The Smart Cushion® watering system is designed to water plants efficiently and reliably providing a significant solid reservoir of water, which is gradually, released to plants roots.
Placed at the base of a plant, Smart Cushion® provides a continuous and predictable release of water over a prolonged period of time.
Plants are maintained in a healthy condition, with virtually no need for manual watering for extended periods. Eventually, when the soil becomes is dry to a depth of a couple of inches from the surface, it couldn’t be simpler to re-water the plant. When you feel the plant needs to be watered just top water the soil with the recommended volume of water, the water will percolate down, reinvigorating the soil and re-fill the Smart Cushion®.
- User friendly, easy to use
- Reliable
- Great plant health
- Reduces Plant loss
- Environmentally friendly
- Designed to suit all plant displays
- Sizes to fit all types of planters
- Delivers excellent customer satisfaction
- Cuts down on maintenance
- Saves money
- Adds flexibility in business and products
- Provides potential to generate new business
- Enables the capture of new business opportunities
This is about building your business through advanced watering methods which can provide a significant increase in profitability for interior landscapers.
Smart Cushion® - Easy to use Instructions.
- Place a Smart Cushion® into the base of a container.
- Pour in the quantity of water recommended.
- Allow a few minutes till the majority of the water has been absorbed.
- Add soil or compost on top of the Smart Cushion®. Pot the plant(s) up as normal.
- Leave a 25-50mm gap from the top of the soil to the level of the container so water added will not over flow the planter.
- Water in plant roots as normal.
- To re-water plant test the soil either, manually or with a moisture meter, below the surface, if the soil is dry down to a level of 50mm or more add the recommended amount of water by top watering.
Smart Cushion® is a proactive watering system, which works in tandem with plants roots to provide the ideal soil condition for healthy plant growth. The Smart Cushion® holds a large volume of water and delivers it when needed to prolong the watering cycle of plants from up to 4 weeks for many flowering plants and up to 8 weeks for greenery plants.
Standard Sizes
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Smart Cushion®
|
Size (mm)
|
Volume
|
|
Small |
150x150 |
0.5 litre |
|
Medium |
300x300 |
5 litres |
|
Large |
400x400 |
10 litres |
|
Rectangular |
850x250 |
10 litres |
|
Conical |
180Ø x 180 depth |
1.5 litres |
Where can we use Smart Cushion®?
The Smart Cushion® is used in both Interior and Exterior Landscaping. In exterior locations with drainage the Smart Cushion® will recharge using rainwater. This provides a self-cycling system, which extends, dramatically, the periods between watering in drought periods during the summer months. This is particularly beneficial in hanging baskets, which without the use of Smart Cushion® can only capture enough water to sustain flowering plants for a day at most in the height of summer.
Smart Cushion® was initially designed for Interior Landscaping applications. With a Smart Cushion® in the base of a planter/trough/table bowl, maintenance visits can be reduced from once every two weeks to a period of as much as two-three months or longer freeing up technicians to focus on plant care and allowing them to care for a larger number of plants. The use of Smart Cushion® can lead to a major change in the way interior landscaping businesses are managed.
There are potential applications in garden centres and for commercial growers. In garden centres Smart Cushion® can be used in maintaining the quality and health of display product, while freeing up staff from watering. In commercial growing, variants of the Smart Cushion® may be used in maintaining the quality of growing stock in transit from nursery to retail outlet.
How can Smart Cushion® Improve plant care?
Smart Cushion® improves plant care by removing many of the variables involved in plant-care. The single, largest problem is watering. Different plants consume different quantities of water. Water consumption varies also with changes in temperature, atmospheric humidity and air flow and makes it very difficult – perhaps even impossible – to estimate probable water usage of a given plant under variable conditions. Smart Cushion® eliminates the problem of over- and under-watering. All that is needed is to recharge the reservoir periodically and Smart Cushion® takes care of the rest.
How does the Smart Cushion® work?
The material in the Smart Cushion® is in the form of small particles, which even when fully charged with water, remain separate. This ensures that within the Smart Cushion® there are micro-channels and drainage, which permit free passage of air and facilitates access to dissolved oxygen in the water. This means that there is always a supply of oxygen available to the roots, and that anaerobic bacterial infection – a principal cause of root death – is highly unlikely. The net result is that both plant and soil are maintained in a perfectly healthy condition. Hand watering frequently leads to over-watering. Smart Cushion® removes the uncertainty as the plants themselves determine the quantity of water released. In trials water savings in excess of 30% have been observed.
Do you have to wait until all the water is absorbed before going on to the next plant?
No - there is no difference whatsoever in the way you water plants. When water is added, it will travel to the base of the container and will be absorbed instantly by Smart Cushion®. The time spent watering on site will be the same.The interval between watering, however, will be dramatically increased. In trials we have observed trebling or even quadrupling of watering intervals
When you water the system does the plant go up and down?
Compared to the swelling and the contraction of the compost the plant will not move up and down markedly and should settle quickly. The reason for this is that, although water has been released, the structure of the Smart Cushion® within the cushion remains unaltered and little or no “settling” takes place. Once the material has been swollen, it retains its structure permanently. We recommend users to pot up onto a fully swollen Smart Cushion® reservoir.
What types of plants can be used with the system?
The Smart Cushion® is applicable across all species of plants from trees to flowering pot plants. The Smart Cushion® was designed to simplify watering and to remove the guesswork from landscaping, growers and horticulture in general.
How long does the Smart Cushion® last?
The Smart Cushion® can last up to three or more years until the plant is removed from the planter. The roots will penetrate the Smart Cushion® as they locate the water source over a period of a couple of months. This is not a problem! We recommend that you use a new Smart Cushion® each time you pot up.
What types of planters can use the Smart Cushion® system?
Currently available in five sizes that are suitable for the most containers but the product’s flexibility means it can be made to fit any type of planter.
Other sizes can be made to your specific requirements. Please contact us for our bespoke service.
Will feed damage the Smart Cushion®?
Water-soluble plant feed will be absorbed by the Smart Cushion® and released over the prolonged period of watering. Sustained release granular fertilisers have also been used successfully.
How do you know when and how much to water the plant?
The system should be re-filled when the soil feels dry more than one inch (2-3 centimetres) below the surface. When the Smart Cushion® is initially charged with water, there is a large reservoir of “solidified” water, which is slowly released over a period of weeks or months. In the normal position at the base of the trough or planter, water is released directly to the roots and is used immediately. This means that, while compost/soil at the top of the planter may be quite dry, the humidity around the roots is high and ideal for the plants. If the soil is dry under the surface then the correct amount of water recommended for a given size should be added to recharge the Smart Cushion®. With minimal experience operators, once familiar with the system, are able easily tell when it is time to water. Water meters/Humidity probes can be used to provide a more sophisticated level of plant-care information and provide information on when a plant needs to be watered.
What is in the Smart Cushion®?
The Smart Cushion® is filled with a specially designed material, which was originally designed for use in the pharmaceutical industry as a medium for drug delivery. This bespoke class of materials has been developed by Smart Tech® to deliver water to plants in horticulture. The material is subject to extensive international patents and is unique to Smart Tech®.
How can I place an order?
The Smart Cushion® is available directly from the webshop on this site.
