I would definitely bring them in to germinate. The tomatoes will probably come up in the cold but the germination will be delayed. I will start my peppers and tomatoes the 15th, but I grow them inside.

Ana,

Because the temperatures have been cold, I start the seeds in the laundry room under a heating mat. As soon as they sprout I bring them outside to the porch. If the night is going to be cold like under 40, I bring them in.

Laundry room starter seeds

Seedlings outside in the open porch

Silvia

Ana,

I also use a temperature controlled seed starting heat mats under my seed cups to aid germination. The sensor probe is inserted into one of the seed cups and determines the temperature setting for all. I also use my digital chicken egg hatching thermometer to determine the precise temperature setting as the el-cheapo temperature controller I use has only a blue, green, red dial for the settings. I found the 'green temperature setting' is not a good 'one temperature' fits all seed needs.

The mats may be purchased in many different sizes to accommodate your seed starting work area.

With Florida being so difficult to grow anything, I try to eliminate every possible failure I can eliminate in the growing process.

Lou

I start mine inside too under grow lights. I use the 3oz bathroom solo cups and grow cubes, no matt, I just put them on egg crate light panels so they're not sitting in water. My germination rate is usually 80%, good enough for me considering the time I put into it. They go out on the east side of the house after 3 weeks and get potted up to 16oz drinking cups for another 3-5 weeks before final set. I'm zone 10 and mine are ready to set now but with the recent cold snaps I've had to bring them in twice...hope I don't bit when they go into the ground this weekend. I have to start now because it's so buggy where I'm at that it will be over with for me by mid-May.

Tom

Ok, I will have to take them inside (I hope my cats will not make a mess), but after they germinate it should be safe to keep them on the porch under the light.

Silvia, how do you protect your seedling in the open porch from hard rain? I tried it in the past, but always lost many seedlings due to rains.

Lou, I try to eliminate every possible failure too! I didn't get to heating mats yet! Are they electrical?

Thanks,
ana

Ana

I have 3 dogs and they snack in the garden as long as I am there, they love broccoli, peas, tomatoes. My seedlings are on a shelf where they are safe, maybe you can try that too away from the cats.

The heating pad is a cheap version from Walgreens, it is used for people for pains or something, I put it in the low setting, it has 3 settings. It is especially good for peppers that sometimes are hard to germinate.

I always watch the weather and when is going to be rain, the seedlings get moved back inside the porch where rain don't get them but they still get light.

My dogs this morning after I was harvesting broccoli, they help out too with stems, leaves, everything.

Silvia

Ana,

Yes they are electrical, uses very little electricity like a 40 watt light bulb. Just look for or ask for a seedling heat mat or seed starter heat mat(around $15-20 bucks). The names I see on my different mats are 'Hydrofarm' and 'Growbrite' as the manufacturers. I use them also for cutting starters to provide heat. I've also swiped my wife's 'kitty cozy bed' and used that too. Now the cat won't talk to me anymore. LOL
Even a heating pad like Sylvia is using would help if you set it on the low setting and wrap it in a towel. I use whatever is handy and whatever works. I've even used my wife's sun tanning lamp last year when my cocoa tree got too big to fit under the fluorescent lights. (she mumbled something like "I have to watch you like a kid")

Pepper seeds seem to always need heat to germinate on time otherwise they germinate willy-nilly over a longer period of time.

Lou

Oh Boy TOMATO TALK!! Thanks Ana! Hi everyone!!
This sure has been weird weather! Dennis built me a new pergola this winter...and I started veggie seeds early...
{{gwi:790831}}From New pergola

then they said frost...so we wrapped the pergola like a cocoon... and added some lights for the frostiest nights...
{{gwi:790834}}From New pergola

Todays pics of Zukes, cukes, pumpkin, radishes (Tom's white Icicles included)Romaine and Buttercrunch, Sugar Daddy Peas, Black Knight Eggplant, Tomato seedlings all made it through the rough patches so far. I am determined to have veggies this year!!!
{{gwi:790837}}From New pergola

{{gwi:790840}}From New pergola

{{gwi:790843}}From New pergola

We are ready to cover up again when the temps drop and I can lower the sides to block winds. (I know it looks messy, but it's working.
{{gwi:790846}}From New pergola

Tomatoes so far, Green Zebra, Black Cherry, Snow White Cherry, Galinas Cherry, Creek, Sweet 100s, 1000s, Husky Cherry Red, Husky Dwarf, Mr. Bruno, Dwarf Golden Champion, and some others.
{{gwi:790848}}From New pergola

I love your pergola Cinde! And Sylvia; what kind of dogs are those? ACD? We have Belgian Shepherds; and they like to help out in the garden also. My female always has to go and check on all "her" babies.

