Growing Medium sizes

[ryanmoody]

Hi... I am attempting to build a system for a friend and have come across some free river rock. However, it is fairly large in size, coming in between 1-4 inches. Would this be too large to use as a growing medium? And what are the disadvantages of using medium of this size? Thanks in advance for your help!

[Ravnis]

Hi... I am attempting to build a system for a friend and have come across some free river rock. However, it is fairly large in size, coming in between 1-4 inches. Would this be too large to use as a growing medium? And what are the disadvantages of using medium of this size? Thanks in advance for your help!

I have scoria in my system that runs close to the same size. The main issue I run into is planting seeds as they will tend to fall into the gaps and get flushed through the system. This could be easily overcome with rockwool cubes used in hydroponics or planting seedlings instead of seeds, or even netpots and fill with smaller material such a pea gravel or hydroton.