Volcanic rock?

The hydro pellets are superior in almost everyway. Unfortunantly they are relativly expensive. Something else that no one mentioned is that volcanic rock is often high in flourine.

My collection got upended by a tree falling on my shade house this spring and scattering my precious LECA medium all over the yard. Some of the plants I repotted I put in river gravel - it was about the same size as the LECA - just to see how they would do. I know it won't wick but I sure can't over water them! Everything thrived through the summer, maybe because our yearly rainfall was double what we normally have here in Oklahoma. When I brought the plants in for the winter almost all the plants in bark medium had to be repotted due to the deterioration of the medium. Excess rain again? So I'm trying to get away from bark medium. I like the gravel but it makes the pots heavy. I've thought of adding sponge rock to lighten them up a little. I've seen orchids in volcanic rock but all I have found around here is the landscape variety that is way to large and I don't think I can break them up into smaller pieces easily.

Anybody use gravel? Are there long range problems with it?

Cheap and plentiful - that's the ticket! Leaves more money to buy plants.

Mark

You've already identified the problem with gravel - it doesn't hold water. If you can keep up with the watering schedule, it should be fine.