Using Lava rock as a growing media?
homehydro
12 years ago
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TheMasterGardener1
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agogrizzman
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Using large rocks for growth media.
Comments (22)Yes I haven't seen any here in the UK in flower from members via Facebook or so but After coming across pictures of them I was keen to get a few of the plants and try them out Not easy to get a hold of either Atm I have about 5 Speciosums 3x small seedlings in bark medium in clear pots those are (flinders, grandiflorum and curvicaule) and I've also 2 much bigger ones (unsure what they are tags just say Speciosum and will have white flowers) the larger plants were planted in poor bark medium so I decided to try clay pebbles so far they seem to be ok in that The only thing that troubles me is knowing that our British winters over here are often horrendous temps going down to -1C I just hope they will be ok, I have them indoors on my kitchen window currently so I hope they don't croak on me...See MoreWhere to buy Lava Rock for Waterfall Filter
Comments (7)Thanks for the information cherokee_joeshoeboot. I did a google search on lowes website and came up with two products which might be what you described: One is ProCom Decorative Lava Rock and the other is American Countryside .5 cu ft Lava Rock (label says "RED Lava Rock". Which one would I use in my filter? Thanks gain for the reply.. Pete...See MoreCrushed lava rock (ugh!)
Comments (9)Thanks - I think the rocks were the problem also. I never used them before, or since, and haven't had any significant losses. I do sterilize my pots cleaning them carefully with a bleach/water solution before using them. I just wasn't sure whether it was the lava rock or not. I guess it was rocks in general. I probably wouldn't have used them at all except I ran out of smaller pots and was trying to save on potting mix. Last year I bought a huge bag of a bark mix from my home-town nursery. It is what he uses in his pot-ups. It is hard not to notice that when you buy a potted plant there are no rocks, chips etc. in the bottom. I probably wouldn't even use the coffee filters except with 30 or more plants they are everywhere I don't want potting mix running out. Generally I avoid using dirt, but I tried to conserve $ spent on a prepaired mix. My thinking may have been flawed since I was just housing dormant plants during the cold of winter when the mix would have been biologically dormant also in freezing temperatures. I felt I was just trying to keep them from dessicating. Paul - that was a great link. I forgot to mention my soil was infused with a lot of pearlite. This wicking makes sense. The potting mix with its small particles has greater surface area than the rock so gravity is overcome by the wicking, thereby retainging water. Since I was simply overwintering the plants they were dormant and not using the wicked water up, thereby they became water logged. duh on me. Ken-I don't "insist" on any such thing. I only used the rock in 4 pots out of 34, and have overwintered a hundred or more in the past without rocks and with little loss. It seems the problem was using rocks in general rather than specifically lava rocks. Needless to say I haven't used rocks since....See Moregypsum,cracked corn,alfalfa...@ strawchicago
Comments (13)Runerat: No problems .. I like to share my mistakes as well as success. Please let us know how your roses turn out with different additives. I want to double-check to see if things work the same or different elsewhere. Thanks !! I was about to return that big bag of red-lava-rock to the store, and get bagged soil instead .... but I dug up a dozen dandelion-weeds in my lawn, and the place where it's topped with red-lava-rock, the dandelion has 3-forked roots, rather than one elongated tap-root .. made it hard to kill. Branching of roots below, or branching of branches above result in more blooms & more bushy. The 1st sign of phosphorus deficiency is reduced branching of stems, thus less blooms. One website advise NOT to give one's lawn potassium fertilizer, since it makes the tap-root like dandelions more aggressive. There's one bed which I mixed gypsum with red-lava-rock into my clay. then sown mustard seeds .. all of them sprout & healthy despite this dry & hot week. There's another bed which I threw seeds down on my clay, and topped with potting soil .. none sprout, all died. Two years ago I used cocoa-mulch NPK 2.5 - 1 -3 (high potassium), plus sulfate of potash on my tomato, plus Tomato Tone NPK 4-6-6 ... plenty of potassium which made my tomato REALLY SWEET. I made pasta-sauce with that, and didn't need to put sugar in. Last year I used sulfate of potash only ... tomatoes were sweet, but crop production was 1/10, since I forgot to put Tomato Tone in the planting hole. I can't taste roses, but I can taste tomato to see the effect of different fertilizers. It was a nuisance to give soluble sulfate of potash, so I'll experiment with red-lava-rock in the planting hole for tomato .. will report the result. Someone else reported how red-lava-rock helped seedlings: http://www.permies.com/t/6671/organic/volcanic-ash-fertilizer "When I lived in 'country' on the beautiful isle known as Oahu we used to take actual lava rock from a 'special source' which turned out to be very air lava rock. We would cut the rock, and use it to start seedlings in because it made the very best and safest seedling starter out there. The roots of what we were planting at the time would grow through it, and break it down over time." Mekka Pakanohida Below is the minerals listed for red-lava-rock: Mineral Content Nitrate Nitrogen.................................4.0 p.p.m. Phosphorus........................................6.0 p.p.m. Potassium.........................................59.0 p.p.m. Zinc.........................................................6 p.p.m. Iron..................................................10.0+ p.p.m. Copper...............................................5.5+ p.p.m. Magnesium.......................................2.0+ p.p.m. Boron.................................................10.0 p.p.m. Sulfate.................................................7.0 p.p.m. Organic Material...........................................5% PH.........................................................8.2 Units Calcium..................................1.3 Meq/100 gm* Manganese...........................0.6 Meq/100 gm* Sodium...................................0.1 Meq/100 gm* Cation Exchange Capacity..3.2 Meq/100 gm*...See Morehomehydro
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