The Design

Enviro Doctor sourced from its suppliers tubs (from Garden City Plastics),
troughs (from Container Connection), plants (from Andreasens Green), wire
supports (from Whites Wire and Wire Mesh Products), Sphagnum Moss (from
Austmoss), Easy-Mulch (from Hayward Stock Feeds) and bark (from ANL).

There were experienced several areas of potential difficulty which were
addressed through the development of the unit.

The wire gauge had to be sufficient to hold the weight of the fill and
flowering units when fully wet. There was discovered to be a very
significant weight variation depending on the water penetration of the
sphagnum ranging from 0.4 Kg to 3.8 Kg.

The flex capacity of the wire allowing for sufficient depression of the
flower units had to be matched with sufficient tensile strength to carry the
dead weight of the material as it changed in moisture absorption.

Understanding the changing character of the Sphagnum through the range of
its absorption took a little getting used to however it proved to be the key
element in the success of the units.

The plant material proved more difficult especially with the late failure of
several of the species and late variations to the foundation material.

An hundred and forty millimetre (140mm) unit flowering plant size was
selected with a seventy five litre capacity feature planting. We were able
to accommodate the larger one hundred litre unit as we were with a four
hundred millimetre (400mm) container grown unit but found limitations with
the smaller forty five Litre (45Lt) capacity unit.