Finding Hydrostone
 

Hi
First I was wonderibg if anybody knows if the S/H-medium 'Hydrostone' still is possible to purchase somewere?

And secondly if PrimeAgra is as good a medium as I understand Hydrostone to be? I would be most gratefull for your experience!

Sorry for my far from perfect english.

Regards JR

I'm not aware of "hydrostone" but "hydroton" is certainly still manufactured. PrimeAgra varies depending on the batch; some appears to be better than hydroton, some not.

i dont know, what mean?

Hydrostone is a US manufactured, fired clay product, but not a lightweight expanded clay pellet like Hydroton or PrimeAgra.

May I ask where you get the information that PrimeAgra is variable in quality? I am the sole distributor of it, and ever since the original factory was closed, and the new one began production - about 8 years ago - it has been extremely consistent.

Ray,
until you responded, all the previous people posting were outside the US. I don't doubt you at all.
Rex

Hi Ray, I read in a post somewhere that primeagra had gone through a phase where it had more minerals in it, and there was "old" and "new" primeagra, and the "new" stuff was quite dubious.

I can't recall exactly where I came across it (and I vaguely recall that it may have been you talking about this), and it may well have been a case of thread necromancy and the quality issue may now be moot?

A good source of information about which fired clay medium is available in your country would be hydroponic supply stores.

There is a pale in calgary Alberta that sells this product and it works like a charm. I pot my paph. niveum and concolor in it and they love it, as they do not like to be repotted. Gemma is the name of the company I think.

The facts of the matter are these:

The original material I promoted (apparently quite well) started to go downhill fast in terms of quality and consistency. Some of the principles of that company decided to leave and form their own, and in doing so, decided to engineer a LECA specifically for hydroculture, rather than remarketing it from its origin as a concrete aggregate.

The production from the new factory included the use of new binders and additives to optimize the porosity (among other things), and the result is a particle that absorbs exceptionally well, but even more importantly, releases what it absorbs more fully.

When I first introduced the new material, folks noticed it developed a crystalline "crust" on the particles. The reason for that is that while all LECAs have those manufacturing residues in them, this material allowed it to be more easily removed, but if you didn't wash the material properly, it would show up in the pot. With other media, the extraction took longer, so wasn't as obvious, so was potentially chemically damaging over a longer term. Washed properly, there is no issue at all, and the other property enhancements make it worth the careful pre-handling.

I suppose some of it was a typical negative assessment of any "change". I recall a time when the marketing folks at the chemical company where I worked decided to change the appearance of the paper bag our ceramic powder was supplied in. Almost immediately, customers complained it "didn't work as well", even though the product was unchanged, just the graphics on the bag.