Kitchen Garden Forum

I was considering getting one to start off veg and maybe flowers. For that reason I had thought of one with several compartments. Has anyone any advice on which makes or models are good or bad?
Have seen one in the catalogues with 7 compartments that is windowsill shaped for £30+ but don't know if it is worth it or not.

The one you mention is good for starting things off, but you can't control the heat so have to be careful to turn it off on sunny days or it gets too hot. There is not much soil either so they dry out quickly.

I use them just to get things germinated and then pot them up or plant them out as soon as I can.

If you want to spend more the heat mats with a cover are very good from Two Wests, and you can get ones to fit their shelving units too. You can use these with a thermostat and timer and hang a light above them which is very good for starting tomato plants and peppers early in the year without having to heat the whole greenhouse. They will hold lots of seed trays and are nice and high so you can keep the plants growing on in them until the weather is warm enough to harden them off.

So it just depends on your space and budget and where you want to use them.

Wilkinsons do a selection a4 & a3 sort of sizes at good prices, but on or off controls.

Actually, I find that a timeswitch to turn them on at dusk and off again in the morning works well enough for starting seed off early, say late Feb to March, in the greenhouse.

A heated cable with a rod thermostat in a homemade polythene tent type propagator keeps a much more even temperature though. And you can make a BIG one.

Hi,
I bought the Garland Big 3 and am very pleased with it

http://www.garden4less.co.uk/garland-bi ... agator.asp

I think Tony's on the right track with his warming cable setup. I have had one of these for years and it's true, you can set up a whopping big propagator, or scale it down if you want to: the thermostat keeps the temperature tamed to exactly the level you want it set at. I've used it in different guises several times and in different locations. Worth investing in, I'd say, and still working well after over ten years.

I haven't compared the prices recently but I agree the best solution is a soil warming cable and a rodstat in a home built propagator, however it may be more expensive. Mine is built high enough to include growing lights for the early part of the season.

Morning Ballydoolagh

Nothing to add to what others have said. But a few points to consider before getting a heated propagator.

What vegetables are you thinking of using it for? Tomatoes, peppers and similar really need a warm, early start; most hardier plants don't.

Where will you have the propagator? Your mention of one that is "windowsill shaped" made me wonder whether you are thinking of inside the house. If so there is likely to be a light problem, leading to stretched plants if you sow too early.

Where will you grow the plants on once they are germinated? It's a problem starting things in heat and then having nowhere light enough to grow them on.

Sorry to answer your question with more questions, but these are things worth considering.

Alan

We raised our seedlings earlier in the house by growing them under lights as in the house temperature isn't a problem. If you want to grow in a greenhouse then it is a different matter.

I grew peppers and tomatoes in the greenhouse this year and most didn't ripen. House is coming down with green tomato chutney!!!
We had a very poor summer here with low temps, my chillis are still in the greenhouse trying to ripen. I thought a heated prop would get stuff off to a better start.
Last winter we had -17C and snow until the heatwave in april and then 6 months of rain. God only knows what this year will bring.
How would you devide sections if using a heater cable? Do you feed it in and out of trays?

I use a 4" deep wooden frame, 6'x2', and put polystyrene chips in the bottom, then line it with a layer of thick polythene so it holds water, then put a layer of sand, then zig-zag the cable across it at 4-6" spacing, then another inch of sand (plastering or concreting sand is fine, no need to pay inflated horticultural prices !). Sometimes I include vermiculite for water retention. I build a lid over this with a wooden frame, offcuts of twinwall polycarbonate sheet, bubble wrap or whatever. The trays/pots of seed sit on the sand bed.

We used to have an electrically heated propagator with three seedpan-sized compartments and built-in thermostat which we used for several years. But, as Alan mentions above, I found when the seeds had germinated and the seedlings were large enough to leave the propagator, then where? Even with acclimatising them to the open greenhouse temperatures by adjusting the propagator lid during the day, I found we had to heat the greenhouse slightly to keep them going - jolly expensive in February/March!

So, now I start things like tomatoes, peppers etc off on the windowsill in the house (without heated propagator, just plastic covers) LATER IN THE YEAR, and then, when the greenhouse is naturally warmer and only needs heating during the night (say, in April/May), do the plants go in there.

It's always very tempting to start early in the year but I have learnt that it really doesn't pay to rush things - much better to wait until the sun does the heating for you AND LIGHT LEVELS IMPROVE! Later sown plants always seem to catch up anyway.

Year on year this question seems to pop up and whereas there are seeds like Tomato, Pepper and Aubergine that do need heat to germinate properly but to my mind that is about all plants that actually need heat.
As Tony mentions after germination where do they go?
Alan hits the nail on the head with the light factor.
Certainly I have got my heated propagators but they are a throwback to my commercial days with bottom heat for shrub cuttings.
When I grew vegetable plants for sale I never ever used anything other than the normal day temperatures except for Tomatoes and Peppers and these were grown in a tunnel within a tunnel.
With propagators the tendency is to start off far too early in the season.
In all my years of growing I have found it best to be slightly late rather than early with germination because plants very soon catch up whereas grown too early the tendency is for poor plants.
The question is do you really need a heated propagator at all?
As GLA says just normal house temperatures will take care of Tomato and Pepper germination. The problem is always light or rather the lack of it!
JB.

I've had the same heated propagator for years, which I dig out every spring to get my plants started. I admit to utilizing the conservatory, which is heated all winter rather than the greenhouse at first, which isn't brought into commission until later in the spring (to save on heating). I also have rigged up a contraption on some of my staging in the greenhouse using some polystyrene cut off from putting in a heated floor in the bathroom and attaching warming cables to that and then covering with old slate roof tiles. This gives an even heat over the whole bench. I then put covers over this to keep the plants warm at night.