Crushed hydroton

[keithrs]

Has anyone crushed any hydroton for masd. or any other moisture retentive species instead of moss or fine bark?

[Zoi2]

I use regular prime agra from Ray for my masd in s/h. If you don't want to do s/h Ray also sells really small prime agra that would be better than using crushed. It you crush it you won't have the air gaps.
Joann

[keithrs]

I would think you would get more air circulation then in moss?!?!

[Bud]

If you look at my Euentha sanderiana post you will see that my medium added hydroton clay pellets (not the round ones but the flat odd shaped)with large coco chips, medium lava rocks and large charcoal; I got it from repotme.com...you can choose your own mix. I havent seen crushed hydroton being sold...or else you can get your broken clay pots and just pound them to the size you want ...

[keithrs]

I do add it to some of my mixes I make as is.

The reason I ask is because I want to simplify how I do things. I do not like to repot and worry about breaking roots. I would like to just remove the plant out of the pot and put it into a bigger pot and add more mix. Plus I think you would have less chance of a disease issue.

[Bud]

what happens to the dead old roots? it gets to be repotted with the healthy plant again? the reason you repot is you want to get rid of the old decaying media and refresh the roots...You will not break the healthy roots if you wet it first and gently pry it out of the old pot

[keithrs]

MMMMM.... good point! My school of though is that if theres enough air circulation and watered right you shouldn't have whole lot of dead roots or problems with dead roots.