felt rooting cloth????

[Guest]

I was planning on doing one single flowering bed like "soma"s style. With the clay pebbles on the bottom, plastic coated chicken wire, and felt rooting cloth.

Still can't find plastic coated chicken wire, and especially not rooting cloth. I'm sure I could find a substitute for the chicken wire, but I'm not sure about the rooting cloth.

Could I just use regular felt?

 

[ethereal]

the chicken wire has to be coated. metal is not an option. metal causes an acidic reaction.

as far as 'felt rooting cloth' do as he says and ask at the garden center (not home depot) for root cloth

i suppose a coco mat could be substituted.

havent made the soma bed because it comes out to too much $$$ when all is said and done. you need to buy a shitload of hydroton also ( i recommend substituting that with lava rock if yer in north america, way cheaper) also be sure this is built at a permanent location. breaking these things down is a bitch and a waste if not usin it long-term. imho. ok take care

 

[ethereal]

Could I just use regular felt?

NO!!!! ..lol

 

[Guest]

haha, I wasn't gonna use metal chicken wire, of course it'd rust. About that,I was just saying there's other things I could use. I called and asked a couple nurseries and they all said something similiar to "rooting cloth???? We don't carry that"

I'm thinking the rooting cloth and plastic chicken wire are just to keep the soil mix from washing down into the "hydrocorals"

Found a local nursery that sells "baked clay pellets", pretty sure it's the same thing as the "hydrocorals" soma talks about. They said it was for drainage.

 

[Guest]

Oh and the point for the bed is to maximize all potential root space. With pots, the space between is just wasted.

 

[MTF-Sandman]

Yeah, baked clay pellets = hydrocorrals = hydroton..

I'm also thinking the plastic coated chicken wire and rooting cloth is just to keep the soil from washing through the hydroton. I use plastic window screen for the same purpose on mine...works great and is very cheap. Just buy a chunk for a screen door and cut it with a razor knife to size. Usually the roots will get tangled in it, but it gets changed when you put new plants in anyhow.

 

[Guest]

So you grow in this same style, but don't use the rooting cloth? Am I getting that right?

Sorry for my lack of comprehension on these matters, but I didn't pick my name for no reason.


-Graythumb

 

[MTF-Sandman]

Nah, I use the window screen for my coco buckets...1" of hydroton in the bottom for drainage, a square of window screen then fill the rest with coco....keeps the coco from washing out of the pots and getting into the rez but the roots will still penetrate the window screen and run out the drian holes...a good thing IMO since I use small pots normally.

 

[Guest]

Okay, cool, it should work the same then. Although I'm thinking of skipping the "mono" bed and just using 6 10x10"wide/12''high square pots (not easy to find though) May just say fuck it and get some grow bags, but I'm skeptical of the growbags, seems like it'd be too easy to give root shock/damage.

Anybody know of any cheap places for plastic pots?

 

[MTF-Sandman]

Have you tried the dumpster at HD or Lowes? They throw out ALOT of pots when the plant is no longer sellable...

Cheapest I've seen on Maxipots (by Grodan) is $3.75 from http://www.ecogrow.com/index.cfm?product=1436&special=new, dunno if the shipping would negate the possible savings though.

 

[Guest]

$35 after shipping for 6. Nice pots though, and PERFECT size. I was just looking for cheap flimsy piece of shit ones, the kind you can get 10 for $10,etc. If all else fails I'll have to just go with those.

Gonna go to the local nurseries and try to find worm castings and cheap perlite and will look and see what pots they have while I'm there.

Might just end up with growbags cause they're so cheap.