If yes to both, do I need to read the rest of this forum to find out what I should use instead?
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Thirtybyseven
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Sphagnum and Vermiculite
I read about a soil mix which includes sphagnum and vermiculite. I gather that the former is not environmentally friendly due to damage to peat bogs, but is vermiculite also environmentally unfriendy?
If yes to both, do I need to read the rest of this forum to find out what I should use instead?
If yes to both, do I need to read the rest of this forum to find out what I should use instead?
Vermiculite is a hydrous phyllosilicate mineral that is mined. It is exfoliated by heating the rock. Vermiculite mines in the US were closed because of asbestos contamination. Most mines are now tested for asbestos.
Peat moss and long fibered sphagnum moss is renewable, however, not the way that it is currently harvested. The peat bogs replenish at a rate of 1/4 inch a year and approximately 2 ft a year are harvested. Drought conditions in Canada has affected the ferns that grow in the peat bogs so even less is made.
Potting soil used to contain mostly peat moss and perlite. When peat moss got very expensive, some companies started replacing the peat moss with compost with varying degrees of success.
Perlite is rock foam, it does occur naturally as a product of vulcanism, it is actually an amorphous volcanic glass with a high water content formed by the hydration of obsidian. When it is heated to about 900 degrees Centigrade or about 1650 degrees F. it explodes much like the way popcorn explodes. It is considered a non-renewable resource but there are about 700 million tons of it in reserves.
Builders sand or cinder (another product of vulcanism) can be sustituted for drainage, but they are much heavier. For me cinder is an easy product to obtain, but remember the volcano on the Big Island has been constantly erupting since 1983 and creating new land all of the time so it is abundant here and easy to crush. Sand is actually hard to get, since it has a high salt content, and builder's sand must be imported. People do illegally mine sand. You can tell when they use it. When they build a stone wall, the wall starts to crumble after about a year.
Long fibered sphagnum moss is used to plant some things like orchids and some of the carnivorous plants. It also comes from peat bogs, and it is very expensive. Most orchid growers have switched to bark, but may still use small amounts of sphagnum for very small plants since it is easier to plant when you have delicate roots.
Peat moss and long fibered sphagnum moss is renewable, however, not the way that it is currently harvested. The peat bogs replenish at a rate of 1/4 inch a year and approximately 2 ft a year are harvested. Drought conditions in Canada has affected the ferns that grow in the peat bogs so even less is made.
Potting soil used to contain mostly peat moss and perlite. When peat moss got very expensive, some companies started replacing the peat moss with compost with varying degrees of success.
Perlite is rock foam, it does occur naturally as a product of vulcanism, it is actually an amorphous volcanic glass with a high water content formed by the hydration of obsidian. When it is heated to about 900 degrees Centigrade or about 1650 degrees F. it explodes much like the way popcorn explodes. It is considered a non-renewable resource but there are about 700 million tons of it in reserves.
Builders sand or cinder (another product of vulcanism) can be sustituted for drainage, but they are much heavier. For me cinder is an easy product to obtain, but remember the volcano on the Big Island has been constantly erupting since 1983 and creating new land all of the time so it is abundant here and easy to crush. Sand is actually hard to get, since it has a high salt content, and builder's sand must be imported. People do illegally mine sand. You can tell when they use it. When they build a stone wall, the wall starts to crumble after about a year.
Long fibered sphagnum moss is used to plant some things like orchids and some of the carnivorous plants. It also comes from peat bogs, and it is very expensive. Most orchid growers have switched to bark, but may still use small amounts of sphagnum for very small plants since it is easier to plant when you have delicate roots.
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rainbowgardener
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You are right -- peat moss is basically "mined." As imafan said it is renewable , but not nearly as fast as it is being used .
Perlite and vermiculite are actually mined and then highly processed .
You can substitute coconut coir for peat moss. It is the hairy fibers on the outside of the coconut and is an agricultural byproduct . For drainage , I use rice hulls . They are the discarded outside of the rice grain, another agricultural byproduct . You can order them online or I was getting mine from a brewing shop -- the home brew beer folks use them for some filtration process.
Depends on what you want . The rice hulls work well for a while , but they are of course biodegradable unlike perlite so don't last as long in your mix.
Crushed lava rock or crushed pumice are other alternatives to perlite .
Glad to see others thinking about the environmental impact of their potting mix. For several years now I've been making my own eco-friendly potting mix from rice hulls , coconut coir and mushroom compost. It is not as Nitrogen rich as Miracle -Gro so I have to pump it up a bit.
Perlite and vermiculite are actually mined and then highly processed .
You can substitute coconut coir for peat moss. It is the hairy fibers on the outside of the coconut and is an agricultural byproduct . For drainage , I use rice hulls . They are the discarded outside of the rice grain, another agricultural byproduct . You can order them online or I was getting mine from a brewing shop -- the home brew beer folks use them for some filtration process.
