Would river gravel help drainage?

I heard that a layer of river gravel underneath the soil can help drainage. I happen to have some and am going to transplant sprouts into a 5 gallon container soon. Is it a good idea to use it? Just wondering if there are any possible negative effects or if anyone has experience with it.

Also, I'm a little concerned that my sprouts are stretching. They're all about 6 inches tall and they're only 7 days old. The light is a 250w MH which is about 23 inches from them. The light was another good 10 inches away before because I thought a HID light might burn them. Sorry I can't provide pics, my camera died a few weeks ago.

Thanks for any help in advance.

alot of people use clay pebbles in the bottoms of their pots for that reason, to help drainage and it means that the very bottom of you pots are not soaking in water incase of poor drainage.
I havent heard of anyone using river stones, Unsure what these are? Are they just pebbles from a river that you have collected??
If they are then as long as you run some boiling water over them or wash them in bleach and then rinse them you can use this as an extra drainage at the bottom of your pots.

Alot of people including myself use a Flouro for the first 5-10 days of the plants life to help stop things like stretching.

The flouro i use is a 24w 6400K T5 ideal for propagation. You can get this lamp within 2 inches of the plants without burning them.


hope this helps


J

Near said:

I heard that a layer of river gravel underneath the soil can help drainage. I happen to have some and am going to transplant sprouts into a 5 gallon container soon. Is it a good idea to use it? Just wondering if there are any possible negative effects or if anyone has experience with it.

Also, I'm a little concerned that my sprouts are stretching. They're all about 6 inches tall and they're only 7 days old. The light is a 250w MH which is about 23 inches from them. The light was another good 10 inches away before because I thought a HID light might burn them. Sorry I can't provide pics, my camera died a few weeks ago.

Thanks for any help in advance.

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In general you want to stay away from any grow material that isnt sterilized. There could be some sort of bug on them that will kill plants. I would wash them with water at least maybe a little bleach then let them dry out (so the bleach doesnt contaminate ne thing). Thats what I would do. As about the lighting issue, I have to have my 125 watt cfl about 10 inches away to get the right amount of light ( i have a light meter). I would guess yours should be about 18-20 inches away keep a thermometer there to make sure its not above 85 then no burning can happen.

Use hard styrafoam that is used to pack electronics and break them down to place at the bottom of the pot for drainage and oxygen. It's lighter than rock and sterile.

I put it in the bottom of all my containers even grow bags. It's cheap and works great and can be found at any home depot.

ya you should be fine then.

Near said:

I heard that a layer of river gravel underneath the soil can help drainage. I happen to have some and am going to transplant sprouts into a 5 gallon container soon. Is it a good idea to use it? Just wondering if there are any possible negative effects or if anyone has experience with it.

Also, I'm a little concerned that my sprouts are stretching. They're all about 6 inches tall and they're only 7 days old. The light is a 250w MH which is about 23 inches from them. The light was another good 10 inches away before because I thought a HID light might burn them. Sorry I can't provide pics, my camera died a few weeks ago.

Thanks for any help in advance.

Click to expand...

sterilize the rock in a solution of bleachwater, and make sure its rinsed well afterwords, and you will be very happy.
dump some rocks in a bucket with soil on them w/out sterilizing... bad juju

first of all rocks in the bottom is a good idea. if you put rocks in the bottom you also want holes drilled in the bucket smaller than the rocks. if its an outside grow you dont need to sterilize anything because it will never be in a sterile environment. with your sprouts go get a couple 6500k cfl bulbs and put the on the plants about 3 inches from the top and it will stop stretching. alot of people grow their seedlings under cfls to get them started and to keep them from stretching and once they are fully supported they move it under their hps or whatever they have . the cfls have low heat emissions and is good to get close to the plant to keep from stretching . good luck

You know, I didnt do this with my vegatative pots should I consider doing this when I transplant for flowering? I mean they are holding water 100% fine i water once ever 5-7 days.

Thanks for all the responses. I'll put the river gravel to use then.