what are ways to help keep soil warm?

[Guest]

i need some ways to keep my soil at a tempeture that helps growth .i have 8 plants in 4 gallon pots and the tempetures around hear is cold .thay are 3 chrystals and4 ak47. any suggestions will help.i turned off my exsust frome my 600 watt to heat things up.i have 2 400 watt mh and hps hanging in ther .

 

[Guest]

Disclamer: I'm NOT telling you what to do or what I do is right or that there nothing better.

now with that out of the way, this is what I do. I use a electric blanket, I cut a piece of ridged foam (the blue \ pink stuff) a little bigger than the footprint fold the blanket to fit not letting it hang over the board. Cut a piece of poly 4 -6" bigger then everything, lay that over the top of blanket. Place your pots on that. Plug blanket into a timer that will handle the watts. you'll have to play with the times and settings but I never run mine for more than 30 minutes on at a time. It doesn't get real cold here, I run mine 30 minutes on three times with the blanket on medium on the real cold nights .

 

[Guest]

thanks jackson i was thinking of heating blankets i wonder how many i need.and wher could i get some cheap ones in the usa.

 

[BurnOne]

PLEASE don't do that!

Simply get the pots up off the floor a few inches and you'll be fine. Make a shelf or something but by all means don't use an electric blanket under a flower pot. GEEZE!

Stay safe.
Burn1

 

[Smurf]

Burn one is spot on!.... don't do it, there is a good chance you'll have a problem with your residence burning down!..... (I personally) have never heard of a water proof electric blanket. But don't give up...... I'm sure some one here has worked out a solution.
Possibly a water bed heater/mat....... thermostatically controlled. That would be a safer option.
Or there is ceiling/wall insulation....... wrapped around the pots........ but you will need to lift the pots off the floor/ground first, maybe sit them on some of that rigid polystyrene foam the Jackson first mentioned.

 

[subfloral]

i just keep mine up on pots with the ballasts interspersed between them, that seems to help keep the roots happy, but the temperatures here aren't all that severe

 

[Guest]

Good call on that waterbed heater. I got given a waterbed this summer and be using that pad instead myself if it heats up.

 

[Mackawber]

I got a small grow room and I use an small dual wattage electric (ceramic type) heater to heat the room during the dark period. The heater is on the floor and is aimed at the planting container. The container itself is off the floor, raised several inches to allow warm air to pass under it. The heater has a fan which blows warm air at the container and is thermostatically controlled. I mounted a small fan on the top of the room which blows air at the top of the light reflector and prevents the air from becoming stratified in layers. There is another small fan at canopy level blowing across the plants too. During the night phase, those fans shut down when the lights turn off and the heater comes on when the temps fall below 60 degrees.

When I water, I heat the water up to about 85 degrees and the roots love it. Its cold around here too, but doing all those things helps keep the soil warm throughout the container.

 

[odin_]

I keep an electric blanket under my cloner all the time. I set it on low and for the record it says it is waterproof right on it. It also shuts off by itself and turns on by itself.

 

[Guest]

fixing

fixing

I keep an electric blanket under my cloner all the time. I set it on low and for the record it says it is waterproof right on it. It also shuts off by itself and turns on by itself.

He didn't mean no harm, it's just dated info passed down for the 70's. back then they where not waterproof and did not have built in protections. Any new one will have. Preaty much edit(see rules below and read the instructions and warnings)/edit if you bought anything electric you need to ask your self "Is my room safe to plug this into" not "Is this safe to plug into my room". NOT DIY thats a whole new game. As far as the blanket goes it's saver on the floor edit(on a piece of fire rated foam, covered)/edit with the cord flat then on your bed with you flopping it around. Cords that are frayed, cracked or worn start fires. But I'm still going to check out that pad should have more control with temps.

 

[Guest]

Got knocked off for a few
This forum is about growing but if you do it inside please make sure you are safe. If you have any second thoughts about your setup make it better. One thing I've never seen posted is DuriRock it's a concrete board like sheetrock only it's used for fire barrier and backing for tile. I wouldn't build a room without it.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Heating mats are a common practice in professional gardening. It's a little premature to say this always is a hazard to electrical safety. Some are run on 12 Volts and others on a higher current, but usually these devices have a safety built in so you won't be electricuted if something goes wrong.

