Ok, the only thing left to do is fill the growbeds with media, after researching the various options, I narrowed it down to two choices, either Growerstone or Expanded Shale. Due to price, Growerstone in bulk is $3 per cubic ft plus delivery and Expanded Shale is $2.22 per cubic ft plus delivery. I decided on the Expanded Shale, and ordered 3 cubic yards from a local source which was promptly delivered in an hour at a price of $258.00. It takes approximately 23 cubic ft to each growbed and I have four to fill... and so it begins.
Due to dust from processing the Expanded Shale, It needs to be washed to remove any residue. I accomplished this by taking a 5 gallon plastic bucket and drilling some 2-1/2" holes in the bottom and the placed some left over wiring screening I had laying around, this not only helps with removing dust/sand from the Shale but also helps in grading the size of the material. I should get a pretty consistent 3/8" stone size on the shale.
I tried using a regular spray hose to clean the shale, but it was not very effective, so I broke out the pressure washer and gave it a spin. I filled the buckets up about 1/2 full with shale and pressure washed it with a fan spray which seems to work fairly well. It does however breakup and create smaller granules which I cant separate out, this will just have to go in the beds, and hopefully it will not cause clogging problems later on.
It takes about 30 minutes to clean a 6CuFt wheelbarrow full of shale and another 10-15 minutes to unload it into the grow beds.
It takes approx. 4-1/2 wheelbarrow to fill a growbed, so it is somewhat time consuming to do so, but hopefully well worth the effort in the long run, and finally the first growbed is complete. The media is 1" to 2" inches above the water fill line. This prevent algae growth on top of the media in the beds.
After filling the growbeds with media, I still have about half of the Expanded Shale left, obviously I received a lot more than 3 cubic yards, so that will go into the raised beds for water retention and aeration which I am planning on putting in before winter sets in. I planted a few herbs and a couple of tomato plants to see how the plants would do in the growbeds.
I still need to test the water for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates to determine the levels and whether the plants are doing there job in using the nitrates and whether the bacteria have kicked in and are converting the waste into usable Nitrates for the plants. I guess that means I have to buy a test kit...on my list of things to do.
