Wow, barbecue rocks. Never seen those before. Thanks. They look better to me than clay pebbles. I am still interested in the use of landscaping rocks (I would clean/sterilize them of course). Larger volumes of them would be way cheaper [than barbecue or hydroton].
People tell me their experiences with [something], but when I do my own experiments I come out with completely different results. For instance Hydroton. ??It doesn??t affect the pH of water?. In my experience that statement would be true only if you??re using tapwater, where the pH is already high 7.2 ?? 8.2. I washed my hydroton a dozen times. Then immersed it in a volume of pure R.O. water (pH 6.2), waited overnight, and it invariably raised the reading to around 8 ?? quite unacceptable. Tried it several times. Good pH meter, tested, calibrated; a solid experiment. And no matter how many times you wash them, more red powder keeps coming off ?? you could wash them until they disintegrate!. Guess I could do what other people do: use pH down and get over it.
Maybe there are different brands of pebbles. I??ve read that some ??cheap agricultural?? brands do leach and raise the water pH. I got mine from a growstore, but maybe that brand has started using the cheap stuff. Or maybe it??s all that way???
grow4fun Reviewed by grow4fun on . Can you use red lava yard-rocks for grow medium ? I??ve heard people mention ??lava rocks?? as a grow medium, instead of Hydroton. Are they talking about special lava-rocks sold at a grow store, or the red lava-type rocks used for landscaping, that people use in their front yard in place of grass ? The yard kind is probably very cheap compared to Hydroton (they probably sell it by the cubic yard like soil). What I wonder is: 1) does it release minerals into the solution that would raise/lower the pH ? and 2) does the rock being red Rating: 5