Simple Seed Germinator

A couple of years ago my germinating greenhouse lost it's roof in a storm. Since the whole structure needs work, we never got it fixed. About 3 years ago in a bit of desperation, I moved a cart we use for displaying the plants at farmers markets up to a small unused bedroom.

I draped the cart with plastic to totally cover it to the floor. I also put 2 layers of a heavy tarp under the cart to keep things from getting the floor wet.

The key to this whole thing is the little "utility heater". You need to keep the temperature under the plastic at about 80* - 90*. Take a day or 2 before you put seeds there to fiddle with and get the temp right.

I knew this idea would work for tomato seeds but I wasn't sure if it would work for hot peppers as they can be rather difficult to germinate if conditions aren't just right. But it worked great.

Right now I have a few seeds started already (1/8/08) for my third year of doing it this way.

After the seeds are up, if you don't have a greenhouse ready, you will need to use supplemental lighting to keep the little plants from getting leggy.

More complete info and more pics about this whole project is here on my web site http://knapps-fresh-vegies.netfirms.com/greenhouse06.html