Here is my heat mat!

I also use the top of the hot water heater and the top of the upright freezer. Then move them under lights.

I don't really have a good light set up; so these should have gone out today; but it is forecast to be near freezing tomorrow so I'll wait a few days. It is not really easy for me to move stuff in and out; but I can move the trays off the top of the 'heat mat' to the ground and then cover with frost cloth and/or visqueen.

Now, if I can just get tomato seedlings to look like all of yours!

~dianne

Hi Dianne. I guess we are almost neighbors. South Ft. Myers here. I think you have a pretty nice set-up for seedlings there. I just start mine in flats and germinate them with heat from the top of my freezer. That part usually goes well but then I take them outside where they mostly die from damping off.

More cold tonight. Blankets and clothes pins. Isn't this fun?

captturbo,

You have to take them outside in ever increasing stages of sunlight exposure, not all at once and leave them there. Try only one hour the first day, then the second day one and one half hours adding a half hour each day until they are fully acclimated to being outdoors in the sunlight.

That's the full meaning of 'damping off', It is slowly getting them used to a new outdoor environment.

Lou

The biggest factor in raising good compact seedlings is enough fluorescent light. Just regular bulbs are fine. The lights should just about touch the top of the plants from germination to when the plants are removed to the garden. Even just 6 inches above the plants is way too high....it is much better to let the bulbs touch the leaves than to have them too high. The bulbs won't hurt the plant a bit if the leaves touch it.

Because you must have the bulbs so close to the plants you get a very small light footprint, basically it is just from the bulbs to the edge of the reflectors. light intensity is best in the middle of the bulb so try to avoid the last few inches at either end.

In my set up the rack is only 24 inches wide by 4 feet long but in that space there are 3 4 foot light fixtures and the reflector of each one touches it's neighbor. That makes it 6 bulbs to cover 24 inches........but doing so makes stout short thick seedlings.

Couple other tricks for those that don't move the seedling outside is to wick them, so much easier on you and have a small oscillating fan blow on the seedlings at least now and then as it helps to build tough stems and helps them prepare for the outside world.

Diane, you have a very creative seedling nursery! Where there's a will...Don't you just love the many uses of the plastic produce/bakery containers??

Hey capt, where are you in S FtM. I am out Daniels & 82 behind RSW's property.

"You have to take them outside in ever increasing stages of sunlight exposure, not all at once and leave them there. Try only one hour the first day, then the second day one and one half hours adding a half hour each day until they are fully acclimated to being outdoors in the sunlight.

That's the full meaning of 'damping off', It is slowly getting them used to a new outdoor environment.

Lou"

Lou, I think you are cornfuzzing the terms "damping off" with "hardening off" Your advice is golden though and I have been negligent in controlling the amount of sun the tender seedlings get. My bigger problem though is dampening off from using my home made potting soil which isn't sterile. I just in the last week spent $30.00+ to purchase potting soil for my chestnut adventure and to pot up my next baby veggies.

Hi cindeea. I'm West of you in Iona which is on the coast near Sanibel. Not so far away.

Lou, I have just ordered a heating mat!

Bamboo, how many hours of light do seedlings need? I think I set it up to 16 hours. I wonder if more is better.

Ana,

I know some people leave them on 24/7. As a rule I am with you and set it to 16 on.

There are many ways to do things, I NEVER use a heating mat, have not found it necessary when starting seeds inside since the temp. is well controlled. Also, I move my tomato and pepper seedlings outside all at once on the EAST side of my house where they get morning sun and afternoon shade, for weeks 4 through 6-8 until their final set, and I've never had a problem doing this unless frost gets them, which happened for the first time last year.

These are getting lanky because I had to bring them back in due to the cold weather, they should be in their final pots NOW!

This is what they look like when moved to the EAST side of the house. These are cukes and zukes but this is where I also acclimate the maters until they go to their final set.

Tom

Tom,

You don't live in the Florida Arctic like I do, I hit teens here every time you get anywhere near 32F. The cold gets blown off that few thousand acre pasture right to here. My high temp today just barely broke into the 50's for less than an hour. I can't start seeds inside because the cats chew on them so I need the mats for heat. I'm in what they call zone 9A but it is more like 8B because of the huge cattle pasture to my north.
Anybody that starts seeds in outdoor shelters will need heat mats to start seeds early.

