Kitty litter as grow medium?
 

Kitty litter as hydroponic grow media?

I have been reading on various pond sites that some people use non odorous and non clumping kitty litter as media in slotted pots to grow various water plants. The argument is that the cheap stuff is just plain clay. There seems to be some agreement that the clay may bind phosphorous and thus limit undesirable algae growth. They also recommend adding potassium so that the plants may better utilize the phosphorus directly (potassium as a cofactor). What are your thoughts on these topics?
sharkdude1@yahoo.com

You have sparked my curiosity and I will pick up a bag and give it a try and post the results.

i used a form of kitty little as a medium it out performed all the other mediums i tried

Wow, what happened to this thread? Ron, what did u find? What kind of kitty litter works best? If this works it could definitely be a good cheap solution that is obviously readily available.

Ron was the original owner of this forum, but he sold it and hasn't posted anything in years. I personally have reservations about using kitty litter myself. In another forum someone posted that they used a mix of kitty liter and a regular growing medium, and it clumped together (probably the kind that's supposed to be easy to scoop out). But my other concerns are if it's pH stable, and if it will affect the mineral concentrations of the nutrient solution. I would need to do some sample testing before I considered using it. Some also have chemicals for neutralizing odors (possibly even fungicides etc.) that wouldn't be beneficial in a hydro system.

Once I was doing a small, experimental design to test the efficacy of tomato growing in a sawdust/perlite media mix. While the seedlings grew fine in the early stages, things got sticky when I went to transplant into larger buckets. Running low on sawdust, I picked up a small bag of the additive-free sawdust kitty litter at the local pet store. Needless to say, the clumping compound wasn't considered an additive and clumped away. The plants with the non-litter sawdust/perlite performed fine, while the plants in the litter sawdust/perlite media mix met an early demise - either through poor drainage and hypoxia or possibly chemical toxicity from the clumping compound.
Just for the record - my cat loves the sawdust litter...