Your experience with capillary matting

davespitzer · May 22, 2011

I bought a 3 yard capillary mat hoping to smooth out the watering of my seedlings. I have been using 2" soil blocks packed into standard plastic greenhouse trays and have been top-watering by sprinkling twice a day on sunny days (less on cloudy days), but it has been difficult to keep the blocks uniformly moist. I hoped by putting the blocks on top of the mat, separated by landscaping fabric, that I could keep a uniform moisture level all of the time.
Unfortunately what has happened is that the blocks absorb way too much water, becoming almost soggy. Reversing the mat didn't help (I had it upside down at first).
So my question is, have any of you run into a similar problem before, and if so, did you find a solution?
One possible solution I have thought of is limiting the area of contact by separating the blocks from the mat with a sheet of polyethylene plastic with lots of holes punched in it, but that would entail a lot of work to get the holes uniform and it might not work anyway.
Any suggestions would be appreciated! Dave

May 22, 2011	#1
davespitzer Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: East of Stockton, California Posts: 97	Your experience with capillary matting I bought a 3 yard capillary mat hoping to smooth out the watering of my seedlings. I have been using 2" soil blocks packed into standard plastic greenhouse trays and have been top-watering by sprinkling twice a day on sunny days (less on cloudy days), but it has been difficult to keep the blocks uniformly moist. I hoped by putting the blocks on top of the mat, separated by landscaping fabric, that I could keep a uniform moisture level all of the time. Unfortunately what has happened is that the blocks absorb way too much water, becoming almost soggy. Reversing the mat didn't help (I had it upside down at first). So my question is, have any of you run into a similar problem before, and if so, did you find a solution? One possible solution I have thought of is limiting the area of contact by separating the blocks from the mat with a sheet of polyethylene plastic with lots of holes punched in it, but that would entail a lot of work to get the holes uniform and it might not work anyway. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Dave