How To Use Vermiculite For Plants? [Its Benefits & Side Effects*]

Vermiculite is a Valuable Soil Amendment, That can be used In Several Ways For Plants, Seeds, Cuttings, Etc. & In This Post, We Will Discuss all About Vermiculite, its Benefits for Plants, How To use It, Also Its Drawbacks, So Keep Reading.

What is Vermiculite & How Its Made?

Vermiculite is a Naturally Occuring Mineral Found In Mines of USA, Brazil Etc, Then Its Crushed, Heated & Screened & After All Of This, Such a Product Come into Existance. In Appearance, Vermiculite have Golden Brown, Oderless, & Highly Lightweight Flakes.

Generally Vermiculite is Used In Many Fields Due To Its Absorbant, Isulating & Fire Resistant properties. But In gardeneing Its a useful Soil Amendment, That Can be Used In Several Different Ways, & Provide us Many benefits.

What Are Its Benefits For Plants?

Using Vermiculite For Plants have Many benefits, Let me Discribe Them Shortly.

1-Its Highly Water Retentive

Vermiculite Is Very Water Retentive, Which Holds Moisture Inside of it & provide It To The Roots only When They Suck It out. This is a very Unique Quality, That can be Useful For Moisture Loving Plants.

2-It Holds Nutrients

Another benfits of Vermiculite is That it Holds Nutrients From The Fertilizer & Keeps On Releasing them Time To Time. Personaly It Doesnot Contains Nutrients, But it Do Holds it For The Later Use of Roots, Which Ultimately Keeps The Plant Growth Continue.

3-Its Non Toxic & Strelized

Another Benefit of Vermiculite is That Its Non Toxic & Stelize, Which Means You Can use It In a Seeds Starter With Out The Problem of Pre Existing Fungus or Bacteria. Means That its Totally New & Dont Have Any Germs.

4-It Improves Drainage & Arreation

Vermiculite is also Porous Which Makes The Drainage Even Better, Also The Areation Around The Roots Will be Good. This Thing also Improves The Health & Growth Of The Plant. Roots also Contuinie To Grow In Such a Medium.

5-Its Light Weight

Another Benefit of Vermiculite is That its a Light Weight Material, Which Is Useful For Keeping The Soil Lighter & Softer.

How Can We use Vermiculite For Plant?

To Acieve All of These Benefits, Using Vermiculite Correctly Is The Key Thing. You can Use vermiculite In Different Ways.

How To Use Vermiculite for Transplanting?

The first use of Vermiculite is To Use It While The Transplant, vermiculite Holds Moisture.

So making a Base Layer of Vermiculite In The Planter Can Help The Plant To Recover Better, & Faster.

It Will Starts The New Growth Within days, & Also In The Future, During Dry Months, Plant Can take Moisture From Vermiculite.

How To Use Vermiculite for Plants?

Another Way To use Vermiculite For Plants, Is To Use In The Potting Mix, The Ideal Ratio is 1 Part of Vermiculite & 4 Parts of Your Soil Media. Dont Use More Than 20 Percent In a Soil mix. This is Enough For Making The Soil Better.

How To Use Vermiculite for Mulching?

Another way To use Vermiculite For Plant is To use It as a Mulching Material. Vermiculite is Water Absorbant, & Making a Layer At The Top of Soil Will Keep The Moisture Saved For The Plant.

Simply Make a Layer Of Vermculite At The Top Of Your Container.

How To Use Vermiculite for Seeds?

Another Simple Way To use Vermiculite is To use It in Your Seeds Starter. Its Light Weight & Porous, Which is Best For Seeds To initiate Their Germination.

For Seeds Ideal Amount of Moisture is Important To Healthy Sprout, so Again Vermiculite Does that.

Simply Mix 1 Part of Vermiculite In 3 parts of Your Seeds starter Mix, & Now You Can Sow Any Seeds In This Mixture.

There Germination Will Be Much Better. If You Dont Have a Seed Starter & Vermiculite, The Good ones Are added Here To Buy.

How To Use Vermiculite for Hydroponics?

Another Easy Way To use Vermiculite is To Use It in Hydroponics, You can use Only Vermiculite In a Container & Add Water In to It.

Now The Vermiculite Has The Moisture That The Plant can use, While The Remaining Water is Just At The Base & This Removes The Chance of rotting of Roots.

Following These Ways, You can use Vermiculite For all Type of Plants, Just Be Careful With The Ratios. It Can Be Used For Cacti & Succlents, But use lesser, It can be Used For Moisture Loving Plants, Seeds, & Cuttings Just Follow a Right way.

Differences Between Perlite & Vermiculite?

Now Lets Know What is the Difference Between Perlite & Vermiculite. Beside Their Different Appearances. Perlite & Vermiculite Are Considered To Do Same Jobs, But That’s Not Completely Right, There are few Differeneces, That You Should Must Know.

Perlite is Netural In Ph, While Vermiculite Has an Alkaline Ph, Perlite is Much More Lighter & Porous Than Vermiculite, Yes it Improves Drainage & Areation, But The Major Quality of Vermiculite is Its Water Holding Power.

Overall both Has Different uses, Both are Soil Amendments, But Affects The Soil media In Different Ways. To Know Indepth About Perlite Uses & Benefits, You Can Follow The guide Added Here.

Do It have Any Side-effects?

Vermiculite Also Have Several Side effects on Plants, That You Should Also Know, So You Can Control Them.

1-Alkaline PH

First of All Vermiculite Has a Basic Ph Which Is Good If Your Soil Is Acidic, But To Much Use of Verimiculite can make The Whole Soil Media Alkaline, Which can Badly Affect The Plant Growth & Health. You Can Simply Use Some Part of Compost, To Neutralize The Ph, or Simply Use The Recommened Ratios.

2-Expensive

Another Drawback of Vermiculite is That Its Expensive In Some Areas, You can Also Replace This With Perlite, Both Almost Works The Same, But There is also Cheap & Good Quality Vermiculite Linked Here, You can Buy That.

3-Can Cause Root rot

Another Side Effect of Vermiculite is That Overuse Of Vermiculite In The Soil can Cause Root Rot Issue. Vermiculite have Good Water Holding Power, So To Much Moisture In The Soil Results The Rotting of Roots. So Use Proper Amounts.

4-Inhalation

The Chemical Composition of Vermiculite Is hydrated magnesium aluminum silicate, & the Crushed Form of Vermiculite Can Harm Your Lungs, if Inhaled, So While Handling Vermiculite Use a Facemask, This Will Reduce The Chance Of Inhaling Vermiculite Dust.

5-NutritionLess

Another Side Effect of vermiculite is That it Doesnot Contain Any Nutrition In It, That’s Why You Should Use It Alone For Growing Any Plant, Except Very Minute Amounts of Some Trace Elements, Vermiculite is Nutritionless, So You Should Also use Other Amendments With Vermiculite To make a Viable Mixture for Plants, You Can Follow an Article About Different Kind Of Soil amendments, From This Article

So Its all About Vermiculite Uses & Benefits, For Making a Seeds Starter At Home, You can Follow This.