What to do with floating hydroton?

[daemondamian]

Hey everybody,
I use hydroton as it's available where I am in Australia. Find that a certain percentage of it floats even after a few hours of boiling on the stove in a big pot.

I do use floaters for other non semi-hydro orchid mixes but I really would rather use them for semi-hydro.

Does anyone have ideas or advice on getting them to sink? I did wonder about smashing them into smaller pieces- whether breaking them open might help them to sink?

I have posted this message on Ray's semi-hydro forum but thought I'd post here too.
Thanks

[Darknessdancer]

Since I am also a Hydrotron user, sometimes have the same issue, nevertheless regarding the floating ones, i never give them too much importance, just use them with all the rest preferentially all mixed so the floating ones may be weighted down by the non-floaters, although its not that important, just water calmly or all little marbles are going to be rolling.
Respect

[adriponic]

hi Damian

No bother. It won't float if your water/nutrient level is
just about 4cm and your pot is filled up to 12-14 cm with
the clay pellets.
JP

[Tindomul]

I would just ignore them and make sure not to overflow the pot too much lest they run away. I don't think there is anyway to get them not to float anymore except by breaking them open.

[Ray]

The reason that some of the pellets float is because the internal porosity is "non-communicating" with the surface, so you're left with air pockets buoying them up. Because of that, they obviously will not absorb and hold moisture as well as the others, but if the degree of non-communicating pores is not excessive, the particles still might wick sufficiently that it's not a problem.

[daemondamian]

Thanks, everyone for your very helpful replies!

That's a good explanation Ray and the floaters do come out wet to the touch so they must be absorbing some degree of water and therefore be able to wick some degree of water.

Sounds like a good idea mixing the floaters with the sinkers I should experiement and find out but does anyone know if overnight soaking [rather than boiling and then soaking] also allows the sinkers to sink and seperate from the floaters?

It sure is a PITA if you ever spill hydroton .. I'm considering using some scoria [lava rock] with it to help 'lock' it in place, but I love the ease of using it and semi-hydro.

I've been making pots out of soda bottles so they have a big lip/rim to stop escapees
I attached a photo of a Den. nobile var virginale, I was unsuccessful in getting it to establish in a basic bark mix [over spring/summer] so I semi-hydro'ed it a few weeks back. It is now putting out new root growth .. in winter no less!

[obviously the new ones are the white with green tips on the right as opposed to the dead roots on the left, in the second photo.. should I have trimmed those right back to the cane? ]