I'm setting up my gardening boxes on my new sun porch . I brought in some of my compost , which is moist , dark , and seems too heavy to me . It wants to clump , if I squeeze a handful of it . I recalled that when I bought potting soil it had tiny white bits in it that looked like foam . My old microwave was shooting off sparks , so I bought a replacement , which came packed in styrofoam .Very light weight . To make a long story short . I've been cutting up a bit of the styrofoam and mixing that and some sand to lighten up the soil and hopefully provide improved drainage . Has anyone tried this ? Hint : don't wear navy fleece to cut up styrofoam - instand tiny white dots all over it .
I don't recommend the use of any plastic in your soil,ash, lime, straw or peatmoss work far better and help generate a healthy soil.
If your garden gets flooded the styrofoam will float to the top .
And end up as part of the sea of plastic in the worlds oceans.
What you saw was definitely vermiculate, as already said. But I have also used stryofoam, but never for food crops. Not sure of any toxicity threat, but just in case. I used it routinely in pkace of gravel at the bottom of potted rose pots. At 20 to 24 inch diameters, those monsters were already heavy enough without adding a layer of rock.
Styrofoam is definitely a little bit of a compromise, but it was one way for me to repurpose much of the packing material that tends to accumulate from all household items that come in cartons.
Nope... not styrofoam. I believe it's vermiculite.
Helps control water evaporation.
If it is irregular in form it will be vermiculite, if it is small round beads it will be perlite.
Seems like a great idea. I hope it works out for you!
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