Volcanic Red Lava Rock as S/H media

[Brotherly Monkey]

I have most of my plants potted in lava rock, and never had much issue

[shadytrake]

Originally Posted by rodrigo

Interesting.
Could you provide photographs to illustrate your findings?
Thanks,
Rodrigo

I'll try to take some pics tonite.

[Vanda lover]

Originally Posted by Brotherly Monkey

I have most of my plants potted in lava rock, and never had much issue

I sure would like to try it! Other s/h medias are much harder to get here.

[Brotherly Monkey]

Originally Posted by Vanda lover

I sure would like to try it! Other s/h medias are much harder to get here.

personally, I think it could be a real pain in the ass for S/H, because it does "capture" a lot of material, due to the sharp edges(not to mention the irregularity in size). Have you checked a local hydroponics shop for regular hydroton?

If you don't mind listing your town, and province, I would be happy to try and track down a close supplier

[Vanda lover]

I have checked, and I might ask someone to take me next time we're in the 'big' city. I don't drive and it is an hour away. I will have to buy a huge bag, though. No one sells it at our islands 2 small shows, so I have to decide if it is worth it. I tried s/h before and it does have it's good points, but is also a pain in the butt if a pot tips over and it all runs away.

[Brotherly Monkey]

Originally Posted by Vanda lover

I have checked, and I might ask someone to take me next time we're in the 'big' city. I don't drive and it is an hour away. I will have to buy a huge bag, though. No one sells it at our islands 2 small shows, so I have to decide if it is worth it. I tried s/h before and it does have it's good points, but is also a pain in the butt if a pot tips over and it all runs away.

I don't grow anything in S/h, but use hydroton for various other projects I'm involved in, and a large bag is usually only 25-35 (even picked them up for $20 on sale) bucks here in the states.

[Vanda lover]

That's true, there are other uses, and I probably won't have to buy it again for a very long time. I plan to use some when I make an evaporative cooler for my masdevalias, using it with clay pots.

[shadytrake]

Okay here is a pic. Now remember this was not scientific. I don't know if the flasklings were the same size in each compot. Some could have been smaller or weaker. Also, this was not high quality lava rock. This was the cheap stuff you can buy at Lowe's and Home Depot and I did not break up the chunks. I did rinse the red dust off.

The bottom row of seedlings did not have lava rock. They were in hydroton/arkolite mix.

Also I am not saying that I won't discontinue using lava rock completely. It depends on the situation and if I need ballast in the pots.

[Vanda lover]

That really is a big difference in growth! It really does make you wonder.

[rodrigo]

Hello shadytrake

Is the lava rock the first bottom row?
If so, those are the plants that present better growth.

The other round stuff does not look like lava rock at all.
Now, those chunks are huge, I guess you had to water that every 5 minutes

I will take other photos of the 2 cattleyas I placed on lava rock S/H. (You can see them earlier in this post)
It has been about 6 months... and they have been growing

Regards,

Rodrigo