permaculture

[Paul Cross <charybda@newmex.com>]

I have used capillary mats for greenhouse production for many years and 
find them very useful and efficient. The growing area has to be very 
close to level for them to work.

Calling that an ebb and flow mat is misleading. It's only a 3-layer 
capillary mat and does not have (or need) a drain, tank, and pump to 
raise and lower the water level as you would in a true ebb and flow 
system with recycled water. Ebb and Flow systems use raised tables with 
specialized channels, or alternatively grow directly on the floor with 
flood floors.

There is at least one innovation used by another capmat manufacturer 
that I like, which is the addition of an evaporation barrier layer to 
reduce the evaporation layer where the pots are not sitting on the mat. 
I believe it's a polyester batting layer that resists transferring the 
water to the ground cloth later unless it is compressed. The 4-layer 
mats we use are fully dry on top unless you press your hand onto the mat.

Paul