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Fairfield,ct.

instead of using soil cables does everybody think that portable heaters do the same job?thanks ahead for your replies.

1/24/2008 1:24:46 PM

Pembroke, New Hampshire

The obvious answer would be no. There is a big difference between heating the air above the soil, and heating the soil directly. It's alot easier to heat the air, but the plant root system needs the soil temperature to be elevated in the spring as well. Heating the soil through air heating will take alot longer than directly heating the soil with cables.
This spring, I plan to use both to try to make up for the 2 weeks I seem to loose each spring. In the past, I've relied on the sun to warm my soil and air, and I'm consistently 2 weeks behind on growth.

1/24/2008 6:19:44 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Heat rises. Cables will heat the soil more effectively than space heaters but they won't do much to improve the ambient air temperature inside a cloche or mini-greenhouse. For that you'll still need a portable space heater during cold spells.

1/24/2008 10:15:56 PM

Picton,ON (j.vincent@xplornet.ca)

I have had pretty good luck warming my dirt with black plastic. I put it down a couple weeks before planting and seal the hoop house. I can get the soil extreamly hot by transplant time. I usually have to let it cool down prior to sting out the seedling, by cutting a hole in the plastic a couple hours ahead of time. Usually I can keep the soil temp in the 70-80F range in daytime. It does sool down at night and heating cables i'm sure would keep the soil temp more consistant, but the plastic is cheap and works for me.

In addition I have heated the hoops with light bulbs at night. I use coffie cans as shades to try to keep the light off the plants. I am concerned about the rest period thing and the amount of light coming from the lamps.

John

1/25/2008 12:45:48 PM