Watering problems

Hi

I was having problems watering my young seedlings in the greenhouse i would water them before work but by the time i got home they had dried out so i have tried capillary matting i for a large tray put the matting in it and the end of the matting into water filled container and sat my module trays on it looked good but half a hour later the water container was empty i filled it again and the same bout a hour later nearly gone but i noticed a puddle of water on one side of the tray seems it was sucking up the water and filling the tray where am i going wrong ?

 

Hi icom and welcome to the forum - I hope you are still with us. I am afraid I have only just seen your post.

Was the water container higher than the tray? If it was the capillary matting would make the water siphon out from the higher level to the lower level, in exactly the same way as a rubber tube would. And it would only take a short time. The secret is to keep the reservoir a bit below the tray level. That way it will suck up the water, but only as and when its needed.