Review of Thermal mat Inkbird INK-HM20w for growing seedlings: germinating arugula 2022. Today I will introduce you to another new product from InkBird, and this time it is a mat for heating seedlings. Its dimensions are 25.4 * 50.8 cm, which should be enough for 3 full-fledged molds for a total of 36 cells. The declared maximum temperature does not exceed 40 ° C, which will have a beneficial effect on the seed ripening time.
What to grow depends on your desire, and I will conduct a test on the germination time of arugula (Indau).
This rug was presented at the end of last year, so there are no reviews and even more so reviews on the Internet. We correct this omission.
Buy Inkbird INK-HM20w Waterproof Seedling Heating Mat on Aliexpress
Factory packaging gives an understanding of the direction of the product.
Inside there is a thermal mat itself in a plastic wrap. The supply wire is located in the center of the resulting tube.
We unfold the rug and let it lie down. As mentioned earlier, the working area is 25.4 * 50.8cm. The upper surface has on itself instructions for use, as well as the ratio of germination time to different seeds. For example, if you sprout peppers using a thermal mat, the first sowing will sprout in 7-10 days.
The logic of the mat is as follows, when you first plug it into the network (230V), the surface heating process begins. At room temperature of 20 ° C, the maximum heating temperature is up to 40 ° C. Full exit to the maximum temperature is achieved in 30 minutes.
The mains connection is made using the power cable on the right side of the mat. The length of the wire is sufficient – 1.8 meters. Plug – AU Plug, can be converted to EU, or you can use an adapter. Moisture protection – IP67, but it is not recommended to use in direct contact with water.
The structure of the rug is shown in the renders:
The real power of the rug is 23.5W, with a declared power of 20W. For those who like to translate costs into money, we make a small calculation. When germinating arugula (the instructions say that the usual cultivation process is achieved in 5 days) we get 564W / day. When using a rug, the process should be accelerated by some amount, for example, 2 times. In total, we get – 1410W, which in terms of dollars is 6.84 dollars (the tariff in my city is 4.86 dollars). It seems not much, but let’s say you are going to establish production with a 24/7 schedule, then the monthly costs will be 16.92 kW or 82.23 dollars.
At a room temperature of 23 ° C, the temperature of the rug is 31 ° C after a couple of minutes and the heating process continues to increase.
We pass to the blank. To do this, take 2 trays of peat tablets and arugula seeds (I love to use arugula when making pizza).
Then, following the instructions on the trays, fill the cells with water (40 ml per cell) and loosen the top layer in which we place the arugula seeds. Loosened with a toothpick, placed the seeds with tweezers, the number of seeds is strictly regulated (4 pcs per cell).
After all the manipulations with peat and seeds, we sign the trays and cover them to create a greenhouse effect. Now we place one tray on a heated mat, and place the second in the immediate vicinity and observe the growth of the seeds.
An intermediate measurement gives a result of 36 ° C. The reference temperature measurement is 43.3 ° C (in the room 25.2 ° C). We leave for a day.
Since the heated cells form a greenhouse, condensation accumulates on the walls. At the same time, do not forget to water the seedlings.
We look at the result on 03/10/21 and see that there are first shoots in both trays. But with one difference: in the heated tray there are 3 sprouts with a height of 1.5 cm, while in the unheated tray there are 1 sprouts with a height of 0.5 cm. We observe the process of seed growth further.
11.03.21. The result was not long in coming.
03/12/2021. There is no point in continuing to “warm up” the seedlings, so we remove the rug and move the trays to the window. At the same time, do not forget about constant watering.
At the moment, testing of the thermal mat can be considered completed, its performance has been verified, the whole point is clearly demonstrated in the left tray. I see no point in recording further ripening of the sprouts, the test was carried out, then daily watering for 2 weeks.
To summarize, the mat hastened the process of growing seeds by 3 times (more seeds have sprouted in the heated tray, their height is 2 times higher than the height of the seeds from the opposite tray). The size of the rug easily allows you to place on itself 3 trays with a 4 * 3 grid, which will give a total of 36 cells with seedlings. The maximum temperature I recorded was 43.3 ° C, which is slightly higher than the passport values of 40 ° C. For the rest, it is quite efficient thermal mat Inkbird INK-HM20w, capable of accelerating the process of seed growth. Well, it is advisable to replace the plug with a standard EU.
Inkbird on Vkontakte: https://vk.com/inkbird_official
Inkbird website: https://www.ink-bird.com/
PS. During the pandemic, it was possible to grow more than one variety of greenery on the balcony of a residential building. Most of the ideas were spied on the vastness of the network.
