Capillary Matting

serendipity3

I've bought some capillary matting to use in my greenhouse. What's the best way to use it?

virtual_relic

The easiest way to use capillary matting is to first cover your bench with polythene, and lay the mat on that. Then lay a length of drip tape attached to a tap for watering (makes it a lot easier). Before you put any plants onto the mat make sure that the mat is well soaked, if you don't want to use drip tape a watering can is just as good if you can guarantee to do the watering each day. As long as the pots are well watered and the mat is wet when you put them on, you should only ever have to water the mat between the pots or trays instead of each one in turn, because the pots draw the water out of the mat, this also helps to prevent dislodging seeds while watering and reduces the numbers of insects which thrive in soggy compost (fungus gnats etc.)
Once your plants start to fill the pots remember to lift each one once a week to stop them rooting into the mat.
Hope this helps,

serendipity3

Thanks for your help. At the moment I have the plastcic on the shelf and have cut the matting so I have a strip going down into a bucket. Would this work to draw the water up into the matting. oh and i did soak it first

virtual_relic

Sorry not to have replied sooner, I know it works if the bucket is higher than the mat because it acts like a siphon but I've not tried it with the bucket lower, perhaps you would let me know how you get on?

serendipity3

Not sure if it's worked with the bucket lower, does seem damp though. I think you might be right about putting the bucket higher up going to try it today as we're going away next week and I don't want my little plants to dry out.

mum_of_4

My dad used to fix gutting to the front of his staging and then filled this with water with a couple drip stips in it. My dad always had great crops so i'm going to use this method when i finish my polytunnel stagging.

alanobrien

I use it with growbag trays. Just line the bottom of the tray with it, fill with plants and water the matting. Instant plant watering in 2 mins. You can use strips of it as a wick into a bucket of water etc to maintain the water content. This can be on the same level as the matt or a little above or below either way the wick - capilliary action will still work.