One hurdle in getting seeds started in the best way possible is to provide the best germinating conditions. Having spent a decade of starting seeds in a window in the house where things are relatively constant, I have noticed that with sweet and hot pepper seeds alike, it takes more than 2 weeks for germination to occur. Often attempting to provide warmer conditions, we have added an electric heater to the window area, created heat raps and tents, but never committed to something as simple as a seed tray heat mat, due to the fact that we would need many, and cost would make it somewhat prohibitive.
This year, we made the decision to start almost everything in the Hot House, our insulated and heated greenhouse. With that in mind, and keeping in touch with a like-minded veggie farmer, we put together a heated seedling nursery table that is able to hold up to 8 seed trays at one time, with full control of the soil temperature, with the use of a seed tray heat mat controller. The heating element is a simple piece of roof-eave ice-melting cable, woven into a bed of sand within the table. The heat mat controller has a temperature sensor that is placed in the planting tray, giving an accurate temperature report to the controller.
The build is straight forward, a frame of 2x4 with a plywood bottom fastened to it. Styrofoam is placed in the shallow table frame, then a thin layer of sand. With the sand in place, the 60 foot long heating cable is woven back and forth along the table, anchored at each turn with simple cable tacks. finally, sand is placed overtop the cable, filling the table level. Once this is done, the controller can be turned on and temperature testing can be done, trays can be filled with soilless growing media and seeds and placed on the table!
after 12 days on the table.
This was after 5 days - Very quick results!
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