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| Last week I propagated about 20 tomato cuttings (mostly suckers and some tips). So far they haven't wilted over. I have them arranged in the shade on the north side of my home. They're in plastic cups that have a hole in the bottom. These cups sit in plastic baths that have about 1" of water, so they stay wet until the roots get going. I've always had success in the past, but we have a cold snap coming and I'm worried. I don't have any heating mats or grow lights, but I do have a couple heating pads. If I bring them in to my garage how can I use these heating pads to help? Do I need plastic too? Thanks for any help, |
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| How cold. Why wouldn't just bringing them into the garage be enough to protect them? Or you can just rig a cloth or plastic tent over them and heat it with a light bulb. As long as they don't freeze they should be fine. Dave |
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| For rooting in water or soil you don't need heating mat. Room temperature is all you need. Right now I am rooting some Asian Basils in water. I do it every year instead of planting from seeds. But if your starts are outside and you fear cold snap, just bring them inside. |
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| It may hit about 40° over-night for a few days. Nothing to worry about? Am I over reacting? Should I just tent them with only plastic outside or leave them alone? They were dipped in Rootech then put in soil. |
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| I find that 45 is the best minimum but no 40 sure won't kill or hurt them. If it is fairly easy to bring them into the garage that should be plenty of protection for them. If not then tent them outside but be sure to open it during the daytime. Neighbor once backed his car up to his plants one night when it was supposed to get down to 35 and he just put them in the car trunk for the night. They did fine. :) Dave |
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- Posted by centexan254 none (My Page) on Mon, Mar 31, 14 at 20:01
| If you are that worried about them then bring them in to your garage. It should be warmer than outside. I left a few out when it hit around 40 just to see if they would make it. They did. Though they were sewn from seed, and started indoors. I left three out just to see. They were fine. The larger ones I bought, and planted I covered with 5 gal. buckets when temps dropped to the freezing to mid 30's. The next day when temps were at 55 I pulled the buckets off. Note if it gets windy like it does here then put something heavy on the buckets. (20 mph is light breeze most times.) |
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| Thanks all. The garage it is. Not that much warmer, but better I guess. And yet it gets quite windy here. Thanks again. |
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