{"id":19166,"date":"2018-03-13T10:27:33","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T10:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=19166"},"modified":"2018-03-12T10:53:08","modified_gmt":"2018-03-12T10:53:08","slug":"vermiculite-for-gardeners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/tips\/garden-equipment-tips\/vermiculite-for-gardeners\/","title":{"rendered":"Vermiculite for Gardeners"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wrapper\">\n<div id=\"header\">\n<div id=\"logo\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"content\">\n<div class=\"post\">\n<p><small><\/small><a title=\"Vermiculite by brianpettinger, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/5424215283\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5057\/5424215283_eea9b6d19b.jpg\" alt=\"Vermiculite\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Vermiculite is a natural mineral ore that has been heat treated to expand into a light, spongy worm like, inert substance.\u00c2\u00a0 Vermiculite is <span class=\"_Tgc _s8w _y9e\">made from mica whereas perlite, a similar gardeners aid is a type of highly porous volcanic glass. <\/span><span class=\"_Tgc _s8w _y9e\">Because vermiculite is permanent, clean, odorless, non-toxic and sterile and very light it has many uses for gardeners.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Gardeners Uses of Vermiculite<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Vermiculite greatly improves seed compost by promoting aeration and drainage, important for seeds and cuttings.<\/li>\n<li>Vermiculite improves germination and reduces the risk of damping off when applied as a thin layer on top of your sown seeds.<\/li>\n<li>A 50:50 mix of compost and vermiculite is ideal for the germination of seeds, because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s aeration properties and water holding capacity make it a suitable medium for direct contact with the seeds.<\/li>\n<li>Vermiculite used alone without compost helps germination but seedlings should be fed with a week fertilizer solution when the first true seeds appear. I have some African Violet seeds being grown this way at the moment.<\/li>\n<li>Large seeds can be mixed with Vermiculite in a small polythene bag closed at the neck, and kept in a warm place until the seeds just start to germinate.<\/li>\n<li>Vermiculite can be mixed into compost for taking cuttings.<\/li>\n<li>Mixed with compost vermiculite can also store Dahlia and Begonia tubers through winter.<\/li>\n<li>Slower germinating seeds should be covered with grit in preference to vermiculite.<\/li>\n<li>For fine seeds it can be ground down finer that that shown above.<\/li>\n<li>Mix with peat or coir to make a soilless growing medium for the home gardener to promote faster root growth and give quick anchorage to young roots.<\/li>\n<li>\u00c2\u00a0Vermiculite is also used as a growing medium for hydroponics.<\/li>\n<li>Heavy sticky soil can be conditioned by the addition of vermiculite.<\/li>\n<li>Available from good garden centres<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a title=\"Vermiculite by brianpettinger, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/5424815836\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5136\/5424815836_2a0f602e5e.jpg\" alt=\"Vermiculite\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><strong> Vermiculite for Cuttings<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Vermiculite 50% sphagnum moss peat 50% compost stimulates root growth, giving quicker anchorage of the plant and uptake of nutrients.<\/li>\n<li>Thoroughly water the vermiculite before inserting cuttings.<\/li>\n<li>Do not compress around the base of the cutting.<\/li>\n<li>Vermiculite\u00c2\u00a0 gives a very light open compost, holding more water and facilitating re-wetting, thereby lengthening the time between watering.<\/li>\n<li>Vermiculite \u00c2\u00a0 absorbs\u00c2\u00a0 excess nutrients and releases them slowly to the plants via the finest root hairs.<\/li>\n<li>Use a lower proportion of vermiculite under mist irrigation in Summer say 25%.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/gp\/search?ie=UTF8&amp;keywords=gardening&amp;tag=richardpettin-21&amp;index=blended&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=6738\">Gardening at Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vermiculite is a natural mineral ore that has been heat treated to expand into a light, spongy worm like, inert substance.\u00c2\u00a0 Vermiculite is made from mica whereas perlite, a similar gardeners aid is a type of highly porous volcanic glass. Because vermiculite is permanent, clean, odorless, non-toxic and sterile and very light it has many uses for gardeners. Gardeners Uses of Vermiculite Vermiculite greatly improves seed compost by promoting aeration and drainage, important for seeds and cuttings. Vermiculite improves germination&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/tips\/garden-equipment-tips\/vermiculite-for-gardeners\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-garden-equipment-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19166"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19169,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19166\/revisions\/19169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}