I'm planning on digging in silicone-coated electrical heating cables throughout the soil, connected to a thermostat. Stable soil temperatures can truly make a difference. I'm convinced that if you keep safety in mind heating mats or cables can be an asset.

 

[supafly]

Place germination pads under the pots. The durock is a great idea as well.

 

[Guest]

i turned off my exsust to my 600 watt and now its nice and warm. when lights off i put a ceramic heater in ther so mabe that will do .thanks for all the good ideas.

 

[Smurf]

There was no mention of commercial horticulture earlier. If that was the case, it would've been much easier to suggest easily obtainable commercial equipment.
Most of the set ups I've seen were professionally built. From heated concrete slabs to 20 ft long heated seedling beds with misters controlling the RH, all of which were controlled by sensors linked via LAN cables to a computer for easy diagnostics.

My only concern was that there weren’t any unsafe, home (DIY) practices. The statistics tell us that our local Fire Dept. is increasingly being called out to homes etc. because of electrical fires caused by unsafe practices in hydro rooms.

Stay safe, and happy gardening!
Smurf

 

[Guest]

adding

adding

Right on Smurf.
I wish more safety was used on a lot of DIY threads of anything electric. They sould have at least three automatic safety switches of some kind built into them before you ever plug them in.
EDIT
Sould had said three switches two automatic

Dan woody

This rule should apply to that heater also. It should have three already but you may want to add a fused powerblock any Mart, hardware has them. the more saftey you have the better. I had one of those in the house and the fan for it locked up. It never got to hot BUT did make the cord warm. I'm by no way tring to scare you I wasn't, but I unpluged it edit(very importent, cut off the cord)/edit and threw it away as soon as I found it not working.

Everyone

CHECK YOUR ELECTRICAL EQUIMENT EVERY TIME you go into your room. Feel if it's warm, the cord for wear - cracks - warmth only thats a minute could save your life.

 

[Guest]

To late for Dan Woody but if I cant find my waterbed heater, I'm going to check on those electric pipe wraps I could put them right in the dirt I think. more reading on that one. Ive seen them used under ground but we all know how many people read those instructions & warnings.

 

[stoned teacher]

Posted this as a small part of anoher thread, but thought I'd put this info here also.

Was an an agricultural/seed/farm supply shop today and they had large propagation mats for $45....big enough for most of our growrooms.

Also they had a soil warming cables, insulated from water with built in thermostat that kicked on every time soil temp goes under 74 degrees. Ranged from $30-$50

Some hydro grow shops have larger propogation mats, but not as cheap as a farm/seed supply shop.

Cheap chunky perlite too, as well as other goodies were there

 

[Lucky 7]

What temps R U shooting for? My room is about 55 to 60 degrees for 12 hours . . . 70 during day . . . never considered it should be warmer. Perhaps NOW is the time.

Anybody want to direct me to the optimum nighttime temp?

 

[Guest]

What temps R U shooting for? My room is about 55 to 60 degrees for 12 hours . . . 70 during day . . . never considered it should be warmer. Perhaps NOW is the time.

Anybody want to direct me to the optimum nighttime temp?

I'm sure folks will start throwing numbers here, but I use the old addage "feels good to you it'll feel good to your plants". 10 degrees between night and day seems to be average in the "real world", my room has a 6 degree swing (69 - 75). I don't use anything but central heating/cooling from the living area. I draw the air in from floor level were it's the coldest so it's like 4 degrees cooler then what the termastat on the wall sez. This time of year my concerns are soil temps. my room is on a concrete slab so with the pots sitting on the floor I have to watch that the soil don't get to cold. I like to keep the soil around 74F +- 4F. When I lived where it got cold, I've had outdoor plants ("gold and red bagseed" '74-'77) live through a couple of freezing temps at night as long as the soil was warm. Made them turn cool colors like the leafs on the trees, we called it "rainbow weed".