I picked up a bag of Growstone today too Phil. I love the stuff, it doesn't get crushed like perlite does, it maintains its form. I'm excited to see you get your seeds sowed!

Tracy

Nice start there, Phil. I've been trying to choose my ingredients lately for the gritty mix and was looking at growstone or even hydroton myself. Happy growing, I really enjoy your posts... Keep it up.

that's team appreciate your comments :)

Hi Phil, I've never heard of Growstone. Do you use it instead of Perlite and can I ask where you purchased it from? I may give that a go next year. I've brought my plants in from the greenhouse already and they're now plastered over my South facing windowsills. The foliage on my plants has been bad this year, I don't know why really. They've been sprayed for spider mite but I think it's been more down to the bad summer. Hey ho, upwards and onwards old bean, as they say

Hi averil, I got it from a local hydro store near me that didn't know was there lol. I believe you use it instead of whatever drainage medium you normally use as it acts as drainage but also aeration for the plant roots which in turn is supposed to yield a much stronger root Base due to the air movement around them which doesn't happen as well with other medium's etc

Do you want me to send you some to try?

Couldn't have put it better myself pal.....ahem lol

Hi Phil, I've googled to see if we have a hydroponics store here and yes we have! (Who would have thought it eh? Lol)I shall go there and have a look at this Growstone and I'm sure there will be other interesting things. I wouldn't have thought if you hadn't mentioned. Thanks muchly for your offer to send some but I shall get some from here if they have it

no probs averil - if you don't manage to get any let me know and I will send you some

Hi Phil,

We know now that you're really addicted to adeniums ! wishing you all the best in your new endeavour and looking forward to the plants you get for yourself or are you planning to grow them from seed?.I really want a look see at what's in that bag marked "Growstone".Could you please upload a few pics of the goodies in that bag please. I am guessing it to be something like glass pebbles, and literally dying of curiosity!!..The bag itself must be real heavy am sure(being full of glass pieces)

waiting for an update from you!

I am using normal stones like these in the pic

Hi Dr. The sack is prob the same kind of weight to a medium size bag of compost I guess, not light but not mega heavy.

Even though it's made of glass it's been processed and to be honest feels more like pumice stones rather than glass, and no its no sharp, thankfully.

Think of it like pretty chunky pearlite, he is the stuff

Also noteworthy is that growstone doesn't get crushed like perlite. It maintains its form and size. You also don't have the waste that perlite has if you are sifting the crushed fines out of it like I am. Throwing them away. Perlite isn't reusable because of this property.

Tracy

Phil if you would take a close up shot to show how porous it is pretty please.

Thanks for the update Phil.I use perlite for small pots(4 inches) only.This isn't available in India yet, as far as I know so will stick to the real stones for now.But it does look great and if its not heavy either that's really good coz my pots are real stone heavy! I think you're on the right track for adeniums! Don't use too much coco coir/peat also unless you are near the sea...coz IMHO only in moist and sunny places it gives good results...else where it retains too much water

Thanks a lot Dr appreciate it :)

Tracy - sorry for the delay, just got back from my ukulele lesson, anyway hope the pics are OK, best I can do with my phone sadly but hope everyone wondering about growstone can see how porous it is with the small holes in it

And another

Nice, you can see it up close. I bought so many bags of stuff trying to find the perfect ingredients. This way folks can see it before they spend their cash.

Regarding the coco - I use the coco coir finer grain for seed starting. I use the larger coco husk pieces for planting juvenile and adult plants.

Anyone in the UK who wants to try any I can send a sample, and happy to send overseas as long as postage isn't a fortune lol

I think I may change to this when I re-pot mine, because Perlite is horrible stuff.

I'm sure it'll be good for my eventually-Bonsai outside too !

I just want to say that I do not work for the growstone company and I am not affiliated with them in any manner. Just a happy customer.

Tracy

Neither do I but if the growstone people see this I will glady take shipment of a free sack or two for the advertisement lol

Wow. Looking at their website, it's manufactured in my state.

I did some searching, and Wal-Mart carries the GS1 version of Growstone, but it is a different product than the GS2 that you're using. I just wanted to be sure that everyone was aware that there is a difference. They also sell a top dressing called "gnatnix" from Growstone.