Has anyone has success with Growstones?

[DelawareJim]

My local hydroponics store has demos of all their substrates. They don't like GrowStones for taller plants. They said the plants got top heavy and fall over.

Cheers.
Jim

[Ray]

Originally Posted by hypostatic

Hmmm, I see.

So just out of curiosity, if the growstones were made out of regular glass (not soda-lime glass), would it be more pH neutral, and still have the same properties?

Soda-lime glass IS "regular" glass. Bottles, jars, windows, etc. are all soda-lime glass formulas, although they may vary a bit. The other kinds, like borosilicate (used in stuff like labware and Pyrex-type cooking ware) or lead crystal don't typically make it into the recycle stream, and are of much smaller volume to start with.

Pure silica would be on the acidic side, but at its melting temperature, it is SO viscous that it won't even flow, so foaming is out of the question. The alkaline minerals are added to break the Si-O-Si bonds, lowering the melting temperature and decreasing the viscosity.