Heat mats are rarely necessary for starting garden plants with lower temperature requirements such as tomatoes.
Temp needed for starting seeds on a mat.
Because we live off grid we needed to find another way.
Using a seedling heat mat is the cheap and easy way to provide the optimal conditions for your vegetable seeds.
A lot of people these days will purchase heating pads to germinate trays of pepper and tomato seeds.
Read the back of the seed packet to verify the temperature requirement of your seeds.
This chart shows the range of soil temperatures needed for seed germination.
Ideal temperatures for germination depend on the plant but generally speaking seeds need a consistent temperature of between 65 and 75 degrees.
Outer limits for all seeds for microgreens range from 50 degrees f 10 degrees c to 85 degrees f 29 degrees c.
Other near equal factors include seed vitality the age of the seed soil moisture soil air and soil conditions and workability.
Set the heat mat to the proper germination temperature for the type of seeds you are growing.
One almost surefire method is to use a seedling mat an electric heating pad that sits under the seedling trays usually regulated by a thermostat.
Almost all quality plant heating mats come with a built in safety shut off that will trigger when the heat mat reaches a temperature of 10 degrees above the room temperature.
Use a seedling heat.
Most plants require a soil temperature of 70 to 72 degrees fahrenheit but some plants like peppers require warmer temperatures of 80 to 85 fahrenheit.
The warmth that most seeds do need is commonly called room temperature around 70 degrees f 21 degrees c during the day though somewhat lower than that during the night.
The temperature varies on what you are growing.
Germination temperature requirements although some plant species seeds require a temperature as low as 50 degrees fahrenheit to germinate a wide variety of commonly grown perennial plants and.
How do you achieve this idyllic consistent temperature.
Our seedling sprouting area is near our windows and since we start our spring garden seedlings in january it can get pretty cold for them.
However you can speed up their germination process when you provide more warmth for vegetable seeds.