Cheap safe alternatives to grow mats

I was wondering if anyone had some suggestions for inexpensive and safe alternatives to expensive grow mats? I was thinking of taking an aluminum tray that is larger than my seed trays and filling it with water, then adding a fish tank heater to the water to heat it up, but don't know how effective that would be and am open to any suggestions any of you may have.

jjpm74: check out the thread following this one on "Inexpensive grow mats"

Are you talking about the pet pads? Those don't look very safe to me.

There are more suggestions than just the pet pads, as well as plenty of discussion of what might be safe or not. I would read through the whole thread and see if it gives you any inspiration. The simple answer is the best thing to do is spend the money for things that are designed for plants, other things often either pose a fire danger or electrocution hazard if they weren't designed to stand up to water.

Your original idea won't catch fire or get you electrocuted, but I can't picture how you would set things up so that the seedlings got enough of the heat from the water without sitting in a pool of water which will cause them to rot--but maybe I'm not picturing it right in my mind.

I've never had much luck with seeds, but I know people who start their seeds on top of the frig. Good luck.:)

Mary Lee

ecrane3--

My plan was to keep the seedlings in a regular tray then put that tray in a larger tray that was full of water then heating the outside water with the aquarium heater, but I don't know if that by itself will generate enough heat for the seedlings since there would be something in between separating them from the water.

On top of the fridge sounds like a good idea. Thanks for the help everyone.