Depends on what you want . The rice hulls work well for a while , but they are of course biodegradable unlike perlite so don't last as long in your mix.
Crushed lava rock or crushed pumice are other alternatives to perlite .
Glad to see others thinking about the environmental impact of their potting mix. For several years now I've been making my own eco-friendly potting mix from rice hulls , coconut coir and mushroom compost. It is not as Nitrogen rich as Miracle -Gro so I have to pump it up a bit.
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Thirtybyseven
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Thank you, both!
I live in the UK, and I think we have plenty of sand, so I could get that. Apart from being heavy, is sand a good substitute? I have a small veg patch, so I won't need huge amounts. I was thinking that sand might be preferable to rice hulls because it doesn't bio degrade?
I'll try to get coconut coir to replace the peat moss.
I live in the UK, and I think we have plenty of sand, so I could get that. Apart from being heavy, is sand a good substitute? I have a small veg patch, so I won't need huge amounts. I was thinking that sand might be preferable to rice hulls because it doesn't bio degrade?
I'll try to get coconut coir to replace the peat moss.
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rainbowgardener
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tell us more about what you are trying to do. You said you have "a small veg patch." Are you making raised beds? Or are you just talking about amending your soil to grow in the ground?
The mixes I was talking about are potting mixes. I use it for seed starting in little pots (why it doesn't matter that the rice hulls break down, because the seedlings aren't staying in the little pots for very long). I use a variation for large containers.
If you are making raised beds (which are essentially large containers that sit on the ground, with no barrier between, so plants can root down in to the native soil), you could use coconut coir, a whole bunch of mixed composts (that is the product of composting from a variety of sources, e.g. aged composted cow manure, mushroom compost, worm castings, leaf mould, etc, the more diversity, the better), and wood chips, coarse sand, crushed rock (lava, pumice, granite, etc). But the composts would be the most important. All the rest is just to help keep your soil loose, fluffy, well-draining.
If you are talking about growing in the ground and just amending your soil, I wouldn't worry about any of it except the compost. * You automatically have drainage (assuming you don't live in a swamp), because the water can drain clear down to bedrock. You are going to loosen the top of the soil yourself anyway in preparing the bed. And you can't really change the composition of your soil too much anyway, just enrich it. What ever you do to your small patch is eventually going to get distributed over/ into the rest of the soil and disappear. So for growing in the ground, the main thing you are worried about is adding lots of organic matter -- compost, leaf mould, etc. This enriches your soil, gives it better tilth/ texture with air and water channels, helps it retain moisture.
*Note in the UK, people tend to use the word "compost" also to mean what Americans mean by potting soil/ potting mix. I am talking about compost the product of a compost pile. Do you have a different word for that or how, in the UK, do you make that distinction?
The mixes I was talking about are potting mixes. I use it for seed starting in little pots (why it doesn't matter that the rice hulls break down, because the seedlings aren't staying in the little pots for very long). I use a variation for large containers.
If you are making raised beds (which are essentially large containers that sit on the ground, with no barrier between, so plants can root down in to the native soil), you could use coconut coir, a whole bunch of mixed composts (that is the product of composting from a variety of sources, e.g. aged composted cow manure, mushroom compost, worm castings, leaf mould, etc, the more diversity, the better), and wood chips, coarse sand, crushed rock (lava, pumice, granite, etc). But the composts would be the most important. All the rest is just to help keep your soil loose, fluffy, well-draining.
If you are talking about growing in the ground and just amending your soil, I wouldn't worry about any of it except the compost. * You automatically have drainage (assuming you don't live in a swamp), because the water can drain clear down to bedrock. You are going to loosen the top of the soil yourself anyway in preparing the bed. And you can't really change the composition of your soil too much anyway, just enrich it. What ever you do to your small patch is eventually going to get distributed over/ into the rest of the soil and disappear. So for growing in the ground, the main thing you are worried about is adding lots of organic matter -- compost, leaf mould, etc. This enriches your soil, gives it better tilth/ texture with air and water channels, helps it retain moisture.
*Note in the UK, people tend to use the word "compost" also to mean what Americans mean by potting soil/ potting mix. I am talking about compost the product of a compost pile. Do you have a different word for that or how, in the UK, do you make that distinction?
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Thirtybyseven
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I'll be using very shallow raised beds (about 15cm deep), so for all intents and purposes I'll be growing in the ground soil I guess, with additions to enrich it. The raised beds are more for aesthetic and layout purposes than an approach to growing - my garden is so small that I need to partition the different areas as neatly as possible.
The soil was under a membrane and stones for years (previous owner of the garden), but various creatures breached it over time, so the soil's not in as bad a condition as I was expecting. Still, I feel it would benefit from a kickstart of added goodies before I try to grow anything in it.
The soil was under a membrane and stones for years (previous owner of the garden), but various creatures breached it over time, so the soil's not in as bad a condition as I was expecting. Still, I feel it would benefit from a kickstart of added goodies before I try to grow anything in it.
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toxcrusadr
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