Here you go Ruby! The pictures I promised you of my gardenias in the gritty mix. Notice the coloring and buds. They love the gritty mix! This one was tiny since the start of using the gritty mix This one was a cutting I started just this summer. This one was also a cutting. I bought it as a 2inch high high plant in a 2 inch pot!lol. It grew a lot over the summer. It is a special one and a rare one. It opens Yellow flowers and is very sweet. I won't take a chance of loosing this one to a peaty mix. Gritty all the way. This is my frost proof one. I am determined not to loose this one too. This one was saved from MG! It almost died when I first heard of the gritty mix and I desperately transplanted it into the gritty mix with the kind help of Al and Josh and look at it now. Here is a group shot of many other plants in the gritty mix. ALL were bare rooted and many have very sensitive roots. They all did fine:-) You plants will do fine if you listen to the friends here. By the way,Josh has made some more very important points. I wish you success. Mike

Sheila do you really mean lava rock which holds no water at all, or do you mean a hydroponic rock that retains about 8% humidity. Most Vanda in Hawaii are grown in pots to 4 inches as it is more economical. It takes less space and wood baskets rot before they are sold. Shipping a basket from Hawaii is also considerably more than shipping a pot. So most of your concerns are economical in origin, not necessary good or bad for the plant. I shipped some 6 and 8 inch baskets today to California and the cost of shipping clobbered any profit I may have had. There is a sur-charge for shipments based on box size, much higher than the actual weight charges. Same problem when I shipped to you.

A long time ago I read about lava rock having a high fluoride content. I now found this info at simplyhydro.com: -- Lava rock has successfully been used used in hydroponics for many years...but less so now, due to other alternatives which do not have sharp edges that cause damage to the roots. Also due to chemically treated lava being hard to find in many areas of the country. -- (This makes me want to it use much less than I have before...) I have crunched up lava with a sledge hammer but found it tedious. It does make contrasting topping for bright succulents. Re: "no peat" mix. I read about peat being acid and consequently inhibiting fungus. I also read about most cacti and succ.s not being too particular about the ph of the soil. So I grew some smaller echeveria types and a couple of others in pure peat, with a wick in water, like African violets. Some are going on 4 years now. I've been amazed. Lost a couple - likely because that peat had some soil, too, which provided a fungus foothold. I followed up on "chicken (granite) grit" from another blog. Yup, the local farm supply had it. Cool stuff. The Rockies in a bag. Heavy, but a lot of people recommend it: 1 part grit, 1 puffy stuff, 1 fine peat.

hello this forum mayb closed i am looking for only natural and organic growing mediums, i have used lava rock on and of since about 1983, the first time i used it right as it came from the bag that lasted till about 88, i got some free time on my hands and i pulverized my lava it was about 2 - 5 gal buckets worth when i gave up i still have that batch i just rinse it well if i want to use it i have had real good luck just using it as a normal water as needed medium, our thinking was such great things come from the islands and had seen the great flowers there , pinapples come from there so,,, why not grow in it as long as i keep it well drained and no obstructions on the drain holes it has been some good medium, but i never really had much time to actualy set up a real hydroponics system like u see now days it was just ur bare knuckles pump the water in and cover the medium and drain it out well, since then i have been tryn to utilize some water and slopes and grow fish and plants in our ponds and i have ignored lava rock till the last few yrs but now i am really looking into growing only organic in truly only organic containers and anything touching the water and its been very tricky since my wife does cancer treatments and my background is environmental i have looked at cancers and sickness as a result of what we eat and whats in all of what we digest and the containers that touch it and what its grown in and watered with,,, so,, my point? i have used lava rock but consider it somewhat inert but with my chemistry background and knowing whats in all the water and whats gonna be in the fish excretions from gills and excrement's it will have some affect on anything in lava rock that might dissolve up to the point my fish algae coats it with that slim, so my concern? i saw one blog where the blogger says lava rock gives off dangerous chemicals ,,, but its blog to me seemed to b pushing claycorn ,,yet its man made from who knows what and is imported from china i also see that it starts out and may stay with a p h of 8 my lava rock in and 7 ph filtered tap thru 3 charcoal filters shows 8 depending on whose eyes u use, ,,i see where the most fertile lands on earth are in volcanic soil but upon checking cancer rates in these areas i find that many say they have high thyroid cancers in those areas of course the people are exposed to more than the soil yet i found a very few isolated volcanic areas where no cancer existed but they say its from the general diet high in certain elements,, since lava rock numbers i have seen imply 66% silica, 16% aluminum. 10% iron,, lists only 10 total elements i am wondering if i should be concerned with the aluminum, and its possible affects on humans causing dementia, n Alzheimer and no i do not want to hear its a metal and it will not react i am talking pure submersion in my fish ponds and in my grow beds ,, i have stayed with what i think is river rock for now since thats what i ve always used for fish, (and its probly all conglomerate of marble (igneous limestone), granite, quartz, limestone, with one pebble or 2 or lava rock) but since i am planning on eating the fish and i am tryn to remove all man made items such as plastics, vinyls, pond liners, additives in my fish food and meds and hormones not used and all fish treatments removed ( if they die they get blended for chum), are there any other obsessive people who can give me any reason to not use lava rock over man made clay balls for grow medium my brother n law is sure that the clay balls have been developed by the professionals, my son who is helping with the learning is too young to do anything except as what the hell are ur talking about old man? i have not finalized my choices but i see the professionals as only there to part me with my money and sell me some snake oil when it comes to clay made pellets, ,, so do i have to worry about the aluminum, or any of the other 7 items aside from the silica i know i should not breath when i pound it to a pulp, i am tryn to be as true and pure organic as can knownly be and growing inside greenhouses and enclosed ponds not sure how i m gonna get the birth control pills outs the water if its not truly well water but has been slipped in from the lake if my charcoal filters won t remove it except to maybe us my springs that have p h of 6 and drill my own well, of course when i add the wrong things to drop the ph it actually draws out more of my alkalies but i have probly always grown my crops in a ten due to growing in this east texas iron ore and sand , and in central texas dirt and here i have always added gypsum to cancel out the chlorine added to the tap water if you can sort this out and it gets past censors please let me no if anyone out there can shed some lite on my determination to use all lava rock and river rock and white marble or limestone rock