earth and doesn't let variety hype get him. :) I'm pretty good germinating regular species like Chinense, Pubescens, Frutescens, etc. Wilds are more finnicky at times. I know it's me as 915River has better luck with his Aeroflow.
 
I seem to be in the same boat. I am interested in the comparison you come up with if you can get the temps consistent.
 
I had a hydrofarm thermostat controller I was using with a quality heat mat. I always set it for 85 deg and inserted the sensor in the soil. It never had a way to show the actual temp so I ASSUMED it hit the target goal of 85 deg. The new Hydrofarm digital model which I bought today DOES have a readout of current temp to compare to desired goal of 86 deg. Would you know it? The damn heat was never exceeding 76.6 degrees. That's enlightening. We think these heat mats are accurate and able to lift temps 20 deg above ambiebt temps. NO. I'm getting closer with a modification I made to the design of the mat.

I have some fear of regular heating pads causing fires in a home. I think they're a better idea if they are the older types w/o auto shut off after 2 hrs. :) People drop $40-$50 on these commercial heat mats and they lack the ability to increase temps to 85-90 deg.

Chris
 
FYI, I solved the issue! I put a 3/4" thick piece of styrofoam underneath the entire heat mat. I previously had it on a padded table. Immediately the thermometer is reading 87 deg F! The insulative properties of the foam are directing heat upwards into the soil. :) Now I'll see if the 10 deg bump in soil temps yields germination improvement. Most things will eventually germinate anyways, but it'll take longer. May as well do it right.
 
I've got an independent thermometer to use for validating the temps of the controllers, and will definitely use the styrofoam to assist the process.

However, I was thinking about your attempts to cultivate "wild" seeds, and am wondering if a different methodology is needed. Basically, what I'm thinking is that we've bred the domesticated cultivars to be used for germinating at specific temperatures, but a wild cultivar may need conditions that mimic the wild world where they grow.
 
In all posts about germination temperatures, people say what the temps are with some conviction and I'm quite sure that they don't really know the temp.

Usually, they read the promotional literature and that is the datum. If you really want to know what the temperature is, get a good thermometer and get it calibrated. I have both an IR thermometer and a probe type thermometer and when they read more than 1F difference in the same test, I get them calibrated.

My Wally's heating pad will keep 87F consistently. I insulate the pad from the top and bottom.
 
I tried something new this year: I put my little greenhouses in a plastic-box filled with water. I got the right water temperature with an aquarium-heater. Right now it works fine, but I only began on sunday, so I will see, how fast the seedlings will show up. I got place for 72 seedlings and achieved a constant temperature aobut 81 degrees.

Here is a photo:
 
cmpman1974 said:
I had a hydrofarm thermostat controller I was using with a quality heat mat. I always set it for 85 deg and inserted the sensor in the soil. It never had a way to show the actual temp so I ASSUMED it hit the target goal of 85 deg. The new Hydrofarm digital model which I bought today DOES have a readout of current temp to compare to desired goal of 86 deg. Would you know it? The damn heat was never exceeding 76.6 degrees. That's enlightening. We think these heat mats are accurate and able to lift temps 20 deg above ambiebt temps. NO. I'm getting closer with a modification I made to the design of the mat.

I have some fear of regular heating pads causing fires in a home. I think they're a better idea if they are the older types w/o auto shut off after 2 hrs. :) People drop $40-$50 on these commercial heat mats and they lack the ability to increase temps to 85-90 deg.

Chris
Click to expand...

Last year my wife bought me a new 2 tray heat mat for Christmas. So I sow 1 tray of tomatoes and 1 tray of late started peppers. 3 days later I go to check on them to see if any of the tomatoes have sprouted, and the soil was bone dry. The soil must have been at least 110 degrees. My old heat mat never got anywhere close to that hot. I fried the entire tray of tomatoe seeds and most of the peppers. Luckily I still got about 40% germination out of the peppers which allowed me to still try the new varieties. This year, I bought one of those digital thermostats to make sure that doesn't happen again.

jacob
 
cmpman1974 said:
I know AJ and ThePodPiper have built some nice ones. What kind of temps are you getting in the boxes w/o bottom heat? If you were to install a few regular light bulbs on top of a sealed chamber, does this provide a stable temperature within the box of around 86-88 deg?
Click to expand...

Chris...in my germinator (it has upper and lower identical chambers that will hold four 72 cell flats...the chambers are 2' X 2' X 4' with two standard shop light fixtures in each chamber), I use a remote bulb thermostat (and like willard says, I check with another thermometer also) that has a 3/5/7 degree allowable variance...I keep it on 3 degrees. I use two 100 watt halogen bulbs for heat in each chamber. When the temp hits 83, the bulbs come on and heat it to about 89 then it shuts off.

I do not have to use any heat other than the ambient temperature inside the germinator that is controlled with light bulbs...once the temperature stabalizes, the fluros put out enough heat to keep the temp there...the germinator is in my garage and the garage doesn't get below 50 most of the time....
 
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