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Heat mats can help January sewing in the
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UK or can it completely ruin it? Welcome
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to Gardening with Ben. We're going to be
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talking about heat mats today. Now, more
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and more people are buying heat mats to
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start the seedlings off. Now, they can
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be amazing things to start the seeds
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off, especially if you're wanting to
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start them off early in January,
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February time. They can be amazing. Now
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me personally, I wait until March when I
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do it all naturally with the heat from
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outside and the natural light. And yeah,
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heat mats can cause issues. Now the
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issues that they can cause is that
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others seeds don't always need heat to
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get them growing. Now certain seeds out
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there do need the heat. The seeds that
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need heat are chilies, peppers, or
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jeans, onions sometimes need a bit of
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heat to get them growing, but the more
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exotic fruit need the heat to get them
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germinated and to get them growing. They
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need about 25 to 30° to get them
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germinated. Now, heat mats can add that
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extra heat and get them germinating
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pretty fast. Like, normally a pepper or
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chili seed will take about 21 to 28 days
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to germinate. Mine took a long time. Now
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I have not got mine on a heat mat. I've
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got them on my windowill in my flat and
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they took a long time to germinate.
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They're only just germinated now. I swed
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them about Boxing Day. So yeah, they
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took a long time to germinate, but they
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started off and they'll grow pretty
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strong. Now heat mats obviously because
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they're warmer, they'll dry the compost
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out a lot faster. So you need to keep an
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eye on watering them and keeping them
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wet and getting enough water to get them
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And sometimes obviously you don't have
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as much control of the plant because of
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the heat from it. And
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if you've some people think the heat
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will help the plants grow, but obviously
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they need the natural light as well for
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them to grow strong and not grow leggy.
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leggy means that they can grow long and
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thin and they end up stretching and
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growing really badly. So that is the
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reason why I start all my seeds off in
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March rather than using a heat mat or
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artificial lighting because it can
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affect the growth of the plant. Unless
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you've done a lot of research and
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watched videos on how to grow stuff on
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heat mats, they can cause issues and
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obviously they cost money to run.
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They're not that expensive, I don't
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Make sure you just use them for the
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plants that actually need the heat to
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get them germinated. Obviously, yes,
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it's fantastic that they start growing a
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lot faster, but unless you've got a
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proper setup with the heat and perfect
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lighting, they won't grow well at all.
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So, let me know if you've got a heat mat
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and what you're growing on it. And if
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you've had any issues growing on heat
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mats or with artificial lighting, make
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sure you drop us a follow to stay up to
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date when we're sewing all our seeds in
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March time. Until next time everyone,
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remember keep smiling, keep shining and
