Capillary Matting

just wondered if anyone used capillary matting and what a good (but cheap) one to buy?

I've seen a few that have a plastic coating and some without. Which do u think is best taking into account potential for algae growth?

What id like to do is make my own version of the quadgrow eventually. But just wanted to try some capillary matting on its own first.

Thoughts and advice appreciated as always!

 

Hi Snorky. A couple of thoughts pass through my mind. Capilliary matting is typically made of nylon, because it won't rot. This means that :-

1) You can wash it - so the question of algae growth is not really important. I use it in trays and I find I need to wash it every year or so. Its not so much algae as roots growing into it, compost dropped on it and dead leaves that have remained wet and so decayed.

2) Because its nylon its not that good at wicking water so you need to get the physical set up right. Cotton (ie an old towel), which adsorbs 40% of water, is the very best wicking material and can lift water six inches or more. But cotton rots. Nylon only adsorbs 4% of water and will struggle to lift water more than about half an inch. My trays are flat so the question of lifting water up doesn't arise - I can water the tray and it just spreads it around.

The backing is not that important as you will need to place it in a waterproof tray anyway. The thicker the material, the better it will wick, but as all matting will probably be nylon they will all be much the same - save for thickness.

Its a matter of how much you want to pay and what you want to do. The cheapest option would be to use an old cotton towel, or even an old woollen blanket (wool is not as good as cotton but better than nylon). They will do the job - but will rot.

 

Thanks @PeterS that's really useful. I guess I could use old cotton tshirts etc and see how it works? I've got trays of plugs that i was to water but never sure if I'm watering too little or too much. Also, I'm away on holiday at the moment and wasn't really sure how often they would need watering.

I think i'll invest in some plastic trays and use old cotton tshirts etc first and see how that works.

My mum said she will go halves on me if we purchase 2xquadgrows on offer. Then i'll be able to see how it actually works and tryto copy it.

 

Snorky - that's a good idea to old cotton tshirts. Its better to fold them over as they will work better if a bit thicker.

There are so many aspects of gardening where you can improvise. i started out buying all the stuff from garden centres and only later realised that I didn't really need much of it.

 

Mice will eat/chew/nest in/destroy it over winter unless you protect it from them.

 

Is this just cotton or all matting incl nylon? I guess if its everything then it wouldn't matter baout using old tshirts as i could just chuck and replace.

 

It was the stuff that looks like this and I think it's a synthetic material.

 

Thanks @Scrungee

 

I use that stuff Scrungee, but have never had a problem. I am sure that it is synthetic as mine has never rotted.

But I think that you may have a mouse problem Scrungee rather than a matting problem. I gather mice can gnaw virtually anything.

As you said Snorky - try it and see.

 

You amaze me Shiney - 40 years goes back to 1976, and that was the very early days of capillary matting. It would be interested to know what exactly it was. I was involved in capillary matting development a couple of years earlier. I think the very first matting, slightly before that date, was made by a French company from wool shoddy (ie recycled wool). It was very thick and worked well, but being a natural product it rotted.

I think ICI, for whom I worked, was the next company to get involved. They made nylon, which was an improvement as it didn't rot. But as I said above its not so good at wicking. There was a non woven (ie a felt like product) product that I was developing for interlinings for suits and ties. However there was a certain amount of substandard material made, and the marketing chap working with me suggested it would make a good replacement for this wool shoddy capillary matting. And we could sell the substandard material in this market for more money than the perfect material would make in the interlinings market!

I still see this old interlining material for sale as capillary matting in garden centres today. But like all things, as soon as one product appears on the market many others swiftly follow. But I suspect that they are all primarily nylon.

 

Hi @shiney - thanks for the offer - but don't worry about a picture. Its all water under the bridge now.

I did try to Google the history of capilliary matting, but found nothing. Though I did find one company that sells matting made from recycled cotton and wool. That surprised me. I think it all started about 1971 or 1972. Before that I think nurseries used beds of sand, which were wetted. Pretty heavy huh!