Pumice gravel/ lava gravel

[crispy224]

I've been look everywhere for pumice and lava gravel. And they neverseem tom it carry it it the gravel seem to be so large like the size of chicken eggs any ideas where I can get someo. I've. Been using pea gravel but that is far to heavy especially for my largest species.
Thank for any advice

[DaveW]

You need to state your country or area, or put it into your avatar so people can give you advice, otherwise nobody knows where where you are regarding stockists. It's always helpful to put your country or area into your avatar since on an international Forum like this growing advice, seasons and availability of potting ingredients will differ around the world.

Have you tried "Googling" for pumice or lava gravel to find a stockist if you can't find it locally? Also if you can get larger sized pieces you can always crush them with a brick or similar and buy yourself a sieve or riddle off EBAY of the right sized mesh and obtain it that way. We can get sieves or riddles off EBAY in the UK with interchangable mesh inserts:-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Parasene-1292 ... 2349456143

The main problem with potting soil ingredients is often weight and cost of transport if you can't obtain them locally.

[crispy224]

Sorry I'm still a little new. I think I updated it to show my location. Of North Carolina USA. And suggestions. I've tried googling it but it just seems like local hardware stores wanna charge me $35 for 33 liters of pumic gravel.

[greenknight]

$35 for 33 liters isn't bad, I doubt you're going to beat that - you're a long way from volcano country. 33 liters will go a long way.

[keith]

Do they sell drystall where you live? its for horses and its pumice.

[crispy224]

Dryrstalll never heard of it is it similar to gravel in size and perhaps cheaper. My plant is to graft several hundred grafted over the winter then root them in pumice to help beep,that natural look. I have a post about my graft but have been a bit lazy as to updating it.

[DaveW]

If it's wanted for rooting in a mineral substrate you could try cat litter or similar, an idea Cactophiles borrowed from the Bonsai people if you can find the correct type, since not all cat litters are created equal for our use. See:-

http://www.bonsai4me.co.uk/Basics/Basicscatlitter.htm

For the USA:-

http://www.bonsai4me.co.uk/Basics/Basic ... page3.html

[greenknight]

Dry Stall is pumice gravel that's sold on 40 lb bags for horse bedding. If you can find that, it might well be cheaper. Don't get Stall Dry or Dri-stall, different products.

[jnewmark]

You can find pumice and lava gravel on Ebay, in various sizes. If you are talking a truck load, then I dunno.

[greenknight]

Good discussion on the subject here - http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions ... -stall-etc

[DaveW]

I think as Spence indicates in his link, products are made for the purpose stated on the bag they were intended for, therefore several materials will perform that purpose, only one of which may be suitable for our purpose, therefore you need to get the correct one.

For instance in the UK we recommend Tesco cat litter, but you need to get the correct one since they made three versions, all OK for use by cats but not cacti. One was simply made from shredded paper, another rather like Fullers Earth which breaks down to sludge when wetted and the Premium one which is red fired clay which we use.

With pumice I would not have thought over size mattered that much, since being soft it can be crushed easy unless you need lorry loads. Therefore just buy a sieve or riddle of the appropriate mesh size, crush the pumice with a brick or something similar on a slab and sieve out the size you want, re-crushing any too large. It is also useful to have a fine sieve to riddle the dust out though, but that can be used for seed raising. You can usually get Bonsai sieves off your local EBAY that have several different sized inserts:-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw= ... e&_sacat=0

[greenknight]

I use a cheap aluminum cake pan set on a hard surface, spread pumice in that to crush it.

[keith]

Dryrstalll never heard of it is it similar to gravel in size and perhaps cheaper"

Smaller in size than gravel, like peppercorn size. Doesn't float either. I like it for its smaller size and non floating properties. bought it at a feed store for livestock its used for horses in Barns on the floor to neutralize horse urine ( I think) . I washed it in a large bucket and used a screen to drain the water out and dry it. you probably don't have to do this.

I've used bigger pumice that tended to float more often. Pumice is kind of hard to find at a reasonable price.

[graffiti]

I have the same issue in CT. I emailed Hess pumice and they put me in contact with a distributor reasonably locally. You could try that.

[kreative01]

Drystall is the way to go i been using it for years now, $13-$15 for a 50 pound bag you can't beat it. It's 100% Pure volcanic pumice (NOT "Stall-Dry") It is usually sold at Feed Stores and pet shops that are more geared for Horses and livestock which you can find almost anywhere other than a major downtown metropolis city.
I wouldn't bother trying to find a pumice supplier unless you are looking for huge amounts. You can sometimes find Pumice also at landscaping and building material suppliers. I use Yelp to search for all of those FYI. . . "Feed store" . . "Building Material". . "Landscaping" etc. .