Lou

HEY There Tom! Like you, I move all my seedlings out to shade/low direct sun for a week and then expose them further. With the new pergola, Dennis put a lattice roof on it to give me more broken sunlight at it seems to work well, I just move them around under there till plant out.
Lou, where are you? I would die if in the teens. 33 tonight is more than I can tolerate.
Everyone is tucked in tight again tonight...through the peek hole in the side frost cover. there's not an inch of open space!
{{gwi:790860}}From New pergola

{{gwi:790862}}From New pergola

Keep warm everyone! Cuddling night for sure.

Lou, I am with you! It's cold outside and inside! At night I heat the house up to 70F, but during the day 65F. So if like today, the temp outside is not going to be more than 55F, it's going to be cold inside too. Even with the lamp tomato seeds don't get more that 66-70F during the day. It's not good! So with the heat mat I hope to raise the temp. My cats are chewing everything also including green onions and garlic. I will keep the seeds inside until they germinate and take them out, before they destroy them.

Silvia, your dogie is cute! Mine is a bigger mix, runs around in circles and also looking for a broccoli's leaf from me!

cindee,
I'm tucked in the southeast corner of Citrus County, and I abut a huge cattle pasture that's nearly a mile across. The pasture has nothing on it to hold the heat of the day and the north wind blows the radiated cold air right to me. Twice last year my water pipes have burst open from the cold. My well head and water tank are packed with layers of bubble wrap. The temp hit mid 20's this morning.(13 Jan 11)

Ana,
I'm glad you found the heat mat for your seed starting. The mat should really help your seeds to sprout. The recommended time for the fluorescent lights are 14 to 16 hours. You are just fine with 16 hrs.

captturbo,
You are correct, my terminology was wrong but the idea had merit. Don't get old.... the mind fills with cobwebs.

Lou

I never used to need a heat mat but now... sigh. I may have to look into getting one. I started the peppers and one eggplant during the week the weather was nice, but two eggplants still need to germinate.

To all the people that have to start their early seedlings outdoors in this recent surge of 'global warming' that has plunged the temperatures into the 20's and teens this might be a helpful hint for success.

Try using a cheap fish aquarium purchased from Walmart or equivalent with a seed starter heat mat placed underneath. Make sure the aquarium lid has a fluorescent light built into it. I have used this method in my basement in New Hampshire as a seed starter and it has worked super for me.

Anybody who is handy with basic tools can make a comparable 'seed starter' box of any size using Plexiglas and glue. Fluorescent workshop light fixtures from Lowes or HD can provide the needed light when used with a timer, and again I recommend using a heat mat in the bottom.

Lou

Hi Everybody

Today's seedlings under the cold conditions that we are having, at least is sunny in the porch.

And to those who asked about my dogs, they are native Arizona and some sort of mix, here they are today.

She prefers broccoli

{{gwi:45721}}

He prefers tronchuda cabbage, they are at his size level, lol

For those trying to germinate seeds, any bottom heat helps but is not necessary, it sure shorten the time of wait for the seedlings to appear...

Silvia

Got it Lou, I didn't realize you had to start them outside. My cat has never shown an interest, guess I'm lucky on that front...I'm sure tired of dragging them in and out due to this cold weather but I'm won't take the chance on losing them again like I did this time last year.

Tom

Lou,

It still amazes me the temperature differences for you and I just seperated by a couple miles. My low here hit 31, I am thankful for the lakes that surround us as they sure modify our temperatures.

Like Tom I have never used a heat mat though for those that keep a cool house I can see why it is needed.

Bamboo,
It has to be the huge cattle pastures to my north side that brings in all the cold air. The radiational cooling on large grass fields makes the cold air pool up and then slide along the ground to here. The cold is very noticeable close to the ground at the fence line. Unlike you I have no lakes or ponds nearby to modify the air. As I ride my electric bicycle around the area roads I notice very differing temperatures especially when the road dips into the hollows. All that cold air makes outdoor early seed starting very difficult, but it should work well for the fruit and nut trees when they get to bearing size.

Lou

My little set up, I use a string of Xmas rope lights between two aluminum sheet pans, the cups stay around 81 82 deg. Tried something new and sprouted tomato seeds like I do pepper seeds between a folded wet paper towel in a baggie left open- Tom I might have got that idea from you. Some seeds might have sprouted too long before I planted in soil left town for the week between Xmas and New Years, we will see

!