by britta
New Ideas for Root Covers?
11:27 am in Materials and Resources by britta
Root covers are still an issue. We are big fans of Ian’s silver balloons but so far (you can see one in our Window Gallery installation at Eyebeam in the photo below) , it takes a lot of work to get the 24″ers on the bottles. We are going to order some of the balloons that are the next size up, 36″ specialty latex balloons.
Any other elegant root cover ideas for the 1.5 liter ecoshape water bottles?
Wondering if you could just spray paint the outside of the plastic water bottles…Has anyone tried that? Any reason why it wouldn’t work?
Hi,
I tried spraying paint, since I thought I could draw on it after with a permanent marker or something. However, it proved trickier than I thought, as I hadn’t foreseen the amount of dripping. Also, I used white paint to avoid excessive heat in the summer (I’m in Barcelona, Spain), and I have the feeling that after four coats the bottles still let too much light through
Any ideas?
I love the paper designs, but they look a bit fragile.
Some sort of bottle cooler, or a cool bag maybe ?
A cool bag sounds cheaper and less bulky… We may have some around the flat. I’ll try that out and let you know. Cheers!
Duct Tape was my choice. That stuff will do just about anything.
kitchen foil- total blackout – reflects heat too…
I second that, foil is a great easy option. A paint dip will work too, and looks a little better. But if paint is used a thick coat of black and a top coat of white should be used.
I used spray Plasti-Dip in white but it took several coats. It’s pretty opaque, lays down a nice texture and is easy to write on if you wish. It also comes in primary colors and black (which I almost tried but then realized that would cook the delicate roots). My plants have only been in a couple of days so I’ll report back on whether the opacity is sufficient. If it isn’t then foil is my back-up plan, thanks for that!
I spray painted mine black and then painted it white.
neoprene beer coozy?
Could use worn out old socks I guess as well.
Here’s a question if your growing with cfl’s can you use black as a root cover? I dont think that cfl’s create a lot of heat but i could be wrong
Compared to sunlight they really create next to nothing, certainly much less than an incandescent. You’re good to go if you avoid direct contact between CFL and root cover.
I guess you might get away with black ones. If the room your in gets to near the temp when roods start to rot, the black might just bring the root temp up an extra 4 degrees and kill them.
I would recommend using black as a light block, just paint it white.
for the white what is the best gloss of flat
I don’t think it really matters. I guess gloss would be easier to clean.