question - clay pellets in grow container

[thehitman]

I was watching an instructional video by Jorge Cervantes and he said that you should not put expanded clay pellets in the bottom of a grow container with soil or soil-less medium. He did not explain why in the video?

Seems to me that the clay pellets would aid drainage and be good for plants.

Anybody care to comment?? or offer an explanation??

thanks

thehitman

 

[COorganics]

I had some laying around and put them in the bottom of my container for the reasons you mentioned. I also like lava rock for same. Jorge Cervantes is a toolbox. all your going to get from him is myth based gardening information.

 

[COorganics]

the clay balls are also in my soil mix now as Ive recycled several times and the balls that were on the bottom are now in the mix. everything is fine and dandy.

 

[Antics]

When someone tells me not to do something, but doesn't give a reason why not, the first thing I do is do what they told me not to do, to learn the "why not".

As CO has said he has had no problems with it, and theoretically, I can't think of any reasons why not to do it.

As for Jorge, I've watched a few of his videos. Some of them are accurate and helpful. Others are a total "WTF??". The problem for growers looking for answers, is they don't want to sort through bad information to get to good information, and for new growers, they don't know the bad from good, and this just leads to problems in grows with misinformation circulating around.

 

[COorganics]

Jorge is a myth salesman, unfortunately that's where nearly everyone starts getting their cannabis cultivation information. back to clay balls, I wouldn't recommend purchasing clay balls for that purpose but if you all ready have them, then there is a great way to use them up.

if you haven't already purchased them lava rock is maybe a cheaper, slightly better alternative, and even better than that, would be to source some pebbles from your property and use them.

you don't need anything in the bottom of the containers, but my personal feeling is they help with overwatering issues that are common with new growers.

hope that helps ya out.

 

[geeman]

In the past , I've used rockwool w/ clay balls in the bottom of a container for drainage. Now I grow w/out clay pellets. Rockwool drains just as well w/out clay. Also, the clay pellets were a pain to remove from the rockwool after harvest. I've used pellets in a soil grow ,also. They were useful in soil for drainage and taking up space in a container which means less soil being used.

 

[Farang]

I used to use clay balls but have gotten away from them lately. Geeman reiterates what I've read: using clay balls or rocks at the bottom of containers reduces the amount of soil available to the roots. this may not be the best solution to drainage.