Tim, can you post pics of your setup it would help us help you.

Dale

Hi,

So, it took me a few days to get a photo, but i've linked one below. Sorry, the photo was a bit underexposed (i metered off the lights by accident). The flats in question are on the lower shelf. You can see that they are on 1" thick foam board, and if you look closely you can make out a heating mat. The flat to the left is actually filled with 2" peat pots for some eggplant, but the flats on the right are usual 72 cell. I had these covered with plastic before, but a few sprouts came up, so they aren't covered any longer. I have the pad attached to a thermostat, but it never turns off since my problem is getting the temp up over 75 (ambient is about 65).

The lights on the lower shelf are so high for the dwarf pomegranate you can see in the background there.

Thanks,

-Tim

Here is a link that might be useful: A photo

Tim

IÂm far from experienced but thought I would share what IÂve found to work for me when starting my pepper seeds over the past 3 years.

To keep my heat mat at the correct temp, I have the heat probe end of the heat mat in a cup of soil. Also in the cup is a temperature probe to a digital readout giving me the soil temp. This cup is within the enclosed/covered starter tray. With the heat probe in the soil, the heat mat is only heating the soil to the temp I have selected and doesnÂt run continuously. I also have another temperature probe inside the covered tray that reads the air temp within the tray.

Is your heat probe in the soil and not exposed to the air? If exposed to the air it might be trying to heat the air and would run all the time, over heating your soil and frying your seeds.

If seeds start sprouting before others, I remove to an uncovered tray, so I can keep starter tray covered. Can you remove the sprouts that are up so you can keep tray covered?

Sandy

i would keep the flats covered until atleast 1/2 or more of the seeds are germinated.

I think you are losing alot of your heat to the atmosphere with it wide open like that.

That being said, we don't even use a heat mat, we use just the humidity dome and leave the shoplights on 24hrs aday.
Temps in our basement like this are around 65-70 degrees and we get almost 100% germination in about 10-12 days.

Humidity dome is key though, i think.

kendra

Hi,

thanks for the feedback. The probe is totally covered in soil, so it should have an accurate read of the temp. Even with the covers i wasn't getting up to temp, but i do agree that having the covers would conserve a lot of heat. Also, i had some dome covers from last year that don't quite fit on these trays. As for moving the sprouts elsewhere, it'd be no problem for the peat pots, but kind of a pain for the cell flat. Things are looking ok for now though. I'm not TOO worried.

thanks again.

-Tim