Hydroton shortage???

[danksnax]

Going into the local hydroponics store the other day looking for a growing medium, I snagged the last two bags of hydroton that was in stock and the owner told me that the mine in Germany had ran dry, which is ashame because this is my first experience with the medium and hope it wont be my last.
As to where to get more a very quick google search for hydroton led me to some deals on the very first link.

Hydroton is manufactured in a factory not mined out of the ground. Holy s**t, I can't stop laughing!!!

Well that was the knowledge shared with me. Pardon if it really is incorrect but I'm glad you got a good laugh for the day, keeps you healthy.

[urbanfarmer]

Going into the local hydroponics store the other day looking for a growing medium, I snagged the last two bags of hydroton that was in stock and the owner told me that the mine in Germany had ran dry, which is ashame because this is my first experience with the medium and hope it wont be my last.
As to where to get more a very quick google search for hydroton led me to some deals on the very first link.

Hydroton is manufactured in a factory not mined out of the ground. Holy s**t, I can't stop laughing!!!

Well that was the knowledge shared with me. Pardon if it really is incorrect but I'm glad you got a good laugh for the day, keeps you healthy.

It's silly I know. Check out my last post for some ideas for Hydroton/LECA alternatives. (end of page 1)

[Oliver]

The owner of the German company (Oketau / Easy Green), a fellow named Rudolf (who stood under our ceiling swamp cooler vent to stay cool the whole time he was in our house a few of years back), wanted to retire and turn over his business to a family member but that didn't work out so he sold pieces of the company and therefore Hydroton is no longer being made.

A new product called Hydrocorn (hate the name) sells "45" liter bags of a similar product at about the same price and, therefore, more per liter. The problem is (other than the price) when we purchased enough bags for a customer to fill two of our grow beds he had ordered, the bags seemed lighter than the "45" liters indicated on the label should have weighed. So we weighed the bags. A 50 liter bag of Hydroton weighs 49 pounds. We know this because we ship it. A 45 liter bag of Hydrocorn weighed in at somewhere in the high 30 pound range (I don't remember exactly how much) and we expected it to weigh about 43 pounds. It takes 5 1/2 half 50 liter Hydroton bags to fill a single grow bed (275 liters). We decided to dump enough Hydrocorn bags into a grow bed that normally takes the 275 liters of Hydroton to fill. We expected 6.1 x 45 liter Hydrocorn bags to fill the bed but it took 7 bags instead. That works out to little over 39 liters per bag. The importer made up the difference by sending us the 3 extra bags for free (including the shipping) to fill the two grow bed order.

This was recent and we will continue to communicate with them about the labeling (and price).

Oliver

[bcotton]

There's tradeoffs but expanded shale is the closest thing to hydroton and at 1/10th the price.

I moved to expanded shale way before i knew i couldnt get anymore hydroton.
brian

[David - WI]

IF I HAD TO GUESS, those clay pebbles at $50 a bag is the reason they had to stop making it.

"Bagged" products are always absurdly expensive compared to bulk... hydroton/LECA is used by the train car load in lightweight concrete and "green" building roof systems. I guarantee they don't pay $750/yd for it.

In fact, the 50L bags of hydroton I ordered were $20 per bag... but by the time I ordered them, they only had 28 bags left and did not expect to get more. Shipping a full pallet would have added another $535 (+$16 per bag).

Shipping the pallet of hydrokorrels added $12.50 per bag; which knocked off $3.50 of the $6 price difference.

The Hydroton that we do have is more uniform in size & shape, so the Hydro Korrel (now called hydrocorn) may "settle" or "compact" more; but the claim was that the Hydro Korrels provided a little more support for the plants and a lot more "effective" surface area because the hydroton was a little too round & uniform.

It takes 22g of the "hydro korrels" to fill a 2" net pot versus 29g of hyrdroton; so the bags should be 25% lighter for the same 50L volume. That saves about 4 lbs of media weight per raft using 3" net pots.

[urbanfarmer]

I agree. It's cheaper to buy by the bulk, but Hydroton/LECA is expensive even compared apples to apples, so to speak. A bag of lava rock (which is way better than LECA imho) costs about $3 or $4 at my local garden store. I think even WallyWorld carries it for that price. If you're lucky enough to live in Hawai'i it's a fraction of that cost, so I'm told.

[bsfman]

I agree. It's cheaper to buy by the bulk, but Hydroton/LECA is expensive even compared apples to apples, so to speak. A bag of lava rock (which is way better than LECA imho) costs about $3 or $4 at my local garden store. I think even WallyWorld carries it for that price. If you're lucky enough to live in Hawai'i it's a fraction of that cost, so I'm told.

Home Depot carries it at the same price as pea gravel - I think I pay about $3.80 a sack for pea gravel and the sack holds a half cubic foot of either pea gravel or lava rock - so basically it's a tad over a buck a gallon for lava rock.

[David - WI]

I don't have any opinion on what is "better" for any given application, just that hydroton at $20/bag is not nearly as prohibitive as $50/bag.

[attachment=0:1926x1av]hydroton.jpg[/attachment:1926x1av]

[Spaz 52]

Be Nice UF. lol

[PonicDan]

Okay, I checked. Are you saying that none of these online retailers actually sell the products listed:

https://www.google.com/search?q=hydroto ... 0&bih=1030

Yes to this question. I"ve called them to see if they actually have product. They don't. Well at least three weeks ago. They all said the company that mines the clay is closing/closed.