Making Seed Starter boxes

I had read on the Internet that I could start my seeds pretty inexpensively by buying a rope light to heat the bottom of the seed starters. The reasoning of this person using rope lights was the fact that they put out about the same amount of heat as a heat mat costing about $20 and if you want to keep it within a certain temperature you have to buy a thermostat which cost about $30. So I thought I would give it a try and see if it works.

So what I did was I found some wooden boxes, actually they were drawers that we had obtained for free which I couldn't use as drawers because they had been in storage too long and were not in the best of shape. I attached the rope light to the bottom of the drawers using U nails loosely attaching the rope light so I could adjust the rope light making it shorter if it got too hot. I then put kitty litter which is actually pure zeolite to give it a smooth surface in which to put the plant trays on. Next I cut out a piece of plastic about 4 mil to lay on top of the zeolite as not to get it dirty or wet.




I prepared my seed bed trays and place them on top of the plastic. I also placed a thermometer in the dirt so as to monitor the temperature. I was very very hopeful about this because I did not want to have to keep my whole greenhouse up to 70° just to start a few plants so this seemed like the perfect answer, I will keep you posted.