NBPCA wrote:Bretts wrote:That was what I noticed as exceptional too Grant. I guess if you soak it for some time in a tray of water it will end up with a water table at the bottom. Still have my test pot sitting there I might whack it in a tray and see what happens
I test watered test watered three pots today. All were of sieved and graded material. One was Mt Sylvia diatomie, another pot of crushed brick and another of Chinese Akadama. The Diatomite was almost dryish to the touch but even through within a few hours or so it seemed, whereas the crushed brick was very wet and the Chinese Akadama in between. Not what I was expecting so it will be interesting to compare them all together when I have it all assembled.
Grant
After I did the zeolite diatomite test and found the zeolite looked wetter instantly and for days after that was what I was expecting. The Diatomite water holding capacity seemed to soak up any water table the medium held after draining.
As I figured soaking the diatomite and allowing it to soak up as much water as it could hold would have to result in a water table in that as well. I did another quick test.
I soaked the diatomite for a 1/2 hour or so, took it out and then left the pot to sit for a few hours and as you would expect it had a water table that could be emptied more by tilting the pot.(this was not the case when only heavily watering from above). But without measuring it seemed less than what came out of the zeolite after a few days?
So I was interested what you would find as you where soaking in your test.
I am surprised to find that you also found the lack of a water table in Diatomite even though you dunked the pots. Not sure but I would guess you are dunking the pots but not allowing them to soak.
Might be interesting to do a test of soaking the mediums for say 1/2 hour to make sure they have absorbed as much water as they can. Then at the end of any testing you have been doing(hours or days, whatever has been useful
) You could then measure the volume of water held in the water table after drainage by tilting the pot and measuring the water that came out of each medium/pot. I am predicting they will be very close to each other. With some allowance for different evaporation rates for different mediums (which I guess is minimal) I am sure physics tells us they will have to be the same? But I am curious as it seemed even when I soaked there was a smaller water table in the diatomite!
It's too bad your in such a hurry cause the stories I could tell you, Bushels and baskets of stories, hole crates full of stories. But if you can spare a moment I will tell you one story.