I bought a little plastic greenhouse with a heating pad built in from Gurney's and it grows seedlings very well in the cold garage. You can make a home made set up with a big plastic storage tub and a cheap heat mat and you could grow all those seedlings.

When I lived in Marietta, GA, I used a heated grow mat on a work bench in our garage. With the mat and the overhead lights, plants thrived! I used this equipment to start seeds and to grow plants to transplant size. It was cool out there, but not freezing. The mat/lights worked well for me for more than 8 years. This setup would work even better in FL.

Many of us use the heated mat seed starter system for starting our seeds in cold garages, sheds, barns, etc. You can get as elaborate that you want and even put up height adjusting fluorescent lighting above your setup to give the plants a good head start before transplanting in the springtime. Some of the older posts on GW have pictures that show our various setups. Some even using yarn for a wick in the bottom of solo cups to get the water & nutrients up to the plant roots. I have even used a discarded cracked glass fish aquarium with the lighted fluorescent cover and I placed the heat mat inside which also worked quite well.

Lou

So the grow mat it is!! I'll give it a shot. And the lighting?...a regular flourescent shop light will work?

Yep, regular fluorescent lights (grow lights) on chains so you can adjust the lights as the plants grow.

If you google, there are people who recommend different covers for the grow mats to enhance their effect. Screens and such. They really work! I don't remember what I did, but it was Rube Goldberg. The plants were happy!

Make sure you buy the two tube fluorescent shop lights.... NOT the single tube. Hanging aluminum foil from the sides of the shop light reflector will also help to reflect the light back to the plants instead of the light going out into the garage. I agree, the Rube Goldberg type setups work the best.

Lou

Lou, you are funny! I read all sorts of things .... I'm sure there are more out there now. Use these wires, use these undermats, do this, do that. I did a lot of it and my plants were awesome! I hope the OP with researchs some of them. They sound innocent, but .... on man, they really work.

I don't bother now. I live a block from the ocean and most veggies aren't salt tolerant. I just search out tropicals that don't care and go with them. On, today I did plant carrots. Who knows if they are salt tolerant. I'm just experimenting.