option for "pumice" in coots mix?

Nwtexan

Nwtexan

Well-Known Member
Hello,

I was out today getting all of my materials to take my first stab at Coot's style soil mix.
I was sourcing everything locally in the Seattle area, and was having a hard time finding pumice, so was settling on getting perlite instead.
I stopped at Home Depot and they had some of this black lava rock. It was cheap enough that i picked up a bag of it.
Would this work for pumice in the mix? The pieces seem to be a bit smaller(closer to the build a soil type)

www.homedepot.com

Pavestone 0.5 cu. ft. Black Volcanic Rock Bagged Landscape Rock 54779 - The Home Depot

Enhance your landscape with 0.5 cu. ft. Premium Black Volcanic Rock. Use this gorgeous black rock to accent planters, walkways, creative landscapes and even Fire Pits. The naturally occurring volcanic
www.homedepot.com
 
They dont look very holey for a volcanic rock likely the heavy sedimenyary settled magmar bit.
.
Some agree perlite ia good others told me no.
It breaks doen over time so a notills not good with perlite.it floats and 2yrs on it breaks down to sludge.

Im in same problem pumice is like 40 dollar pwr 20kg i need 80.

So perlagro lava rock red im going with as others seem to be sharp and said tO cut roots
And a small bag pymice for the benefits of silicons

U want lots of bubble holes for micro orgs to grow
 
Never understood the hate on perlite. Just buy the chunkiest stuff available. And with proper watering practices I don’t see how perlite floats. My pots are spongy gooey living funk and everything is held together by my thriving fungal network. I just dont see the floating thing being that big a deal. You can even bottom water
 
Southernontariogrower said:
Thats fucken black gravel, volcanic pummice is full of holes, you got ripped
Click to expand...
I bought this on my own accord. Was looking around to see what they might have at the store. It was $8. It actually seems to have a bunch of small holes. Definitely not a gravel. Kind of crumblyAC0DBA98-2E96-4D38-B246-6A94F59514F2.jpegAC0DBA98-2E96-4D38-B246-6A94F59514F2.jpeg
 
ComfortCreator said:
It actually looks good, but the issue imo is too chunky. I think - don't know for sure - it should be much smaller / finer.
Click to expand...
I don’t have any of the build-a-soil pumice, but most of these pieces are between 1/4 and 1/2”.
I’m making about 6 cf of soil. I’m thinking of putting this bag in, which is .5cf and using 1 1/2cf of perlite
 

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I made the same mistake, and didn't notice until unloading all the bags had to load them all back up and return them probably half a pallot or so
 
They sell a lot of the smaller stuff for bonsai I think. Of course they jack the price up for the specialty market but you know they're sourcing the smaller/finer stuff from somewhere and then just repackaging in smaller quantities with jacked up prices. Look on ebay or amazon for horticultural pumice.
 
Its scoria its good. Can be rough on roots sometimes but i believe that can increase them too
 
I just ordered through BAS. But I'm in CO so shipping isn't horrible. If anyone orders from them let me know and I can send you a link for $5 off.
 
PadawanWarrior said:
I just ordered through BAS. But I'm in CO so shipping isn't horrible. If anyone orders from them let me know and I can send you a link for $5 off.
Click to expand...
thanks. I ordered some stuff from them but didn't want to deal with the Pumice. Hence the home depot stuff
 
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