Here is a picture of some of the lightweight aggregrate--wet after rinsing--some of the rocks floated.

Skeet, did you ask the supplier what the name of the product is? I not sure that it still isn't crude perlite. Over the last 5 years I have been using 4 parts CHC and 1 part peat moss, with excellent results. After approximately 4 years the CHC chips (1/2 inch) have degraded down into a product that has a peat moss consistency. Therefore, the original CHC Chip/Peat blend has degraded into a product similar to straight peatmoss. I have noticed that the trees have begun to decline in the degraded blend, due to the degraded mixture now holding too much water and not enough oxygen. Today I re-potted up a Tavares Limequat into a blend of 2 parts 1/2-inch CHC, 1 part coconut moss, and 1 part 1/2 inch Paramount Perlite. Note: the coconut moss is actually the degraded CHC chips. With the 1/2 CHC and the 1/2 perlite, the medium is really a light open airy medium. As the CHC degrades over the years the 1/2 perlite should help keep the medium open. We will see. I have marked the container. In the next couple days I will try various other blends using various mixes of the products CHC, 1/2 inch perlite, peat moss, ascoria (lava rock), turface, coarse sand, and what ever else I can think of. I wonder what packing peanuts would do as an ingredient???? - Millet

I've been thinking about experimenting with natural charcoal myself. In the reading I've done on Terra Preta I think it may serve a useful purpose in container plants.

.....Alan.

The supplier I got it from was a concrete company and to them it was just called lightweight aggregate. It is a good deal heavier than actual perlite, only a few rocks actually float. It is quite hard--the rocks in the picture are from a path in my yard where I walk over them almost every day. I do not remember the name of the product that my mother sold at the "plant parties", but the hydroponics system was sold as working for any plant. It would probably work for citrus as the tree roots are allowed to seek the moisture level that it prefers--you just maintain a dilute fertilizer solution in the bottom 1/4 of the container--letting the level drop to less than 1 inch before adding more solution. At one time we had at least 30 plants in the system including several in the 20 gal size.

You can see the expansion marks in some of the rocks from where they were baked wet--kind of like vermiculite is expanded mica.