Philippa, the beds in my polytunnel are in 6 pairs, 12' x3' and 6' x 3'. I was thinking of turning one of the smaller beds into a heated bed. Any suggestions on cables / thermostats , suppliers etc would be much appreciated.
i have 2 stewarts 52 cm thermostat propogaters and they are great set them to the temp you want although every morning you have to clean the lid as moisture builds up and mist the soil and you should have no problems .
I have a newly purchased Vitopod heated propagator. Much better than any I had in the past in terms of size and usefulness. I purchased it as as stop gap as I have no lean-to yet. Heated beds sound much more interesting though.
thanks Philippa. The beds are about 12" / 30cm high in an all polythene polytunnel 48feet x 21 feet. It gets pretty hot in there even on a sunny winter day. ( I've only had it a couple of months so no idea how hot it'll be in summer. I was thinking if I was going to do it, do it once and do it properly which is why I thought the investment of a "hot bed" might be worth it , rather than small units?
I'm kinda thinking the hot bed might be the better long term solution.
As Alan Titchmarsh once said " 2 things that can never be too big in the garden, the greenhouse and the compost bins" maybe he should have added " and a good hot bed" ?
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would a ready made plastic job be ok, or is it better to bite the bullet and built a heated bed with soil cable and sand etc?
Philippa, the beds in my polytunnel are in 6 pairs, 12' x3' and 6' x 3'. I was thinking of turning one of the smaller beds into a heated bed. Any suggestions on cables / thermostats , suppliers etc would be much appreciated.
i have 2 stewarts 52 cm thermostat propogaters and they are great set them to the temp you want although every morning you have to clean the lid as moisture builds up and mist the soil and you should have no problems .
I have a newly purchased Vitopod heated propagator. Much better than any I had in the past in terms of size and usefulness. I purchased it as as stop gap as I have no lean-to yet. Heated beds sound much more interesting though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKvdozlJSUU
thanks Philippa. The beds are about 12" / 30cm high in an all polythene polytunnel 48feet x 21 feet. It gets pretty hot in there even on a sunny winter day. ( I've only had it a couple of months so no idea how hot it'll be in summer. I was thinking if I was going to do it, do it once and do it properly which is why I thought the investment of a "hot bed" might be worth it , rather than small units?
I'm sure it's one of those things when you have it , you grow more stuff. Nature abhors a vacuum , and all that.
I'm kinda thinking the hot bed might be the better long term solution.
As Alan Titchmarsh once said " 2 things that can never be too big in the garden, the greenhouse and the compost bins" maybe he should have added " and a good hot bed" ?
If you have a hot water cupboard then you already have a propagator for many seeds. A propagator is useful when seeds need light to germinate.
unfortunately , we don't have a hot water cupboard, and our boiler is outside, so that's not good either.
but thanks Blairs.