# Heating my Tomato Seed Propagator



## murihikukid (Jun 20, 2009)

Hi...Its Tomato season (nearly in NZ) and I have been studying how to propagate strong healthy seeds in my self watering propagator.....

Apparantly the secret is having heat (70 - 80 degrees) underneath the propagator....I thought of a box structure with one or two light bulbs inside and having my propagator sitting on top with the heat raising up round it..I thought best to control the temperature but how best to do that...Apparantly I need to have the bulbs controled by a thermostat and I found this on the NZ online Auction Trademe........
Digital Thermostat Temp Controller & Probe 12V DC | Trade Me

Would this control light bulbs or is there another simple method .....Any help and ideas would be very much appreciated...Thanks MK


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## SABL (Jul 4, 2008)

How many plants do you plan on starting.......you don't have a tomato farm, do you?? 

I've never used anything more than ambient heat.......my house is kept at 72F in the winter and my seeds sprout in the listed germination time or faster. 

The thermostat looks like it will work but you need a heat source. They do make heat pads for placing under the starter trays but I don't know what is available in NZ......here in the US we have places that cater to gardeners and diy people. You don't have to go far to find a place......

Good luck on the tomatoes........the deer loved mine......:sigh:.


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## Old Rich (May 31, 2007)

I use a heating pad, enclosed in a large zip log bag, with a sheet of aluminum foil to evenly distribute the heat . . works fine for my meager needs. The seeds germinate in about half the time as unheated ones


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## murihikukid (Jun 20, 2009)

Hi ..Thanks for the replies...Yes..I am using a 40 cell propagator (self Watering) ...This is only my second season growing and I learnt plenty last season..I was too late growing my seeds and comparing them with nursery grown plants mine were too spindly ..I believe this was because of having the propagator near a window for basicly any afternoon heat ?? This time I want to have the propagator resting on a box that is supplying 70 -80 F of heat from below and I will put an overhead light on a timer above...So I am hoping for miracles..MK.


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## kendallt (Feb 21, 2007)

I was using aquarium heaters in a picnic cooler filled with water, with an aquarium pump circulating water through loops of tubing in the starter trays. (Wife had her tropical fish for years, finally gave it up, so I had the stuff)

Currently building a small greenhouse addition on my play shed with a heat loop from my wood furnace.

Edit: could do same, but place tubes in a folded towel and set the trays on the towel.


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## murihikukid (Jun 20, 2009)

Hi..I have bought a thermostat ...I have a small fridge and a large freezer with stainless inside from a scrap merchant (small one $5 and large one $2 ) so I am going to use a controled heat source (probably a Bulb) via the thermostat on my seed propagator and then i will transplant them and put them in the large freezer with heating in the bottom and grow lights on top ??? prior to planting out in grower bags in my greenhouse...So I will learn as I go ....In the meantime my plans for my greenhouse roof have come apart.....I have 20mm conduit and was going to lock on the fabric ..throw it up onto the roof and lock the conduit on each side into a convex shape...spreading it out like an accordian ..I thought fittings were available but now find that they are for pressure pipe and not for conduit so I have to make 3 , 4 and 5 way fittings....But thats not a problem....
What is a problem is although I have bought really good reinforced film for the roof..locking it into the conduit (which is slotted) may well be ......

What I would like to do is turn the edge over on my conduit like the photo attached ...I wonder if there is a forum that could give me some tips on how best to do this....then I will have no edges to cut the film when it is locked in by pushing a 12mm tube into the conduit ....thanks Mk


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## kendallt (Feb 21, 2007)

You're not going to find an easy way to do that. Those are extruded at the factory in that shape.

Closest you could get at home would be to sand the edges on your conduit so they are rounded.


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## murihikukid (Jun 20, 2009)

Hi..Yes no doubt you are right ...I did try a heat gun on a piece of PVC and it reacts pretty well ...If one had the brains and the means to make a small former (for want of a better word) that one could push along the slotted tube and maybe turn the edges when heat was applied ???....Its a pity that shipping costs basicly rule out the USA for my buying greenhouse parts ....I saw a $1.50 small used elbow on ebay and it had a $164.00 shipping cost to NZ on it...That is ridiculous and unfortunately from my point of view when I check out ebay I just concentrate on China/Hong Kong listings especially when free Shipping is offered....I wanted Tomato seeds from a USA source and the authorities here required the source to do so much paper work I gave up cause no supplier is going to do what they wanted for a few dollars worth of seeds ..... Mk


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