Drain Grid For Homemade Ebb & Flow Table

[Quitters]

I'm helping out a buddy with a project, he's already built and installed a 4' x 8' tray out of wood and sealed it with elastomeric. hes gonna use smartpots on one side and regular pots on the other side, the tray is on a slight pitch so the little run off from watering will drain to one end and into a catch pan.

I wanna find something that will fit in the bottom of the tray to act as drain guides and to mostly suspend the pots so air can get to their bottoms. i originally thought a 4 x 8 piece of lattice would work but it lays to flat and wouldn't drain properly nor let in air. maybe some kind of hard wire like for metal shelving ?



Any ideas ??

 

[growshopfrank]

You want to avoid anything metallic as acidic neuts will eat it and if you recycle the neuts it will poison your plants. something like the plastic open grids that are used as diffusers on florescent fixtures or even cheap boot trays with the lip removed take a trip to homedepot or walmart and look around for inspiration

 

[Bulldog11]

Get some milk crates and cut off all but 2inches and the bottom with a skill saw. Plastic is more what you are looking for.

 

[Marshall]

home depot/lowes

dropped ceiling section, look for the plastic grids that cover the lights

 

[growshopfrank]

Take a look at plastic bread racks,the ones that bakery's use they are about 30"x 30" if you cut the bottom out you have a nice grid. I dont recommend stealing them if you go to a commercial bakery they often have a big pile of their competitors racks that they throw out if you ask usually they will give them away also they make nice drying racks as you can fit a dozen or more in a closet .

 

[sanjuan]

For my Blumatted Smart Pots I bought the stuff Marshall is speaking of: 2' x 4' styrene "egg crate" light (diffuser) panels. About $14 at my HD.

For ebb-and-flow you'd need to prop it up for drainage.

 

[Quitters]

we decided to use a 4' x 8' piece of diamond privacy lattice

the openings on the privacy style are aprox 1.75" instead of around 3" like with the classic

the privacy is alot more supportive for 3-5 gallon size pots

the lattice will be suspended in the tray by 2" x 2" boards, all wood serfaces will be primed with Kilz original oil based primer then top coated with elastomeric which provides anti-microbial protection from mold, mildew, algae and bacteria.

thanks again for the suggestions

 

[Quitters]

they also make the square privacy lattice which has a border on it and looks to be more solid around the edges

 

[superpedro]

I use less than 1$ worth of Styrofoam for my DIY drain tables. Very easy to design.

 

[dansbuds]

why not get the 1/4' x 2" x4' strips of plywood that they sell at HD they're in the moulding section in a bin on the wall they come in different sizes . screw these down in strips on the bottom of the tray & recover the bottom in the elastometric sheeting again .

 

[growshopfrank]

I was at homedepot and saw a product called multi-tile 1'x1 square floor tiles with an open grid design that was slightly raised looked like a perfect bench grid for RW on a flood and drain I couldn't find it on HD's site but here's a link to a similar product
http://www.greatmats.com/products/perforated-tile.php