Tom Belrose of Barerootshydro.com has my money

I did express my sympathy; but when he started the Paypal games I told him I was going to take some action. (And, I have). I do not think that he was levelling with me about his communications from Paypal.
I think the first red flag, for me, was when I asked about my shipment on 5/13, almost two weeks after my order, and he said he would check with his supplier which meant he did not have the item when he sold it to me. While I don't really have anything against that practice for supplies, since it is the item itself I want,and it isn't like a snake where one wants the quality of a certain breeder; he never followed up with a return email that would have informed me of an expected shipping date.
I would appreciate if someone would make inquiry at his site about wanting to order items, that is a good idea.

Originally Posted by greatlakesreptiles

...............
just basically saying there's no meat on the bone! i.e. nothing to back her story up........ words of a wise man?

On one hand a respected and well known member of these forums .....on the other hand some dude who runs a website selling stuff to grow your own dope.

Who to trust is pretty damn obvious

Lucille - in the future try http://joshsfrogs.com/ for frog terrarium needs. Well known and trusted fellow.

WHAT??!!! Leca is for terrariums. I would never give my business to a site which catered to that sort of clientele.
I've looked at Josh's site and when the terraria are ready I might get some frogs from him. I hang out on the Dendroboard some and have seen some good vendors there including him, but this one was chosen because a member of Redtailboas.net put his site in a post (she doesn't know him and I bet she will be just as mortified as I am if indeed his clients grow, well,.....jeez )

L.E.C.A stands for Light Expanded Clay Aggregate. LECA is used as a media in all types of hydroponic systems including NFT, Aeroponic, Ebb and flow, and Drip/ Trickle feed systems.

It is made by baking pure natural clay at 1200 degrees Celsius for 3 hours to create a porous growing medium. Due to the neutral nature (no acid or base/alkaline qualities) of L.E.C.A, along with other properties it is perfect for growing plants, especially indoor plants in hydroponics.

L.E.C.A provides an ideal balance of moisture, food and air to your plants. Capillary action on the surface of the lightweight pebbles wicks nutrient solution to the root systems of your plants. Root rot is eliminated due to the space between the pebbles allowing all-important oxygen to get to the roots.

L.E.C.A. is often the growing medium of choice of novices and professionals alike.
wouldnt this have been a clue rite off the front page of his site ????????

A clue to what? A lot of plants are grown hydroponically.....doing some research on another seller on the BOI awhile ago, I visited many hydroponic sites. Some were questionable at best, some were obviously geared toward the grower of "recreational" plants....and some look like legit sites for growing legal crops. This one looks pretty legit, IMO. Not to say that some of his clients may not be 100% straight up, but it doesn't appear that he purposely caters to that sort of crowd.

That said, his reason for delay sounds reasonable, though unfortunately too many scammers have indeed used excuses like that to drag things out. Tough call on this one....did he ever offer some sort of refund?

And cripes, how much of the stuff did you order? It looked like one 50 pound bag of the stuff was like $45, if I saw it right. That is a whole lot of terrariums!

Hm, in fact looking thru the forums there, it appears that even the mention of growing anything illegal will get you banned....

Originally Posted by Cat_72

And cripes, how much of the stuff did you order? It looked like one 50 pound bag of the stuff was like $45, if I saw it right. That is a whole lot of terrariums!

For a decent frog terrarium, you don't need but maybe 1 or 2 lbs of the stuff at the most. A 50lb bag would be HUGE. This stuff is VERY lightweight.

I had a coworker dump a box of the stuff on me about 15 years ago (box measured 3' L x 18" W x 3' D) and it was not heavy at all to pick up and carry. I still have the junk laying around the yard actually. I could not use it all up (originally intended to be used as drainage in dirt filled flower pots) so I spread most of it out along the walk space between our fence line and 25 foot long shed to keep grass from growing since the lawn mower wouldn't fit back there.

Originally Posted by Wraith

For a decent frog terrarium, you don't need but maybe 1 or 2 lbs of the stuff at the most. A 50lb bag would be HUGE. This stuff is VERY lightweight.

I had a coworker dump a box of the stuff on me about 15 years ago (box measured 3' L x 18" W x 3' D) and it was not heavy at all to pick up and carry. I still have the junk laying around the yard actually. I could not use it all up (originally intended to be used as drainage in dirt filled flower pots) so I spread most of it out along the walk space between our fence line and 25 foot long shed to keep grass from growing since the lawn mower wouldn't fit back there.

That's what I thought....I was kind of wondering if Lucille had made a mistake ordering such a large quantity (she said it was $98 worth). I looked again, and it is $45 for 50 lbs.

No bearing on the fact that the seller hasn't sent it or been willing to refund her....just wondering, really.

Hit post too soon....

Was GOING to say....no bearing really, but was wondering....perhaps it WOULD have an effect on the amount of time it would take to initially ship the order. If he normally doesn't keep that kind of quantity on hand....he should have let her know that from the get-go.

Originally Posted by Cat_72

Hm, in fact looking thru the forums there, it appears that even the mention of growing anything illegal will get you banned....

Yet on his front page is a link to some odor control carbon filters. Tomatoes don't stink much when they are grown

I'm sure lots of 'legit' folks shop at online hydro shops, I've toyed with growing orchids semi-hydro myself. But the reality is people who grow their own marijuana (both legally as well as illegally) have deep pockets and lots of these online growshops exist only to dip into them.

FWIW - a new popular trend is to use foam blocks or styro peanuts in place of the leca. Or skip it altogether and use a false bottom system