Grit of various types and size

[Grant Bowie]

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[Bretts]

Hi Grant
I got a big bag of these small balls from a hydro shop. They seemed to do the job ok but I never liked the uniform roundness when mixed with soil. It just gave me the feeling that it was not doing a great job. Yet it seemed to work fine????
I ended up using the bag as a filler in less important soils. I think I still have some trident seedlings in it that are a couple of years old. They are going fine and hopefully I have time next spring to separate them

I just dropped into the hydro shop yesterday to see what they had on offer and found a bag of coco peat. It seemed like good quality stuff I was going to double check what this stuff was as there are several peats and I believe not all are great.
Have a brunnings coir peat brick in front of me and I would say that is not great as a main part of the mix. I think coco is a better one.
I will grab a bag of this coco peat next trip though in a couple of weeks.

[Bretts]

Just did a little research and it seems coco-peat and coir-peat are both from coconuts
Seems peat is peat but I have found some cheap peat is high in salt. One of the attributes of the one I was looking at was low salt.

[Grant Bowie]

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[alpineart]

Hi Grant , i'm a little amazed at the idea of using recycled demolition material .ie Crushed Brick .Being in the Building trade for well over 35 years i would be very hesitant in using crushed brick as they certainly don't pick and choose what they crush .Most materials were used in conjunction with some very dangerous additives to protect the structure or enhance it . Asbestos , bitumen damp course , lead paints , creasote , arsenik and many other toxic additive were placed around foundations and applied to brickwork and structures to protect from weather and dampness .Whilst the product may look clean you cant remove any of the above contaminants by washing with water or sieving out the fines , and they dont tear down new dwellings for the recycle industry to supply clean -green products .Just highlighting the un-seen dangers to the average user here , as i applied a majority of these products without the true knowledge or awareness of the health risks "then or now" . Buyer beware that's for sure .Cheers Alpineart

[MattA]

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Hey Grant,

I have used a variety of different material in my mixes over the years (whatever was available) crushed brick/ tile/ sandstone/ glass, blue metal, scoria, crushed quartz, 4-7mm local river gravel (similar to fishtank stones), gravel off ant mounds (some huge meat ant mounds near an old home, they yeiled heaps of gravel of good size & shape if you can stand the bites)

Today I picked up 200kgs of crushed basalt, 2-7mm with most being at the upper end of the size range. Its heavy but being a crushed stone its mainly sharp edges to the particles, alot of my trees are in up to 75% gravel mixes so i shall be interested to see how this compares.

Maitland red IE fishtank gravel the WORST WORST I have 500kg of the stuff here (being ecocontious & buying the locally produced stone = bad idea) its going to disappear each repot over the coming years. Too consistent a size & too rounded with almost no sharp edges to help encourage root division.

Matt

[NBPCA]

Hi everyone and thanks for input,

Although my trials on potting components and blends is not finished I would certainly advocate the use of Diatomite as a large portion of any mix.

It seema consistent and with no downsides like Perlite or crushed brick etc.

Grant