Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Warming Box

This is the warming box that Thorny guy made for me. It was much less expensive than the seed warming mats. We have a soil thermometer and the sand in the box is 80-85 degrees. It is working well so far, the eggplants germinated in about 4 days and are fully up in 7.


It consists of a clear storage container with some drainage holes drilled in the bottom. There is a string of clearance Christmas rope lights wrapped around the bottom and caulked in place. The cord comes out the side through a drilled hole. After all the caulk was dry 2 inches of sand was put in the bottom to cover the lights completely, the sand helps hold the heat. The original instructions said to keep the lid on the storage tote but we found that the temperature got very hot (100 degrees or more) with it on. The total came to around $10 for everything, much cheaper than the $40 seed heating mats you see in gardening centers.

2 comments:

Ronnie said...

I love this! Seriously, what a resourceful and frugal idea. Thanks so much for sharing. We don't have the threat of lurking frosts here in San Francisco as I used to growing up in Michigan, and as you do in Minnesota, but I'm sure it would give a kick-start to seed-propagation anyway. Oh, and thanks for faving me on blotanical!

Laura said...

That's a wonderful idea! I'll have to remember that for next year!

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