It’s been fun playing with the heat mat and trying all sorts of germination temperatures but this “large” mat isn’t going to cut the mustard for seed starts in any volume.
Time to add a greenhouse shelf sized mat, the “large” one from the store can go on the end and fill in the gap at the end of the table.
Power and temperature probe from my PID controller route through the back keeping it clean inside. I would never run a mat without some form of temperate controller unless I wanted to cook seeds instead of germinating them. My product manual includes description of models that include the temperature controllers and mounting hardware but it seems to cut costs and increase sales most sellers are selling just the mats sans temperature controller.
It’s a bit of a squeeze but I can get 5 1020s and all my recycled milk containers down the small mat side.
I really would need another two of these big mats to do anything serious. As it stands I’ll have three trays tied up for just one crop, and it’s not tobacco. Leaving just two, but I’ve already used one for peppers.
I removed the grow lights, not needed for germination, some of my seed also require darkness as a germination factor. After germination I pull trays from the heat mat and they go under lights unheated. If I get time I will program a microcontroller to run PWM signals to spare PC computer fans on a set schedule for seedlings under lights. If I don’t have time I’ll just get a small oscillating fan. I have seen seedlings grow too spindly when grown under lights and heat mat at same time. Without the heat they grow more normal looking to me.
I have two fancy led grow lights but if I was growing in volume all my own transplants I would seriously be going the bulk led garage light route. You don’t need fancy lights to grow seedlings, those are designed to also do vegetative growth, flowering and fruiting and in the garden nature will be taking care of that itself. Mats are also only needed for the cold months, I wont use them when doing summer starts for fall gardening.
I’ve had a lot of luck with this for seed starting. Doesn’t dry out rapidly (irony reading the marketing labelling) and I don’t have to baby trays that rapidly dry out on the top surface even indoors with the heating running. To use up the bag I’m running the test through the 1020s and if it continues to excel I’ll buy more. If you can’t get your hand on seed starting mixes with the economy being what it is, try a bag of this.
Winter time I’m just playing with my bread recipes. I got some extra long pans so I can make loaves as long as store bread. I’ve just overshot my eyeballing of the needed recipe increases on this last go but I’m likely to lock this in on the next loaf. It’s all by hand, no machines, no kneading.
If I was smart I’d just fill the pan with water and measure the volume and do my bakers percentages calculations. But it’s cold and I couldn’t be arsed so I’m doing it by eye. With kneading I would pinch and roll multiple segments to force the dough to rise up rather than out. With high hydration dough and no kneading I will need to rely on volume alone to not surpass the point of rolling over the edges of this particular pan.
