[hoppycalif]

Hey Art, I will bring the chicken, you do the honors of yanking its head off and swinging it around while chanting "grow plants, grow plants, grow!"

Seriously, what we do in our tanks is much more related to what farmers do in their fields than to what nature does in the wild. And, many years of agriculture research certainly does mean that there is very little that is not understood about growing plants. I don't know a lot or understand half of what I do know about growing plants, but the knowledge is out there. Even aquatic plant growing is well understood - rice farmers do grow aquatic plants.

I know nothing about Penac. When rice farmers flock to it I will join them.

 

[hoppycalif]

Bentonite is a clay. Penac is???? Clay has long been known to be good for plants, and is a component of any good loam soil. I use silt collected from the river behind my condo, as a lower level of my substrate, largely for the rich clay in it. Laterite is another form of clay, also good as a lower level of the substrate. I have been experimenting with zeolite sand as part of a substrate, thinking its super high CEC might give some benefits. But what the heck is Penac?

Robert: it's cozy in the Barr box.

 

[hoppycalif]

:hand: I was trying to ue Tom Barr as an example of an expert....didnt go over so well i guess :der: Anways I was being partially sarcastic and am open to new ideas but I would require an explanation as to what it actually does, as tom barr did give an explanation was to why it didnt work.

I don't think that went over badly. Some people agree with Tom on most of his ideas and others don't. Like many people who really do know a ton about what they say, he can have a short fuze when people disagree with him.

 

[hoppycalif]

Most farmers in today's world, at least in the USA, are corporations, looking for profits above everything else. They use whatever will maximize their profits. Rice farming here in California is a massive corporate business, where I'm sure tradition and lack of good information is not in the picture at all. UC Davis is a major agricultural college, located almost next door to the rice fields, so good information is very available to those corporations. Cost considerations are another matter, of course, and may be what keeps innovations from being adopted. Our little "farms" aren't nearly as constrained by cost considerations.

 

[hoppycalif]

I nominate Art as the Aquatic Plant scientist to do that test. It would produce some very interesting results. To be fair to ADA I suppose the test should be done using all ADA products, other than those that are just for looks.

 

[hoppycalif]

In the end, of course, this is a circular argument. The scientists will demand to know what is in Penac. The "believers" will state that science isn't capable of understanding the benefit. We could discuss this until the cows come home.

:deadhorse

Mooooo! Moooo!
By golly, I would swear those are cows at my front door.