Has anyone ever used Hydrock in their gardens?

[Growdo Baggins]

It says it's inert. Does that mean it's considered organic or at least won't damage microbial life? Here's a link http://www.proscapesdirect.com/hydrocks.html. I've been reading about it, but I'm still learning a lot of this stuff and wanted to get some other opinions who know more than me. It seems like it's a new product.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Looking at the link they take it to very high temperatures. Where I live the soil is heavy clay and I regularly burn it in my incinerator to make a sort of 'terracotta'. Clay sinters at only a few hundred degrees, that is the 'points' melt and fuse giving a semi porus material just like they describe, at 2,000 degrees or more I am surprised it doesn't melt completely and form a solid ceramic.

'Organic' is used so much in so many ways it has become almost meaningless, but from the description I would expect it to be completely inert and quite harmless to microbial life. Most things that are damaging, and are not chemicals like chlorine, are organic in the chemical sense, they contain carbon. and would break down when heated

 

[Chuck]

IMO it is just another product trying to take some of Perlite market shares. Perlite and this stuff do the same thing, aerate the soil and retain moisture.

 

[Growdo Baggins]

Looking at the link they take it to very high temperatures. Where I live the soil is heavy clay and I regularly burn it in my incinerator to make a sort of 'terracotta'. Clay sinters at only a few hundred degrees, that is the 'points' melt and fuse giving a semi porus material just like they describe, at 2,000 degrees or more I am surprised it doesn't melt completely and form a solid ceramic.

'Organic' is used so much in so many ways it has become almost meaningless, but from the description I would expect it to be completely inert and quite harmless to microbial life. Most things that are damaging, and are not chemicals like chlorine, are organic in the chemical sense, they contain carbon. and would break down when heated

Dang i must've shut off notification. I'm sorry, I never saw this. Thanks for the reply Oliver. That's how I was thinking about it too. I don't think I'm going to get it any though. My local landscaping store got some in and he was all excited about it. I wanted to get some from him, but I don't really think I need it.

 

[Growdo Baggins]

IMO it is just another product trying to take some of Perlite market shares. Perlite and this stuff do the same thing, aerate the soil and retain moisture.

Thank you

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Looking at the link they take it to very high temperatures. Where I live the soil is heavy clay and I regularly burn it in my incinerator to make a sort of 'terracotta'. Clay sinters at only a few hundred degrees, that is the 'points' melt and fuse giving a semi porus material just like they describe, at 2,000 degrees or more I am surprised it doesn't melt completely and form a solid ceramic.

Just got Prof. Alice Robert's "Buried" as a paperback. She says cremation takes place in a modern crematorium at around 1,000 degrees, and that reduces bone! Makes me wonder how accurate that 2k figure is, or is it Fahrenheit, which is a bit under 1100 degrees Celsius?