i just got my first capillary matting ,no direction,
it has a black cloth on it ,how do i use this matting
do i soak it in water,im relly dumb when it comes to this
how to use capillary matting
did you see the discussion in this thread? http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/623135/
I posted a link to a diagram somewhere in there as well.
Ki
Thanks, that particular post got so long I got lost! and think I forgot all about the information at the begining as well.
Keyring
thanks a lot, thought i had read everything in the stickeys,i guess i missed it are just fargot,answer all my question but one
what about the black piece that is laying on top of matting how does it go up are down
I'm not sure I'm following.
Now that I'm home, I can spend a bit more time on this...
so you're talking about this diagram? http://www.bypost.ltd.uk/images/capillary-matting.gif
do you mean those arrows? (they just show how the water will be wicked up)
or maybe you're talking about something completely different.....
I just got some Vattex matting. It looks like grey felt, with odd little colored threads and bits here & there. One side feels softer and cushier, and the other side feels a little slick, almost like it has a very thin backing of some sort. I'm assuming that the softer side should face up to contact the bottom of the pot.
ohhhhhhh that makes sense now. My mats don't have a backing.
is it a root barrier type?
http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page.aspx?c=2&p=53708&cat=2,2280,33159
huh, maybe that's what the slightly slick/shiny surface is -- a root barrier. The matting I got did not come with any directions or with much of a description... maybe I will try it shiny side up and see if it still works to wick water up into the pots. I didn't consider whether roots would try to grow down into the mat... probably not much of an issue with AVs, but I was also planning to use the matting with veggies starts, which tend to get pretty vigorous with their roots.
It sounds like that black layer that starfly has on her matting is probably root barrier that should face upwards... I found this description:
VATTEX F
The same as VATTEX P, but is also covered with a thin foil of perforated, black polyethylene. The foil has 150,000 perforations per square meter and keeps roots from growing into the matting. The capillary mat and black plastic are already assembled on one roll.
I may email IGS and see what they have to say about "which side up?" on the matting they sent me.
Keyring
yes thats what im talking about,it does have millions of tiny holes like in it.so i think it goes on top,no mine didn,t have no direction are any thing ,i order so many feet of it so i guess it comes on a big roll and they just cut it off.i got mine from bluebird
that ones cost a heck a lot more than mine,mine was 6 something a foot
I got my Vattex matting (the Vattex P kind, I guess) from IGS, and I ordered a large enough quantity that it was 12 cents per inch (48 inches wide) plus s/h.