Stewart 2599005 Variable Control Electric Propagator, 52 cm - Black

I bought this to replace the other propagator that arrived damaged. It arrived a day late but it was worth it. It is for me a must now as has variable temperature for different seeds and to take cutting. It comes with seed trays and very small pots, which is a bonus to help you start things off. Its fairly sturdy but the lid is fairly brittle which I found with one that arrived smashed. I think its ideal if you don't have a greenhouse, as I have lost two in bad winds previous years. I now need to get electric in my potting shed. Its a good size and holds ple ty of seeds. I was advised to put pea shingle in the base to keep them warm and doesn't make the seeds grow leggy. Its a good piece of kit and its very handy for any Gardener wanting to grow there own flowers and vegetables, I love it and might get another one later.

Love this. I am well into Bonsai's and have recently taken to growing from seed. You get that extra satisfaction from creating something from scratch, even though it's going to take ages longer! I never had any luck with normal seed sowing in pots on a windowsill, so went for one of these. I sowed some dwarf pomegranate seeds in this unit two weeks ago, set the temperature, and left it to it. I checked today, and several have germinated and sprouted already. Well happy. Not sure that I trust the temperature scale on the little thermostatic control box though. I wanted between 18-20 c but ended up having to set it to about 24 c on the dial for get this. Oh, and ideally you should buy a good soil thermometer probe thing and leave it in the soil so that you can fine tune the temperature until it reads what you need. There is a probe on a long lead that runs off the control box which you need to poke into the soil. It uses this to set the temperature (just not accurately enough IMO). A small slot in the back of the clear cover allows this cable to route to the outside.

I use this propagator to house small tropical rheophytes. It lets you adjust the temperature, but you cannot adjust the upper or lower limits. I believe Stewart do not currently offer height extensions. Lovely build quality. No drips. The thermostatic controller is manual. Actual temperatures are 4 degrees Celsius lower than the gauge reading. This is more than 10% loss of precision. I am not sure why the controller is not digital. That said, it looks nice, and you get lots of thick proper cable. Use a handheld mercury thermometer to set it up initially so that you can adjust. I always recommend a redundant thermostatic controller as a safety feature for a bit more insurance. Good overall, just a bit out of date with the times.

This is a good quality propagator, comes with trays and pots and not like some which are flimsy .

So far not impressed. I'm an engineer so have a fair idea how the electronics works. I have the supposedly temperature controlled, 50W version and have it set to maximum which claims to be 28'C. I have had it running for 24 hours with the vents closed and using a digital thermometer I am barely seeing 1.5'C warmer inside than the surface on which the device is standing. Outside the propagator the temperature is 25'C, inside is at best 26.5'c which to me is what I might expect for an unheated propagator. The LED in the controller lights as expected, and never goes out unless I lower the temperature control. I am currently assuming the temperature control is so course that it really can't see the difference between 28 and 25 but if that's the case, I would expect the LED on the controller to go out, indicating it thinks it has reached temperature. It may just be that the heater is very under-powered for the task. I'm unconvinced the heater is working at the moment and it's not going to be fun trying to return such a large item. Update 1 - Looks like quality control issues, big surprise. Considering dismantling and will report on what I find. Update 2 - Confirmed now that even the second device delivered as 50W (and even a label on the cable claiming that) is actually 22W. I've accepted a partial refund on condition the 50W ones are withdrawn from sale (otherwise I would need to report this).

The temperature probes are a bit fiddly. But my tomato seeds were up in days

Quite simply a 5 star product. Great build quality. Very thick and heavy grade. Heavy duty plug and thick cables. Heavy duty thermostat controller with nice screw hole / cable tie hole to keep it somewhere. Thick plastic. Powerful heater. Great size. Thermostat is accurate. I would highly reccomend this product under the "Buy once, Cry once" policy. Very happy. P.s. this is about 1 month into ownership. It deserved the time to leave this review. Plastic cover is very clear. And the vent covers are lovely. They slide with great precision and acuracy. It is tall enough to use 1l pots and still have head room. You can fit 12 1l pots perfectly as a size guide.

I have been using it to germinate my seedlings and the temperature control works great (just put the probe into the soil a little away from the walls of your propagator), and the humidity is well conserved by the lid. A minor point of concern: After barely 4 weeks of using it the lid is not perfectly flat anymore, so when I mount it one corner is always slightly lifter up (by slighlty I mean about 3 mm)

This is an excellent way to propagate vegetable plants in reasonable numbers very fast and reliably