Hydrofarm CK64050 Germination Station with Heat Mat

Smoke em if you got em. (2010-04-30) : 1/5
Well, I was excited for this as I'm groing some exotic peppers and tomatoes this year. I had started about 40 kalaraby plants a week ago and they were doing fine. I got this thing and put the seedlings in it, turned on the pad, and my light. I came home 3 hours later and all my seedlings were fried. Now I get to start over. The mat should only be used with an outdoor greenhouse in my opinion. I pretty ticked off about losing that many plants this late in the year. I will never buy a product from this company again. They may fool the pot-heads, but that's it. I could have got a plastic cake pan frome the grocery across the street and got the same results without the pad of course. This is a piece of junk, and unless you need the heat pad, like I said, just go to you grocer and you can pick up an identical pad for a buck. Thanks for wrecking my hard work!
hydrofarm seed germination station (2010-04-27) : 5/5
my seeds germinate in a few days....rather than more than a week or not at all. I have close to 100% germination with the seed mat.
Warmth and Protection for your Seedlings (2010-04-17) : 5/5
I own eight of these, so obviously I like them a lot. I start a lot of my garden plants inside since our summers are on the short side. This germination station provides heat under your seeds, a dome to get them germinated, and a nice tray for holding water. Many seeds don't need the extra warmth to start, but I use my basement which is a little cool, and this helps a lot. Of course, I also use the hydrofarm grow lights, which I have also purchased at Amazon.
heat mat definitely helped my seedlings sprout (2010-04-14) : 4/5
Great heat mat. I've had much better success sprouting seedlings with this: more seeds sprout and they seem to sprout faster. I put a square of insulation foam (cut from an old camping pad) underneath to avoid heat loss. Don't know how well it would work without insulation.

Downside: It should come with a planting try with larger cells. The planting tray squeezes 72 cells into a tray size better suited for 36 cells. With bigger cells, I don't have to transplant to larger containers before transplanting to the garden. The smaller cells create more work.
Jim's evaluation of seed starter kit. (2010-03-26) : 4/5
I like to grow most of my vegetables and flowers from seed. With this kit, my new seedlings are germinating and they are thriving. Starting your plants from seed gives you a sense of pride when they mature later in the year.