heating plants with heat mats

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medic31 Fort Davis, TX(Zone 7b) Jan 30, 2006

I have an unheated GH and was wondering if you could use heat mats to protect tender plants
in the winter. Is it the roots that need protecting or the entire plant?

Post #2010471
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Spider07 Lilburn, GA Jan 30, 2006

Hi Medic!

It is the entire plant.

Post #2010658
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stressbaby Fulton, MO Jan 30, 2006

It depends. Take citrus as an example. Citrus roots cease functioning below 55*F. There is no uptake of water or nutriets below that temp. So if the temp is 50*F, and it is bright and sunny, the leaves are photosynthesizing, but the roots aren't pushing up any water or nutrients. You won't kill leaves or roots at 50*F, but a persistent mismatch between nutrient and water demand between the roots and the upper half of the plant will eventually result in leaf drop (winter leaf drop in citrus terms) and ultimately demise of the plant. This is the reason people use heat mats and go to the extremes of wrapping Christmas lights around citrus containers in the winter.

You can take a citrus tree and place it in a cooler environment under 50*F. It won't die if you reduce the metabolic demand of the plant by lowering light levels and decreasing the rate of photosynthesis so that there isn't the leaf/root nutrient mismatch described above.

Hope that helps. SB

Post #2010821
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Xeramtheum Summerville, SC(Zone 8a) Jan 31, 2006

Medic, I'm in my second winter using black painted 2ltr soda bottles filled with water. Last year I noticed that the plants directly on top of them actually put on new growth and looked terrific the whole winter. I only heat my greenhouse to dont freeze temp, around 38 degrees. The bottles seem to make a very big difference compared to plants not on top of them. This year I'm putting my seed trays on top of them to see if they help with germination.

X

Post #2011408
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stressbaby Fulton, MO Jan 31, 2006

Hi X. Do you have a soil thermometer? Can you measure the soil temps in the containers to see if there is a difference between the soil in containers on the black bottles and the soil in the other containers? Maybe compare to air temps? It would be an interesting experiment. SB

Post #2011651
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