growstones

[Devilspine]

In the next coupla weeks there will be a new grow medium coming to Aus called Growstones. It has better water and air retention than expanded clay and perlite and is claimed to outperform other mediums. Its made from expanded/kiln fired recycled glass. It also has readily available silica to help fight that budrot.....sounds pretty good..think i might get me some and try it out....oh...and apparently its replacing hydroton brand of expanded clay which will no longer be available.

[Frazz]

sounds good DS an will be keen to hear how it performs ..

 

there is a naturally occuring rock which has all the properties you mentioned above, well not actually kiln fired but it is formed as molten silica lava cools from active volcanos ..

Scoria Rock or lava rock, available at most garden centres, cheap too

i have used it in growing and from what ive seen the roots love it as a medium, and penetrate in their thousands right into the cavities in the rocks

and cause of the rocks' many macroscopic cavities and tunnels the roots actually have a far greater area within the medium to populate, more so than any other medium ive used

 

[Devilspine]

Know what ur sayin Frazz, scoria is popular with the aquaponics crowd in qld ,plant friendly and cheap for filling deeper grow beds ,they also have some natural minerals available.

[KRON BOURKE]

Yeh i noticed last visit to the store there was no hydroton, instead they had hydrokorrels......I personally would rather the balls as they didnt fall through the bottom of my pots as these new stones do. But i am always up to trying new stuff.....I'll give it a go when i see it around...

[flipscott]

I'm told that another benefit of Growstones is that Scarid fly and fungus gnats won't land on it so can be used like perlite to form a barrier on the top of your pot???

[yahooserious]

googling