Red Lava Rock

[Lorraine]

Originally Posted by lambelkip

I've had trouble with lava rock retaining too much moisture. anybody else have this problem?

I noticed that happening when I used too much of the smaller pieces. I have been putting larger pieces in a wood basket surrounding my repotted catts or vandas and even a few pieces in the clay pots. Using the bigger pieces allows more air to travel around the roots and still keeps the moisture level up. I totally wash & dry the whole bag, throw out the crumbles and size the pieces, sm, med, lg. Trial & error...I've tried a lot of different ways. If I could I'd love to get 1 giant piece of lava rock just to see who survives on it.

[lambelkip]

Thanks, Lorraine, I guess I'll have to try and find some of the larger rocks.

[WhiteRabbit]

Jumping in on this thread -
I am wondering if pumice wicks well enough for s/h ?

[WhiteRabbit]

Originally Posted by Brenda Aarts

Anybody have a minute to explain what wick means?? I'm not familiar with that term.

Brenda - wicking it the ability of the medium to draw the moisture upwards - like if you dipped the corner of a paper towel into a puddle of water - the paper towel - 'wicks-up' the water - absorbing water into parts of the towel that are not dipped into the water

[ChasWG]

I've got a Dendro. NOID in black, smaller lava rock. I see lots of Dendros in lava rock. The plant seems to like it. It's in flower right now and looking great! I've only owned it for a short while, so I'm not sure how it was treated before me. Obviously it sems to be working as the plant is spectacular. I'll be keeping it in it's rocky environment untill it busts out of it's plastic pot.

[Joanie]

Thanks for the lava growing site Charlie.

[Bird Song Farm]

I'm new to passive hydro and just happened to have some red lava rock on hand the day I decided to give it a try (S/H that is). It works GREAT! I use is in all my passive hydro plants now.

AL

[Grandma M]

Originally Posted by Joanie

Thanks for the lava growing site Charlie.

I also say thank you. Very interesting info. I use it for stabilizing my vandas in wood baskets, and sometimes for smaller vandacious plants. Works great, I just wish it was not so heavy.

Marilyn

[DelawareJim]

Originally Posted by Lorraine

I noticed that happening when I used too much of the smaller pieces. I have been putting larger pieces in a wood basket surrounding my repotted catts or vandas and even a few pieces in the clay pots. Using the bigger pieces allows more air to travel around the roots and still keeps the moisture level up. I totally wash & dry the whole bag, throw out the crumbles and size the pieces, sm, med, lg. Trial & error...I've tried a lot of different ways. If I could I'd love to get 1 giant piece of lava rock just to see who survives on it.

Lorraine and Kip;

I'm curious, when you say sort into small, medium, and large, is that approximately nickle, dime, and quarter size; or less that 1/4 inch, 1/4 - 1/2 inch, and larger than 1/2 inch; or do you just divide a bag into the smallest 1/3, medium 1/3, and largest 1/3?

I've been thinking about trying lava rock for my Dendro. 'Emma White' as it's gotten so big in semi-hydro that it's top heavy now. I need heavier base material.

Lorraine, if you want to find large pieces of lava rock, try a pet or aquarium shop. They often have large pieces for aquascaping since it's not as heavy as say a comparably sized piece of granite. And if you really want to go crazy, try your local landscape supply or stoneyard. Most local stoneyards not only carry the usual mulch, gravel, pavers, landscape blocks, etc. but also carry big accent stones for waterfalls, berms etc. They usually have lava rock in sizes from about a football up to a small car.

Cheers.
Jim

[Cookiemonster]

Originally Posted by Bird Song Farm

I'm new to passive hydro and just happened to have some red lava rock on hand the day I decided to give it a try (S/H that is). It works GREAT! I use is in all my passive hydro plants now.

AL

Would you mind explaining passive hydro please?

Secondly if you would like to use this medium well not in SH but as a mixture of other components- how fast does this stuff dry?