Capillary Watering Mats: How DO They Make Them Anyway?

First of all, you probably will need some help with this project.

Truthfully, you don't need help because it's a quick and easy project, but sometimes you get help anyway and have to work with it whether you like it or not.







Capillary, or MAT WATERING is one method of providing water to your plants. The plants sit on the fabric (which you make wet by pouring water into your tray) and the plants absorb the water. This is a quick method for watering a larger number of plants. Top watering each plant in a collection of 100 takes quite a long time, simply adding water to a mat-watering tray of perhaps 10-15 plants takes only seconds.

You will note that most of the typical trays sold at garden centers are roughly 22 inches by 11 inches. The interior floor-surface that you would be putting the mat down on is just a bit smaller. A piece of fabric (your mat) can be roughly 20 inches by 10 inches and fit perfectly in the tray.


Polar fleece, also known as simply fleece fabric is a nice choice for this. You can get just the amount of fabric you want and it's non-rotting because it's synthetic and easily washable.

You will need good table space so you can spread out the fabric and measure it. And, you will need a decent scissors. There is NO substitution for a decent scissors!!!!!

 Explaining size and layout to others can be a bit confusing, so hopefully this diagram will be of some use. TWO continuous yards of fabric is the easiest length to use.  It's the most practical, and cost effective length to choose. Do NOT bother with a single yard, you do not get many mats and you waste a lot of fleece.


Fleece is sold on a bolt and it's folded. It is typically 58-60 inches wide (or 30" folded) This is PERFECT FOR OUR USE!
Two yards is 72" long. Our mats are 20 inches long each. You can see that you can get three 20" lengths (or 60 inches of length) used with about 12 inches left over. If you unfold the very last 12" -see diagram - you can still get three more mats cut and you will have literally almost NO waste.

You lay out your fabric on the table. I only actually measure ONE of the mats, making it a measured 20"x10" mat. I put that mat onto my uncut fabric as a pattern, or template and cut my fleece from there. The photo shows that you can get three 10" wide and 20" long pieces from the uncut fleece.

This is NOT a project for the obsessive compulsive. Fleece is stretchy and not all the edges on the piece are perfect. Some of your mats will be a bit larger or a bit smaller or imperfectly rectangular. This is not a problem. The water will still be absorbed by your plant whether your mat is perfectly shaped or not.

When you get your mats cut, you place one in the bottom of the tray and pour whatever water or fertilizer solution you use on the mat. The plants then take up what they need. It also helps increase humidity around your plant. You'll have to experiment with just how much water to pour on, it varies with how large and thirsty the plants YOU grow are, how dry your room is etc. The mats are washable. Shake off any soil bits and toss them in the washer. They can be bleached, or they can simply be rinsed off with a hose, or in a sink. (Don't put dirt down the sink drain.)

Having a double set let's you wash some and still have mats in the trays. Also, although white is usually out of fashion after September 1st, (and there are 100's of colors of fleece) I chose white, not because it is hard to keep looking nice, but because it might reflect more light to the plant compared to black fleece or a darker color. You can experiment with what color you might want to try.

You will get 21 mats from two yards of fleece. Here's my helper doing a quality check. If you aren't quite sure about the layout, write a comment and we'll see if we can help!