Right now I have a bunch of plants down in my basement under fluorescent lights and the soil temp is around 65. I've noticed a lot haven't grown all that much since planting around 3/12. Some are still under an inch tall. These are pretty much all the chinense varieties. I have a soil heating mat that is supposed to heat it up 10-20 degrees over ambient temperature. Would it be a good idea to get them under that or will they be fine at the current 65? There's not really anywhere else I can move them either, the basement is really the only place I can hang the lights.
-
Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.
soil Soil temperature
- Thread starter roadhouse
- Start date
millworkman
eXtreme
80 is mainly for germination. You would want to keep the roots a fair bit cooler than that. Think of how cool it is a couple inches below the surface on an 80 degree day.
My experience has been that a lot of these peppers start out pretty slow early on, and pick up speed after their roots grow a bit.
Chinense are slow, but if you could enclose them the heat from your light would probably bump the temp up 10 to 15 degrees and help growth. I wouldn't use a heat mat after they have sprouted.