Does anyone use the capillary mats for watering? I have wanted to do some research and have been thinking about trying something like this for my one of my plant stands. Could I use the plastic trays with sides, those rectangular ones, put some of the matting stuff down in the bottom and just put water in the pan as a resevoir? Would that keep the plants too wet? Or would it just keep a continuous amount of water going to the plants?
Any help would really be appreciated as I have no idea really if this would work, for AV's or other plants. I am trying to find an easier way of watering since I have so many plants to take care of and I'm really lax when it comes to watering!
Capillary Mats
I never have but using a Optimara watermaid and its pretty cool !
Bluebrids sells the mat pretty cheap.
I think some on the forum were going to on some threads I for get who ??
it would let you water less frequently.
I haven't used them much, but .... I recommend the ones with a root barrier (like plastic) or you'll find your pots get stuck to the mat :P
I use them in the bottom of my permanest plastic trays, just set the pots/cups right on top. Although there seems to be a "this side up" to the fabric, I don't think the root barrier is very substantial... but I've never had any AVs try to grow their roots out the drainage holes and into the fabric.
I do let the mat dry out between waterings, and I don't let the tray sit with the water level up above the mat (at least not more than the teeniest bit). I think my minis would probably be happier if I cut some plastic grid to fit into the trays, put the mat on the grid, and let the end of the mat wick up water from a reservoir below (similar to what several folks on the forum have done setting up trays for wick watering). That'll give me something to do on a snow day!
Hi;
I use it for my very young plants & they seem to love it, it also creates extra humidity for them. have used it for a couple of years now, got mine from charlie's greenhouse
mrsbonnie
I also used them of leaf pots and young plants. It really helped with keeping the soil evenly moist. It certainly was easier than watering each pot by hand. It also added to the humidity which for me was a good thing.
It's not so much the avs as the others that root into the mat, so I you're only going to use it for avs, you probably don't need a root barrier.
Thanks everyone! I was just going to use it for AV's ... so will probably give it a try! Sure appreciate everyone's input on this. I have been looking at a couple of websites that sell the matting stuff.
hi all~
I'm looking for an inexpensive of capillary matting. Any good resources? I googled the one reference in this thread but couldn't seem to find it. Thanks in advance.
Catherine