gravel as medium

[sunset limited]

i've been filling my netpots with hydroton for a long time now. seems like there's a new hydro medium every other week now. one make from recycled glass bottles, another from old tires, still another from big chunks of diatomaceous earth. ain't none of them cheap either.

i always thought that expaned clay was the cheapest of the lot, $22 for a 50 liter bag is a big part of why i use it. last week though, i had to have a bobtail of gravel unloaded in the yard at my shop. for that same $22, i can get a whole yard of 3/4" crushed rock.

can anyone think of a reason NOT to try regular old gravel as a medium? anyone tried it?

 

[Bush Dr]

River gravel would be fine, crushed rock .... possibility of minerals bleeding out the rock or even heavy metals .....

 

[oldergrower]

Stone

Stone

In a pinch one grow was putting plants in my hydro unit on a late sunday evening
and surprise was low on hydroton. What to do???
Wally world to the rescue and bought aquarium gravel to get by. Worked great so go for it.

 

[Darious]

I have lava rock in 2in net pots for some strawberry (real berries) plants in some DWC tubs I set up. Works just fine. Try and rinse them well first, or you might have some silt in your res, but it doesn't seem to hurt anything. 1cf runs $6 or so at the big box hardware chains locally.

 

[paladin420]

used washed pea gravel for years before hydroton.. pain in the ass worse than hydroton. heavy,hard to clean, heavy.. but cheap and did not have to go to a grow store to get it.
crushed around here is usually limestone and I would not rec that.

 

[cyat]

used it in aquaponics ...works great, needs pretty much 24/7 watering tho.... and what paladin said.. super heavy and ruff , needs to be rinsed foreverrrrrrrrrrr.... did I say heavy?
but after all that it resides in my yard, and makes a great walkway...

weirdest but coolest medium I heard someone say they used ,was ocean stones from the beach.

 

[paladin420]

used it in aquaponics ...works great, needs pretty much 24/7 watering tho.... and what paladin said.. super heavy and ruff , needs to be rinsed foreverrrrrrrrrrr.... did I say heavy?
but after all that it resides in my yard, and makes a great walkway...

weirdest but coolest medium I heard someone say they used ,was ocean stones from the beach.

we should mention that it is heavy


24, 5 gallon buckets about a half a mile back up to the truck from the gravel pit...darn heavy...pitch black night...never will forget just how freakin heavy they got by the end...

 

[cyat]

uh lets just say its a little heavy... also fun to rinse if you have nothing to do

 

[PetFlora]

I use a combination of lava rock for anchoring near the bottom and ornamental rock (polished stones) available at any dollar store

 

[WelderDan]

I used pea gravel my first DWC grow. Worked fine

 

[DHF]

Fully washed and rinsed lavarocks ruled my grow containers for well on 15 yrs with only 2 different fast hydro setups and dialed results......

Peace....DHF..........

 

[TLoft13]

i've been filling my netpots with hydroton for a long time now. seems like there's a new hydro medium every other week now. one make from recycled glass bottles, another from old tires, still another from big chunks of diatomaceous earth. ain't none of them cheap either.

i always thought that expaned clay was the cheapest of the lot, $22 for a 50 liter bag is a big part of why i use it. last week though, i had to have a bobtail of gravel unloaded in the yard at my shop. for that same $22, i can get a whole yard of 3/4" crushed rock.

can anyone think of a reason NOT to try regular old gravel as a medium? anyone tried it?

I know the aquaponics people use coarse or fine gravel, or even shreddered concrete for their beds. And they plant all kinds of stuff in there, from rucola to banana trees.