Would this product be safe for use and good for aeration/drainage? Vigoro 0.5 cu. ft. Decorative Stone Red Lava Rock I dont mind spending the extra money to get a similar "agriculture grade" product, would this be as good as pumice or perlite?(IMO probably better then perlite)
Not as good as pumice CEC wise, but it's a solid aeration amendment. The red comes from the iron (oxide?) in it. You could probably source it cheaper via a landscape supplier, here it's somewhere around 15-20$ a cubic yard.
landscape supplier's best.... I use lava.. goes good with rice hulls It makes for a good microbe/fungi home, I smash it down to about dime size with a hand sledgehammer
How fine should I crush this stuff up? And would you guys approve of using this as a mulch just to help retain a constant level of moisture within the top layer of soil? Thanks! I just pick up a bag of this stuff a couple days ago from Lowes
I would put down a 1/2 in on the bottom and mix in about a 32oz cup with the soil and you will be happy..
Hey man, so I totally failed aat crushing the read lave rock! I put the bag in a pillow case an hit it with a hammer for maybe 5 minutes, to no avail. So my question is, how do you guys crush this stuff? I'm sure you don't use the rock regular sized right?
The size of the lava rocks? About the size of walnuts most of them. There are some more fragmented pieces, but not enough in a the bag posted in the OP. On the plus side of me not being able to crush them, I think they'll make a great mulch and might go well in the bottom of your pots if you're into that..
i just bought some of these in pebble form n added it to my mix, hoping to see some result. Only ways ive read to crush em are sledge hammer or running them over
Take a small maul (sledge) and smash them. Take it on some concrete, or anything harder than what you're breaking, and just give it a good go. Otherwise, there's always perlite, rice hulls, recycled silica, and other means of providing aeration to the soil.
Thanks Sir and Gimik. I literally hit the rock with a regular hammer for about 5-10 minutes and may have broken one of them! And I don't have a sledge so i'll have to get a hold of one. Until then I'll keep it in the reserves. And I am currently using perlite in my soil mix, but wanted to try an aeration amendment that wasn't totally inert, so I picked up some red lava rock. But thanks for for all you answers guys. Found what I was looking for!
If your looking for something that isn't inert I suggest finding hulls of any kind (Barley-Wheat-Rye-Rice), brew stores and such will carry them.
I set them in a pillow case in the street placed a piece of sheet metal down and had a friend run them over in his truck 2-3 times. Not so much green friendly but calorie conservative fasho.