Re: grit and gravel
Marge Talt wrote:
> As far as I know, you can....believe I've even read some posts somewhere
> about doing so. If it is safe enough to use in an aquarium with
> creatures as sensitive to their environments as fish, it should certainly
> be safe enough to use for plants! It would be rather expensive in any
> quantity, I'd imagine (not having fish, have no real idea), but if granite
> grit in 50 lb bags isn't available, aquarium gravel ought to work for a few
> pots. If it is in a mix with bits larger than 1/8" in diameter, the
> smaller "fines" could be sifted out and used on seed pots. Anything up to
> a quarter inch - like pea gravel - can be used to improve drainage in
> larger pots - gets heavy tho'.
Many aquarium gravels, even the "natural" colored ones, are treated with a
(polymer?) coating which, supposedly, prevents unwholesome substances in the
gravel -- coming from a variety of unknown sources -- from leaching into the
aquarium water. No idea how they do this to gravel, but friends in the
wholesale pet supply business have warned me that this is done. This wouldn't
necessarily be a bad thing for ornamental plants but I hesitate to use it in
beds where I'm going to be interplanting herbs or other food plants.
Marge is correct in the cost factor: aquarium gravel, pound for pound, would
normally be five to ten times the price of chicken grit. Unless, of course,
you're a long-time aquarist like myself who just happens to have buckets of
gravel in the garage. ;-)
The chicken grit which contains limestone and/or oyster shells is handy for
those of us with neutral to acidic soil who want to grow plants from the other
end of the pH spectrum. It's also handy those people with strongly acidic soil
who want it to be more neutral; provides the lime and assists with drainage at
the same time.
Dean Sliger
Warren, MI, USA
Zone 6B
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