heated propagation bed

I made one 36 years ago and it is still going strong. I used chipboard for the base 5' x 3'. The sides were 9" chipboard shelving and I then lined it with plastic.

I bought a heating cable with thermostat (can't remember where). Drilled two holes in the front to take the cable and thermostat and screwed the control box to the front.

Put 4" of sand and shingle inside. Spread the cable (snake like) and then put 2" of shingle on top. The thermostat went in to the shingle (horizontally) above the cable.

You can make a cover in lots of different ways. All I did was insert 2" x 1" battons upright into the corners and the centre of each side. The sand and gravel holds them in place. Put a drawing pin in the top of the battons along the back and centre and ran some thin wire around them to make a rectangle. Tucked some clear plastic down the back of the propagator and draped it over the battons and wires and let it hang down to the front. When you want access to it you just fold the plastic back on to the battons and wires.

I am sure that some people on here will have much better and more elegant ways of doing it but it works for me.

The heating is 300w and, even with 15 sq ft, it can easily reach 75+ in the winter. In the winter I now store some of our pot plants that are not frost hardy (without a cover) and have the thermostat at 45F. Oscar the cat has his own corner in there and sleeps there most of the year. He has adopted us but is not allowed in the house. :D

If you do something like this you will need to reinforce the staging. I have just got a few 3" sections of shelving fixed (upright) under it.

 

Tweaky, I think the cobwebs are holding it together :D. Oscar inspects it every day before he goes to sleep and he has not complained about anything - but I think he has worked out how to turn the thermostat up :eek:

 

It's on a catenary cable running from my loft down into a four socket power board below the propagator. It has its own isolater on the board and the cable runs back to its own trip socket in my modern fuse box indoors - but I don't think it would be allowed to be done that way anymore :eek:. Bl**dy Part P. :D