Capillary matting anyone?

Can anyone tell me whether I should use capillary matting with my seedling trays or not? If so, whats the best stuff to buy and how do I use it?

 

I use capillary matting but I water the seedlings from above by spraying them with a hand sprayer, any excess just runs into the matting.

Val

 

My staging is cover with capillary matting, has a reservoir along the front (that the capillary matting tucks in to), and everything gets watered from "below" via the capillary matting. I think it works well, but everything gets a lot of water, so it would not be good for anything that wanted to dry-out before next being watered

You will need plastic sheet under the capillary matting, and a micro-pore sheet on top (otherwise algae and weeds will grow on it, and roots from containers will grow "into" it [which micropore doesn't 100% prevent, but it reduces it]

This thread may be of interest:
http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/watering-greenhouse-plants-staging.45506/#post-579359

 

Erm, erm, I guess I'm not ready for this ... I surrender! A watering can will do for now

 

Don't panic. It's by no means essential. I have big plastic trays for the greenhouse, you can buy them in any garden centre for about £8 to £10. I stand my plants in that so when they are watered the water doesn't just drain straight out. This works absolutely fine as long as you don't forget to water regularly.

I bought some capillary matting for the times when I want to go away during spring. On a sunny weekend in May I think the plants would struggle to last 48 hours without me. (Aaaah, no wonder I love them so much.) So placing them on a bed of cap matting which has a wick feeding into a big water reservoir is a boon.

But it's a bit advanced so no need to worry about it unless you find watering a problem.

 

I think a less "advance" method would be:

1. Capillary matting on the "bench"
2. Some sort of "drip" feed of water to keep the matting wet.

Just needs a header tank of some sort (large bottle if the area is not too large) and some sort of adjustment so that the bottle emptied over a fixed period of time - two days would allow you to go away for the weekend.

However, based on my experience, I would recommend having a micropore sheet over the top of the capillary matting - both mine came from a horticultural supplier on eBay, so not hard to find. Good capillary matting is not exactly as cheap-as-chips, and you do need a decent quality, otherwise it won't be able to suck up moisture and move it a decent distance across the matting, so avoid the thin cheap stuff.

 

I bow to Kristen's much greater degree of professionalism, but I have never used micropore. The matting is looking like a dog's breakfast now but I've had about 10 years use out of the original stuff which can't be bad considering I take absolutely no care of it.

 

Its a good point, you can do without the micropore. The micropore is cheap as chips though even if the capillary matting itself is not :(

 

I can't find micro-pore sheeting??

Val

 

I got mine from:

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/thehighlandgardenco

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Microperforated-Poly-Film-5m-x-1-2m-Covers-Capillary-Matting-/170985213111?pt=UK_H_G_Garden_Plants_Landscaping_Garden_Materials_ET&hash=item27cf834cb7

They sell by the Metre as well (looks 50% more expensive though ...)

 

Just use an old towel, or an old wool blanket. You can use almost anything as capilliary matting - but natural fibres work much better than man made. The stuff you buy is nylon - which is not that efficient - but it won't rot while natural fibres will.