Hiya GP hope every one is well , i came across a post on google in which a grower said , he uses hydroton clay pebbles or lime pebbles ontop of hes soil pots , he doesnt put loads in just enough to cover the top of the soil , he said 2 reason for using this is , to stop the soil on top from becoming to dry to quick from the indoor light and secondly roots usualy wont grow at the top of the soil roughl, 2-3 inches of the top soil is wasted due to it not being used so after putting the pebbles there he said the roots would most probably use that soil now, and therefor more roots bigger the plant bigger the yeild ? my question is this as i couldnt post back to him because the post was locked , i know its not a MUST to do this or might not be NORMAL but i think there might be a point there , IS it worth doing or just leave it as in hine sight it wont make just diffrence ?

i doubt any benefit in doing this and maybe, by over complicating things,
you provide an environment where there is too much moisture, retained
by the hydroton, too close to the stem which could might lead to stem
rot.

...and don't take me wrong, i don't say it WILL happen, just that i doubt
it's efficacy.

...i'm a fan of KISS, aka, Keep It Simple Stupid, ...remember, there are
no clay pebbles in nature, lol.

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peace, bozo

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i wont personaly be using that method but i just thought it was strange and intresting just wondered if there was any people that actually used it , but thats a good valid point bozo he never touched upon , id rather be safe than sorry :-)

i did this with perlite--to fight gnats from what i read. It didn't work for the gnats, but when i harvest the plant and removed it from the bucket there were roots along the top of the soil under the perlite. After extensive reading, the perlite acted like a top layer of soil to hide the roots from the light so that part i believe.
As far as the soil drying out from the light...i'm thinking he went too deep into thinking. Not sure about that part, i do the lift technique regardless if the top dries out fast or not.

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oh yeah, oh yeah.