Tuesday 24 February 2009

Heated seed starter / Une boîte pour faire germer les semences

Because we don't need much heating here - most winters - we don't have a central heating boiler or even an airing cupboard, both of which were useful in Wales for providing warmth for germinating seeds in spring.  So I found a description of a homemade seed starter on the Mother Earth News website and asked Lo Jardinièr to make one like it.  Luckily he collects and hoards all sorts of useful bits and pieces, so the only thing we needed to buy for this was a light bulb.

J'ai demandé à Lo Jardinièr de construire une boîte chauffée pour faire germer les semences, que j'ai trouvé sur le site Mother Earth News.  Heureusement, il toujours ramasse et amasse les petits trucs, donc le seul truc qu'on a dü acheter pour ça c'est l'ampoule.

seed box 1_1_1

seed box 2_1_1
The box, 40 cm x 34 cm, with 25w light bulb fitted.....
seed box 3_1_1 lined with aluminium foil to reflect the heat ....
seed box 4_1_1
light bulb covered with a sheet of aluminium to diffuse the heat ...
seed box 5_1_1 the whole box covered with a piece of metal ....

seed box 6_1_1

the seed tray with our tomato seeds on top of the heated box.

Our box measures 40 cm by 34 cm, but the size can be varied according to the materials you have available.  If it's any bigger you may need two light bulbs.

La boîte mesure 40 cm x 34 cm, mais on peut la faire plus grande, selon vos materiaux.  Si c'est plus grande que ça, peut-être il faut mettre deux ampoules.

I offer no electrical guarantees - make sure the wiring is done safely! Faites attention à l'électricité!

One tip from our knowledgeable garden friend who tells us about the weather : once the seeds have germinated and the plants have started to grow, you can put the seed trays in the car where they will be warm and get lots of light before they are ready to be transplanted into the garden - a sort of mobile greenhouse!

Une astuce de notre ami du jardin qui nous dit tous sur le temps - quand les semences ont germé et les plants ont commencé à pousser, on peut les mettre dans la voiture, ou ils auront chauds et il y aura beaucoup de lumière jusqu'à ils soient prêts à planter dans le jardin.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sadly such creative talent is lacking here so we have had to buy a heated propagator (lol). Liked the idea about the car - I can see myself driving off to the supermarket with seeds on the back seat!