Hmm, ok, my caladium bulbs aren't sprouting yet.

13 years ago

The info I read said to put them in a flat with mulch , keep it warm, and water when needed.

The problem is , I don't really know how to keep it warm... the top of my refrigerator isn't warm, neither is the top of the tv.

I didn't want to set it right on top of my heating pad because I thought that might be too hot. But I just had an idea when I looked at my sewing box. And I was wondering if anyone had any other thoughts.

I'm thinking I can put my heating pad flat on the breakfast table (it's glass), set on low, then put spools of thread around the heating pad .

Then stack up enough spools so that there would be about an inch of space above the heating pad. Then put the flat with the bulbs on top of the spools. I can put a thermometer in there so I can watch that it doesn't go above 85 degrees.

Sound ok? Any recommendations?

Thanks,

Betty

Comments (3)

Skybird - z5, Denver, Colorado
13 years ago
Hi B2,

Since I've never grown them I checked a couple sites that had some pretty good info, and it looks to me like if your house is 70 degrees or higher most of the time, they'd be fine without extra heat. If you have a sunny window where you could keep them, where they'd heat up nicely during the day, I think that might speed them up some.

If you'd still like to use the heating pad, or if your house gets significantly colder overnight, describe more what they're in for me. Are they all in the same flat? And how deep is it, in other words, how much soil is between the bottom of the root/bulb and where the heating pad would be? If there's enough soil, I don't think a heating pad would heat it up enough to worry about, especially if you check it out a little bit at first and pick a lower setting if necessary. (If you're gonna set it on low to start with, I think it's VERY unlikely that you'd heat up the soil enough to hurt them!) Wet soil takes quite a bit of heat to heat it up much. But if you have them all in the same flat/tray/pot, I think it would work a lot better for you in the long run if you started them in separate small pots/cups (Me and my cups! Hey, they're cheap!) of some sort so you don't need to disturb the roots to replant them individually after they get started. If they're in separate pots, you can transplant them to wherever they're going to be over summer without disturbing the roots by just knocking them carefully out of the pots and sticking them in their permanent location.

Tell me more about what they're in, and I'll tell you what to do with them-----even if I DON'T know anything about them!!! LOL [Don't say I didn't warn you! ;-)]

Skybird
b2alicia
Original Author
13 years ago
I don't have any little pots or cups . :(

And I keep my house in the 60s.

So I set up my bulb tray with peat moss, and now I have the heating pad underneath, and I've been checking the thermometer. So far so good.

Thanks!
Betty
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b2alicia
Original Author
12 years ago
Yay!

I was looking for something in the basement, and I found 10 plastic pots!

They're just the right size to hold the bulbs. So I've potted them in nice dirt...um Soil!... and watered. I hope they'll take off now.