Growstones: Ever used them?

[Mister_D]

www.growstone.com

Has anyone ever used these in a soil mix, or even as a hydro medium? They are made from recycled glass bottles, and appear to be a more enviromently sound replacement for perlite, pumice, etc. The manufactuer claims they are reusable with minimal break down over several uses. The air/water ratio is much higher than perlite. I couldn't find any information and ph levels, but i assume being they are 97-99% glass ph is neutral. Anyway going to do some more looking, but i thought i would share with the community and see if anyone knows more about this product.

 

[descivii]

Basically looks like glass chunky perlite, could be good. Never tried it, though. I notice they don't wanna mention price what so ever so that tells me that they are probably cheap in bulk and retailers might double and triple the profit on it. I assume I would avoid this for the same reasons I do hydroton.....added cost without added benefit.

Interesting product and I do like that it's recycled glass
J

 

[GoneRooty]

They do seem like a great way to use recycled glass, but the nice thing with glass is it can be recycled indefinitely. Meaning, instead of turning old glass into other things, it could just be made back in to glass again. Why turn an old beer bottle into something else, when it could be made back into a beer bottle, without having to use new glass. I personally feel they need to worry more about using things that aren't so easily recycled back into their original state. (ie plastic can only be recycled a few times, and most often not back into it's original plastic, and recycled plastics often can't be re-recycled).
I love the idea of using "waste", but think it would be a better idea to use waste products that can't be re-used as their previous designs.

Rice hulls are a great organic substitute for perlite, etc. Super cheap, I think I paid $14 for a 50lb bag, and they actually provide silica to your soil as they break down. So not only using a "waste" product, but it provides a benefit to your soil, which recycled glass won't do.

 

[Mister_D]

So did a little more looking into these, they are expensive. Run about 29.00 for 1.25 cuft bag. They sell them in much larger bags (35 cuft) for commerical operations, but i couldn't find a price on those. Being made in New Mexico, so if you are close to there i'm sure they could be had cheaper. The only way I can really see someone getting their money worth out of these is if they reuse their soil or grow hydro and want a reuseable media. Grow stones have a much higher air and water retention than perlite, hydrotron, lava rock, etc. Rice hulls hold more air, but very little water. Also as gonerooty mentioned they break down, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I like to add things to my soil that increase humus content, but i also like additions with staying power. Ultimately these are just another viable option to growers today. Depending on your situation they may be a good fit, or not. With the amount of wasted glass going into landfills I feel like these are pretty good way to reuse. Sure glass could be made into more glass, nothing wrong with that, but much of it is just being buried. Less being wasted is a good thing.

 

[rckymtnthuglife]

I've been looking into alternatives to perlite as well. Cost was an issue with me and growstones even though I recycle my soil.

Wondering where a good place to find rice hulls may be...I'm not in Cali.

I've been incorporating coco croutons into my mix and everything seems fine. 10 bucks for 2 cu ft aint bad.

Rocky

 

[GoneRooty]

check feed stores for rice hulls

 

[CC_2U]

Rocky

Like GoneRooty suggested - hit your farm stores. It's used as 'bedding' more than anything else.

The biggest states that grow rice are as follows (and not in any particular order): California, Arkansas, Texas, one of the Carolinas and maybe even both) so your proximity to these production districts may be helpful to source the hulls.

HTH

CC

 

[guest2012y]

Rice hulls definitely make a beautiful soil amendment...I'd say they are perfect.

 

[CC_2U]

CC1

Since I mumbled and stumbled on the rice hulls amendment I've been adding it to potting soils, the raised beds in our garden as well as in the worm bins for all the very same reasons of using this in your soils.

GoneRooty mentioned a price of around $14.00 for 50 lbs. - that's only 1/2 of the story. The 50 lb. deal works out to being 6 c.f. or so.

Pretty effective/inexpensive amendment, eh?

CC

 

[GoneRooty]

$14.00 for 50 lbs.

Well actually I got a 20% discount at Concentrates for taking one of their damaged bags. Hadn't figured out the c.f. yet, but it was a BIG bag

 

[rckymtnthuglife]

Yeah, we dont grow much rice in the rocky mountains. I'll check out some feed stores...not anticipating them being in my area. Next time I'm in Cali or Oregon I might have to throw a bag in the trunk.

 

[Scrappy4]

Yeah, we dont grow much rice in the rocky mountains. I'll check out some feed stores...not anticipating them being in my area. Next time I'm in Cali or Oregon I might have to throw a bag in the trunk.

Check out brew stores as well, beer makers filter the ingredients with rice hulls..........scrappy

 

[mad librettist]

i saw a few container's worth of rice hulls outside a nursery. I was impressed. They use rice hulls in their soil mixes for resale;

 

[GoneRooty]

Just saw something where people are using rice hulls as insulation in green built homes. Amazing how something that was waste not long ago, is being used in so many ways now.

 

[Mister_D]

Lol well my growstones thread has offically turned into a rice hulls thread. It's all good, going to check around my area for some feed stores. Been going back and forth about ordering some hulls, shipping is a killer though. Lots of breweries around my area though, ill make some calls and do some searching for feed stores also. thanks for the input guys.

Hey Mad Librerttist if you read happen to check in on this thread again, just wanted to say thanks for the info about calcined DE (napa floor dry). I've been using it for about a month now, and nothing has died as a result lol. Nah actually seems to work equally well compared to perlite, i'm sold. I didn't screen out the fines, just mixed it at normal ratios for perlite. Diveristy in particle size is a good thing, in my mind anyway. What I got was all pretty similar size wise, and i'm not much for waste.