Sherwin Dubren wrote in message ...
Hi simyl,
Thanks for your's and other's replies. Actually, I start my seeds in
my
crawl space under lights. I don't have a good southern window on the
main floor of my ranch home. When I go on vacation, I really button up
the house, plus I don't want people getting injured going in and out of
my
crawl space. One solution would be a tray that is connected to the
water system of the house with an automatic shutoff regulated by the
level
of water in the tray.

Sherwin D.


Wow. My crawlspace is typically at 35-40F these days, and if I were to
wrap the shelf so that the lights heat would keep the temperature up,
I would almost certainly create a carbon dioxide starvation situation
(my crawlspace is also where I ferment my hard cider, so I suppose one
carboy inside the wrap would easily take care of carbon dioxide.
Lacking that, a jug of apple cider left open will provide plenty CO2
for hundreds of seedlings). Keep in mind that in a typical grenhouse
plants use up all CO2 in a matter of hours.

I guess that given your setup you could go away for two weeks, while
using extreme caution with damping off (hardy seedlings, sterile soil
and sterile trays, etc.), without problems. I myself have to organize
my garden schedule around my travel schedule. Two years ago I even
bought tomato plants - something I had never done before or since. The
same year my cider became vinegar (granted, good vinegar) because I
was not around when the bubblers ran dry.