Expanded clay products

[graham]

I've been using the Tesco cat litter for some time and it's fine, for what it is, but what about larger size particles ? I'll be looking to do some repotting soon and was thinking about a lower density alternative to good old sand and gravel - and to some extent to help my shelving cope with the increasing number of plants...

There are plenty of expanded clay products about and I was wondering whether many here make much use of them ? And if so which ones - and which ones are available in smallish quantities ?

I have no problem in getting sand and gravel, the local stream delivers it almost to my door and I'm sure no one would notice me abstracting a few buckets full of large gravel from the local river (well if I did it by night...) but it is quite dense...

graham

[chris68]

If its just larger sized material you are after have you seen a product called Sofisticat (not dead sure of the spelling, bag not to hand) or Sanicat Pink both available from Pets at Home in 25 or 30 litre bags. This is the same stuff as the Tesco Cat Litter but in much larger (up to 5mm+) sizes. Importantly its also still very light.

I use the Tesco stuff for seed and seedling mixes and switch to the bigger stuff for established plants. Been working for me for a few years with no problems and the benches don't bend!

May be of use to you.

[graham]

If its just larger sized material you are after have you seen a product called Sofisticat (not dead sure of the spelling, bag not to hand) or Sanicat Pink both available from Pets at Home in 25 or 30 litre bags.

Thanks...as a cat owner I've preferred the Fuller's Earth type of stuff, the cost may be a significant reason, and the cats don't complain, so I seldom investigate the others. I'll have a look.

Sinclair, who do quite a lot of horticultural stuff do have a wide range of expanded clays, but availability and cost of small quantities can be an issue; see:

http://www.william-sinclair.co.uk/indus ... anded_clay

note "50litre sacks and palletised", just a little more than I, and the cats, will need, umm, this year ?

I'm sure there are sellers around, Sinclair perlite and vermiculite in sacks are readily available.

graham

[DaveW]

You may find similar materials used for hydroponics, but whether they would be small enough for what you want I do not know though you could always email them and ask, they might even send you a sample:-

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

[graham]

It may not be the full set but I now have:

from Tesco :

tesco-0625.JPG (95.47 KiB) Viewed 4012 times

Sanicat Pink (manufacturer: Tolsa):

sanicat-0629.jpg (107.23 KiB) Viewed 4012 times

And hydroponic pebbles, this one is by Vitalink:

vitax-0645.JPG (54.17 KiB) Viewed 4012 times

Thanks to Chris for mentioning the Sanicat.

There certainly are expanded clay products targeted at horticulture but often only "professional", i.e. large volume packs and, so it would seem, not readily available in furthest west UK...Cat litter is far more readily available; and there is no problem with mail order for the hydroponic pebbles but, as one might imagine, while they are quite cheap the delivery charge on the 50l pack was only a little less that the cost of the pebbles; these were about the same price as 30l of Sanicat. The Sanicat was GBP 10 in Pets at Home although they did have a '2 for £16' offer but I thought I'd manage with the one bag for a while...

graham

I've just corrected the product names and the size of the Sanicat bag, it's 30 not 20l - I'm sure the shelf from where I picked it did say 'Sophisticat', and there are just so many products beginning with Vita - well those are my excuses and I'm sticking to them; I just went to prepare for some re-potting this afternoon and noticed the errors.

[iann]

That's quite a difference in size between the Tesco and Sophisticat litters.

[DaveW]

Ones for ordinary cats and the other for sophisticated cats Ian.

[Ivan]

Ones for ordinary cats and the other for sophisticated cats Ian.

Ha..Ha..Ha..Ha I do like both sizes. I am going to have to do some more checking around here. See if I can find the "sophisticated" size. Or for that matter any expanded clay. If anyone has some suggestions locally please let me know. (Ontario Canada). Ummm.. maybe get a sophisticated cat?

[graham]

That's quite a difference in size between the Tesco and Sophisticat litters.

Indeed - as I mentioned I have been using the Tesco clay but I did feel that for larger plants/pots a coarser material may be beneficial especially as the plant would tend to remain in the pot for longer (before repotting/potting on). In the olden days I can recall any number of grades (well, three) of coarse sand and small gravel that I used to use in potting mixes for the plants although whether it was really worth the effort to do all that mixing is another matter.

I'm certainly concerned in the density of the materials these days so that the burden on my diy shelves does not become excessive.

graham

[DaveW]

Whilst on compost materials, I got fed up of keep buying gravel and throwing it away with the old compost. I looked for builders riddles or sieves in the couple of sizes needed to remove the grit from the soil and they were pretty expensive and made of ordinary steel mesh, which in the case of the fine ones tends to rust through fairly quickly if used with damp compost.

However I found this on the web which does the job a treat and is made from stainless steel and has three different mesh sizes. So far I have reclaimed about third of a hundred weight of grit during my present re-potting sessions. Of course what you reclaim and how easily depends on your previous compost mix. I remember Bill Putnam, one of our past Journal editors used to always wash the grit out of his old compost and reuse it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006HUU3XG/r ... 71_TE_item

Next thing is to see if I can use the different mesh sizes to get rid of the soil and reclaim the cat litter. May need to do a bit of "gold panning" with water to remove any soil or peat dust remaining though.