Floating gardens with much less substrate

[partisangardener]

A friend of mine simplified my system somewhat. He fixed a ring of plastic-coated wire mesh with some staples around the edge.
I wanted some more airy island and adopted his suggestion and put some more variation into this new island.
I want to plant some Ephedra there.
Here you can see what I did already. https://www.srgc.org.uk/forum/index.php?topic=18726.msg432461#msg432461
The final setting will be shown in a few days.

 

[levs_denis]

I'm curious to see that

 

[Joanie]

Do you think this would work on a small scale for an indoor setup?

 

[partisangardener]

I have some small ones on my windowsill.

just without too much height otherwise it would topple over.

 

[Joanie]

I have some small ones on my windowsill.

just without too much height otherwise it would topple over.


View attachment 26159

Nice! Thanks - going to give this a try

 

[partisangardener]

You are welcome
The big island is finished now. I put a lot of dead twigs of Erica for structure and put the plants in between before I filled it up with substrate and covered it with some moss.

All stages in between as above.

 

[Joanie]

A first attempt. I'm concerned that there isn't enough substrate, and that its sitting too low in the water? Advice?

I used foam tile, t-shirt fabric, and window screen. It measures about 15 cm across and maybe 5 cm deep.

 

[Lloyd Gordon]

Looks good. I stopped using window screen because if the roots grow through it, it can be traumatic to the roots, especially if you repot. You can always just keep an eye on the roots for now.

 

[Joanie]

Looks good. I stopped using window screen because if the roots grow through it, it can be traumatic to the roots, especially if you repot. You can always just keep an eye on the roots for now.

Right. Thanks.

 

[partisangardener]

On such a floating device I had never an issue with roots. Even Drosophyllum shows very little effect, if I cut off roots.
Maybe it depends on this even moisture supply. It is an optimum place for rooting cuttings. They have no roots at all from the start

I you think it is too low for your or your plants liking, just place some more foam underneath. The hole in the middle would be a apparently good spot

Looks very good for me. Substrate is enough in my opinion.

 

[Joanie]

On such a floating device I had never an issue with roots. Even Drosophyllum shows very little effect, if I cut off roots.
Maybe it depends on this even moisture supply. It is an optimum place for rooting cuttings. They have no roots at all from the start

I you think it is too low for your or your plants liking, just place some more foam underneath. The hole in the middle would be a apparently good spot

Looks very good for me. Substrate is enough in my opinion.

I will leave it be.
Was fun scrounging for the parts.
May strongest survive.

Thanks

 

[levs_denis]

There are plastic screens on Amazon, that could be useful