Thanks Lin .......for trying.
I will take a few photos of wicking on capillary matting for you, Susan.
New Years Blooms
Gorgeus plants and wonderful pets!
I grew up with Great Danes and a smallish mongrel. Before the GD's were brought into the house, their "needs" were tended to. This included a twin bed in the dog's bedroom and a couch to call their own in the family room. The mutt had a beautiful to look at wing chair that had too much bad history for us to want to sit in it...
The beds were "made" with sheets made of naugehide that made cleaning a breeze.
Big dogs need to lounge about on padded surfaces since their weight can crush the flesh on their bony parts and stress their joints.
Susan, the leaves are not this light colored........just taking pics under the lights........these are all babies which I have already taken the dome off of. Notice that each picture has a wick and the solo pots are sitting on capillary matting.
another tray of capillary matting with strings in each solo cup so I can water from the bottom.
another tray done the same way
I won't show anymore of the baby streps
So Gail, When you use c matting, you put wicks in the pots and put the pots (and wicks) directly on the damp matting? Is that correct? I think I want to start watering this way too.
Thanks!
Happy New Year everyone!
Sarah
They go from the solo cups to these 5.5 souffle cups with perlite on the bottom and a wick in them. I don't use capillary matting when they get to this size as I can still water from the bottom and then use a turkey baster to squeeze up any excess water.
Last picture and then I will go back and read the post I missed.
These are babies of african violets in 2 ounce clear pots with wicks in them and sitting on capillary matting. You can see that they are ready to be transplanted into their own 3 ounce solo cups.
Sarah, I just sit at night watching TV and cut slits on either side of the solo cups and place about a 7" piece of from #18-#24 size string (I get the best at Ace Hardware that is number 24). Then I put all the solo cups in a tray and they are ready to go when I am ready to plant them up.
The next step is to go to a #3 squatty or Dart 5.5 souffle clear pot. I use the same string #24 but I do put perlite in the bottom because the roots are still very shallow and I don't want to drown the streps. I can't take credit for this idea. Goldleaf found the 5.5 Dart souffle cups on line and I ordered some.
Thanks for the explanation, Gail. I still don't understand about the slits on the sides of the cups and where you put the string. I think I've got the rest. Thanks.
Sarah
I will take a picture and show you...............will do right now.
Take a good pair of scissors and cut opposite 2 sides of the solo cup so the water can be absorbed and the plant can also drain.
Take the string and drop one end in one of the slits you made..........then draw the string ACROSS TO THE OTHER SIDE and let hang over the top edge. This way the water is pulled across the cup and not just up and down one side of the cup.
Gail, The pics clarified it for me. Thanks! So, then you put the pot with wick sticking out the bottom right on the matting, right?
still do not get how the string is threaded---or is that the shadow across the bottom of the cup?
phoebe, there is a shadow across the bottom of the cup. But the string goes in one slit and then across the pot and out the top on the opposite side. The shadow shows where the string goes.
If you just kept the string on one side of the pot, only one side of the plant would get all the water.........just remember the string is simply crossing the pot from bottom to top. When the string and pot are sitting on the capillary matting the plant will stay moist while it is small.......NOT WET ALL THE TIME THOUGH.
When I plant my strep and separate it from the mother leaf, I always water it in the pot real good so you don't need to add water to the capillary matting until the little plants start to dry out from your original watering individually.
Just one way to grow them.......I also start using a very diluted balanced fertilizer once they get planted in their solo cups with the wick and on the capillary matting.
That clears up a couple of things for me.... thanks for your response Sarah.
Maybe we need a thread to explain what the steps are before the plants are ready for capillary matting. :)
Surfing around & came to this expecting to look at Violets. Not sure what kind most of the pictures are. LOL!
Happy New Year!
Bernie
When using the capillary matting, is the matting wet or just damp? How often do you add water to the matting? Or are they under a dome? Thanks, Lou
I add water to my capillary matting tray once the matting dries out.
I don't have any plants to share right now, but I see we are sharing pics of our babies!
Can I share some?
This is Remy...
Lou, when I first separate the baby strep from the mama leaf, I dome for about a week to 10 days and slowly wean them from a dome by changing the dome around so that air slowly starts to come in.....................
The only reason I don't start out with a wet capillary mat is because the babies are already so wet as I stated. Then.......like Syrumani said, "Water when the mat and plants become dry".......
Pretty Kitty!
Thanks Gail,
Ok so how often do you wet the matting? I think I saw somewhere where you use the grids with the matting also... So I am going to use the way you have shown above... allot of these are baby av's.. Thanks again.
Hugs,
Susan
No, Susan..........i don't use the grids with the matting. I just do one or the other................capillary matting is great for baby avs or streps.
That's where Gail and I slightly differ . . . I do use the grid with the matting . . . but that's only so I can add more water at one time . . . let me go take a pic real quick . . .
Finally! It took over an hour for that photo to go through, and I have no idea why!
Here's another...
This is Skye...
And her brother, Virgil...
All pretty kitties! Wait!...are Skye and Virgil really biological siblings?
explain what you are doing, Nichole with the grid and the capillary matting. I have never seen anyone do that so help us understand why you use both and for what purposes.
Oh my goodness ... What great looking kitties!
Your "Virgil" looks a lot like our "Miss Princess". I showed your photo to my husband and he thought it was Princess! Looks like her twin!
One thing I noticed on my streps and baby AV's, is that if I straight wick watered, the streps and babies would be to wet. I would do like you showed me during the summer, and take the wick out of the water so the soil could dry out again. But, my thing is I would forget to put the wick back in, so things would get too dry! Then I would water in a panic, etc. It was a vicious circle. THEN I saw your posting about how your club president put her wicked streps on the matting. So. I did that with my poor, sorry looking streps. Believe it or not, they actually started improving! As you know, I have my munchkins to distract me, so again . . . I would forget to put water on the matting. So, same story as before. SOMEWHERE I read how someone was using the capillary matting over the grids for wicked plans, and it worked great for them. So, I thought, what the heck! I've got two trays set up like that, and it's working. I can add more water to the tray, without having to worry about over watering, 'cause the matting draws up the water. This gives me the extra day or two I usually need before needing to water again. This helps the baby plants I've got in the 1oz solo cups - they take the water they need, without getting too wet.
Wow. Didn't realize how long it took me to organize my thoughts!
Pretty kitty, plantladylin!
Now I understand. You are letting the matting hang down in the water under the grid in the permanest trays?
You got it!
Nic,
Thank you for the pictures and that is how I was shown by Roxanne, I could not find the pictures... I put them on the mat today but I will do your way as I think this way is going to be wet also... I have allot of my Kohleria's that were/are staying to wet and baby Avs so I have to try something else.. Also I was getting white mold on the tops of some of my av leaves... I put up some fans to help with air flow but I think the matting and the grid will do the trick.... Oh and Gail thanks for saying about the blanket a long time ago as I went to Wally world and they had them on sale... 9 or 10 dollars and that goes a lot further then buying the matting by the yard...
Don't know if I will be back or not tonight so I will say now.... Happy New Year to you all and may you have many more.
Hugs,
Susan
Nichole and Susan, I am only going to try and use this method on the bigger streps where I have perlite in the bottom of the pots......one of the pictures that I posted to test and be sure streps don't stay too wet. They can't stay nearly as wet as african violets can.