I’m just going to drop off dumb questions I have here and probably rant a bit about how much I don’t get them.
To start off:
How the heck do you grow anything in clay pebbles? It’s clay! I remove clay lumps from my soil in the garden because the plants don’t like it and people are actually using it to grow things? How does that even work? It’s so light, the plant would fall over, it should fall over! I can get the concept of clay pebbles on top of the soil but clay pebbles AS the soil… no. NO! You’d just lose a seed in there if you dropped it in and it bounced off the clay pebbles and into the cracks somewhere. Must be like living on mars to plants. And how does the plant get to moisture/nutrients? It’d have to grow roots very quickly to get into any scraps it found in the clay pebbles or do the pebbles excrete it?
No questions a dumb question if you don’t know the answer. The reason people use clay pebbles (hydroton) is because it is an inert growing medium. Now trying to hand water plants growing in clay pebbles is a dumb af thing to do. But in hydro. They’re easy to clean off and reuse. If you have a covert operation then you don’t wanna be lugging bags and buckets constantly.
Ps I feel your pain on the clay garden. Mines pretty much solid clay from 4 inches depth
well the roots grow in the spaces between the clay balls, and they are kept wet by top watering which in effect works like a nutrient film technique, so all the spaces it between the clay balls have high (near 100%) humidity so a lot of air roots form. Also the clay hold onto a bit of water as well.
As for starting seeds that’s why most start in a rockwool cube or the likes then transplant into the clay balls.
And the clay balls are kiln fired, so think unglazed pottery
Couple other things, when using clay people’s a hydroponic nutrient is used. This provides the plant with what it needs to grow. The clay itself is inert. The clay doesn’t turn to goop because it’s fired in a kiln making it more like poetry than clay.
I actually found remains of buildings they buried under mine. Hence why I decided to go big raised beds, I did try to clear it on one side but 3 foot down and still more bricks, glass etc.
If the plant gets large enough in any media it can fall over. so if they are big you have to tie them up. When growing with clay pebbles the roots of the plant will start to grow around and grab the pebbles giving it strength. I have had plants get so root bound in a bucket with clay pebbles that I could not pull it out. (I’m no pussy ) and in trays they form a mat of roots underneath the rocks.
That just sounds like a lot of fuss to me. More problems than it solves. You get a lot of dehydrated coco coir easy to bring in and your roots would be less likely to knit and freak out. I can’t say I’m being won over.
Depending on where you live coco can be a hustle. There are many factors involved with getting constant quality coco continuously. With hardened clay pebbles I don’t have to worry about ph and nute lockout (mag in coco). When I am done growing I can clean and reuse it.
Yeah I’ve had a couple of dodgy coco bags that developed fungus, you have to boil it couple days before use with new bags. But I still find it much more worth while than anything else I’ve used. Plants are pretty happy in it.
) and in trays they form a mat of roots underneath the rocks.
