Heat tape for cold buckets

[Three Berries]

Winter time is here and my flower room is cold, gets down to around 60F when the lights are off. Growing in 3.5 gal buckets in soil. So Has anyone used some heat tape and a temp controller to wrap around their buckets?

They make thin flexible heat tape for reptile cages in various lengths. Sell connectors and terminators. I have plenty of Inkbird temp controllers.

Here's a pic of the bulk material. Cut to length they say.

 

[flylowgethigh]

Space heater?

 

[exploziv]

Nailing the temp with those will be kind of tricky! A temp controller heat mat would probably do a better job. Unless you plan on tempcontrolling each bucket individually..

 

[Three Berries]

Too much air movement exhausting out for any heating of the air to be effective. It's the same problem with the humidity. And I though about a heat mat but they buckets are not sitting flat in the tray, sitting on a 1/2" spacer.

The Inkbird should control the that pretty good. I have one running a small seedling heat mat now and it maintains 75F within a couple degrees. Temp sensor is at the bottom of the solo cup so kind of slow to react.

It looks like you buy it by the foot and then just crimp on some connectors and connect to the controller. Probably wrap the bucket in some bubble wrap insulation. Not sure where to put the sensor. Probably directly in the soil an inch in or so near the bottom.

I should probably just quit growing this time of the year and head to Florida like the rest of the farmers.

 

[Three Berries]

Got my heat tape today. 4" like in this video on how to attach the power cord. Pretty simple.

Pics to follow when I get it all done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4IhEI6xRqc

 

[zachrockbadenof]

60f doesn't seem to be toooo low during lites out- my flower room gets to 78/82 during the winter and touches 60 or even 58 at nite - doesn't seem to cause any hiccup - i have read some growers like a temp diff of 15degrees, i'm around 20degrees, but doesn't seem to harm the plants...

 

[Three Berries]

The soil is getting down to 60f or lower if it gets colder. I don't want to use the heat tape to heat the room just keep the feet about 75F or so. It gets up to about 71-72F with the LEDs and 66F-70F house temps. The room the closet is in is unheated but I'm getting a tent to isolate and seal it off better inside the closet. I feel it's pulling air form the cold room. Won't know until the tent but the tent should also contain the heat better in the winter seeing it's 6' instead of 8' height as the closet is.

 

[Three Berries]

That was easy. Didn't get enough insulators though. The aluminum HVAC tape is permanent so I didn't want to use that. Just used some Gorilla duct tape. The buckets are tapered so be sure to get the the heat tape flat, it has to be a little out of square. Going to use 1 Inkbird controller for both. Going to put the sensor on the outside where the tape is taped together. To put it in the soil I need a better probe or a well to protect it.

 

[Three Berries]

Found some directions after the fact.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0442/8753/files/Flexwatt_parallel.pdf?4632153124885612981
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0442/8753/files/Flexwatt_connectors.pdf?4632153124885612981
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0442/8753/files/FLEXWAT2012.pdf?5983973243613657645

 

[zachrockbadenof]

that the air temp goes down to 60,does not mean that the soil temp is also 60... i would think it would take longer for the soil to lose heat then the surrounding air...

 

[Three Berries]

I have a thermometer in the soil and it usually was whatever the room temp was when the lights come on. Usually 60F. The room the closet is in is unheated but I pull in house air. I suspect that the room is pulling air from the crawl space to be getting that cold or the wall plate. I have a tent coming but don't know if I'll set it up right away.

But this morning the soil temp was 70F near the stalk with the controller set at 74-75F. Ran three hours yesterday. Around a 20 watt heater.

 

[Three Berries]

Found out you can only use one controller for one heater. One or the other is always either too hot or too cold depending on moisture content of the soil using just one.

 

[Three Berries]

I got a dual temp controller. One bucket one controller. Maintaining 75F with ,70F high temps.

Pymeter Digital Temperature Controller Dual Probe PY-20TT

Reptile Thermostat Controlled Outlet Cooling Heating Pad Heat Mat Thermostat for Reptiles

 

[Three Berries]

Seems pretty critical to make sure the probes are deep enough they stay in wet soil. I had them up about an inch in at the top and the temps near the root ball began to overrun the setting, up to 80F. Stuck them down about 3/4 of the way down into the bucket and it reads and acts like it should. Lowered setting to 72-73F from 74-75F

 

[Three Berries]

As the soil dries out the temp increases from the center out I've found. Running at 75F where the probe is an inch in from the outside edge and it will hit 80F near the stem when it needs watered.

 

[Amynamous]

Winter time is here and my flower room is cold, gets down to around 60F when the lights are off. Growing in 3.5 gal buckets in soil. So Has anyone used some heat tape and a temp controller to wrap around their buckets?

They make thin flexible heat tape for reptile cages in various lengths. Sell connectors and terminators. I have plenty of Inkbird temp controllers.

Here's a pic of the bulk material. Cut to length they say.

That’s a really good idea!
I may try doing that with my outside grow next winter.
It gets below freezing at night, but most days are above freezing.

 

[Three Berries]

Got a couple of these at Walmarts today, oil drain pans. 23 qt capacity and 22"x20"x6"H. They should fit in the 2x4x6' tent just perfect. Going to put a temp probe between plant tray and the drain pan. Should moderate the temp quite a bit. They have smaller ones too that I think are 15" so would fit in my smaller tent if this all works out.

I have a water bed heater too that would fit just perfect underneath these.


97F today but never too early to prepare for winter.

 

[Three Berries]

 

[troutman]

Keeping pots on something off a cold floor will help.
Electric blanket set on low under a tarp may work.
Put the plants on the tarp.

 

[Ca++]

This is to raise the pots 10f's higher than the air?
A 2x4 tent can't need that much air movement to keep the RH down. Personally I would heat the inlet air and insulate the tent. A small heater on a proportional stat. A few reptile mat stats work like that now. They don't go on/off to regulate the heat, but rather up&down. The further from the target temp you are, the more they try.

What's the lighting load? 240w maybe. So 160w of heat, that's sucked out without passing the plants? I'm just getting an idea of how big a heater you would need. Giving you no root hot-spots, and buckets you can still get in the shower for cleaning. At 160w, many people use a couple of 80w domestic lamps in a metal box. Perhaps an old ammo box with a gas flue duct through it. So no light can enter the duct, as it just passes through the warm space. I guess you could repurpose the foils you have. Wrapping the flue. The fill the box with fibreglass or rockwool as insulation. You could perhaps use a cardboard box, but a nice fore proof earthed metal box would be better.

Continuing on a safety theme.. mains round a plant pot. Wires everywhere. Multiple controllers.
You have the skills to heat the incoming air, and perhaps the equipment. Keep the room clean. You may get a pest problem that means blasting everything. The heated jackets with those mains connectors are not ideal when you need to clean everything. Though it's pretty trick.