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RE: Heating cables How To?


I use a heating cable in my homebuilt light stand (a 4 foot square wooden stand which stands 6 feet high, I got the (slightly inaccurate) directions in a book called _The Big Book of Gardening Skills_ by Garden Way editors). 

My stand has a 4 x 4 foot area six inches deep which is lined with plastic. I add about 1 inch of moist sand, then carefully position the cable according to the directions regarding spacing, not overlapping etc. Then I add another inch of moist sand followed by about 3 inches of moist peat moss. Moisture makes the heat conduct, but they caution against the cable sitting in water. This year I placed a line of empty upside down tofu containers on the second sand layer before adding the peat moss. I ran these lines directly under the four 48 inch fluorescent fixtures I have suspended on pulleys in the light stand. I have been removing the tofu containers and "sinking " the seedling pots (just regular thin plastic 4 pack cells or peat pots) after they have sprouted. 

The heating cable I got from Gurney's (because it was cheapest), it has a thermostat pre-set at 72 degrees but I get the peat moss surrounding my pepper and eggplant starts up to 85 degrees by covering them after sinking them and keeping the fixture above them very close (about 2 inches away). For most seeds I just start in pots  in a covered plastic seed starting tray on top of the peat moss. They are usually at about 65 degrees. Hope this helps.

Tom Scut (Portland OR Zone 8)
http://www.teleport.com/~scut/garden.htm
----------
From: 	Souliere[SMTP:souliere@binary.net]
>This year I picked up some heating cables to heat my seedling area.
But the trays I have been using plastic drip trays with 6 packs on top
are specifically indicated as a not to do by the cable maker.

Those of you who warm start your plants, who do you do it what
kind of trays do you use.  Or should I just make a few wooden flats?<


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