Using an Electric Hotbed to Start Seeds Indoors Without a Greenhouse

Use of an electric hotbed is an affordable and safe solution to starting seeds indoors without the use of greenhouses.

This hotbed’s frame can be constructed of concrete, brick or wood; when using lumber as the material of choice, 2″x4″ posts should be driven at six foot intervals around its sides to support it.

Soil Preparation

Electrically heated hotbeds offer many advantages over those using stable manure for heating purposes, including being ready to be used when the ground warms sufficiently; being inexpensive; needing little attention or maintenance, and being easily convertible to cold frames by simply turning off their electricity source.

Temporary electric hotbed pits should be dug similarly to permanent manure hotbeds, except with less cinders and sand. Hardware cloth should then be laid inside to cover its walls completely – as per above!

Insulate your growing area frame to minimize heat loss and limit heat gain, using Styrofoam or rigid-board insulation at least a foot deep around its frame. Bales of straw/hay/old blankets/burlap bags also work great as insulation. When night falls, cover it lightly with something such as an old blanket or few bales of straw to reduce light glare on glass top of frame.

Soil Mixture

An electrically heated hotbed requires fresh and rich manure in its pit. This should be piled in square or rectangular piles that are three to four feet deep forkover every few inches as it piles in order to break up lumps and distribute evenly before being covered with hardware cloth to avoid accidental contact with heating cables.

Heating cable is a heavy-duty insulated wire which typically measures 40 feet in length. Depending on its design and climate of its location, this may be laid straight across or curvilinearly around pit edges instead.

An less permanent manure hotbed should be dug during early winter. The frame for such a bed may be made of concrete or brick; for a less costly version, inexpensive ship lap lumber may suffice. Two 2″x4″ cedar posts should be driven at six-foot intervals along each corner of the pit with boards attached to them in order to form the hotbed frame.

Temperature Control

Temperature control in hotbeds constructed as multiples of six feet long is especially helpful; one thermostat may even serve to control several units at the same time! As illustrated in Figure 3, such an arrangement allows centralized heat regulation.

Manure heated pit hotbeds should be dug during early winter months and should measure 18 to 24 inches deep with its bottom being levelled off.

Electric hotbeds require less depth in their pits and should be lined with washed coarse cinders rather than sand. Once filled with this medium-grade soil and hardware cloth as in a permanent type of hotbed, an electrical heating cable should be placed between it and the soil in the pit – each heating element should measure 60 to 70 feet long but two cables may also be utilized if desired.

Watering

Hot beds provide warmth that is vital for early starting of tender plants. But their use does not come without an element of care: daily venting during sunny days must take place, soil temperature must be checked frequently and frame should be placed to provide leeward wind protection through use of board fence or bales of hay for protection purposes.

Electrically heated hotbeds are similar to manure-heated ones in construction; however, instead of using fresh horse manure as heating material they use electric current instead. If fresh horse manure is readily available this type of hotbed may be ideal; otherwise it may be used instead with washed cinders as a substitute. Styrofoam or rigid-board insulation works equally well if placed a foot deep around its frame; after which sand and finally heating cable and hardware cloth should be added over this.