I'm in a rocky region with little top soil, zone 5A. I bought the cheapest sheep's manure and potting soil (thin, low nutrition stuff) and plan to mix with my own compost as garden soil is expensive now! I also don't want to pay for vermiculite or perlite. Are cut up tiny sticks a good idea or am I introducing the risk of root rot?
I may just do this for the top 6" of soil for cucumbers that need better drainage
I have access to a fire pit and can roast gently the sticks for 5-10 mins to rid of any fungal bacteria too.
by hedgehogflamingo
32 Comments
Perlite is formed from lava floes so it is a natural product…cheap too. If you are on rocky soil it likely needs more compost/organic matter rather than stuff to help with drainage
Not sure how you get more natural than volcanic rock (both perlite and vermiculite)
It’s a terrible idea. Decomposition of said sticks will rob the nitrogen out of the soil so microbes (bacteria and fungi) can continue the decomposition process. This will make nitrogen unavailable for plants for a long time, several months to over a year. Wood chips are only suitable as mulch.
$5 for a bag of Perlite will be worth it.
Make char from the sticks. It will work the same as perlite but will be more expensive in the end.
I’d just skip gardening for now, if you can’t afford any of the essentials. Burning sticks to save a couple of dollars is bizarre.
If drainage is the goal, can’t go wrong with sand as a perlite substitute. For vermiculite, I’m not so sure, I’ve never had to increase water retention before.
Garden soil is a balanced mix of various sized mineral particles (silt, sand, clay), decomposing/decomposed organic matter (compost), and air and water.
Adding in more stems/sticks is just adding to the organic matter. You still need mineral particles in those various sizes. Perlite and vermiculite, which are qualifying as those mineral particles, also have the added benefit of being able to heavily absorb water, which is one of the needs in balancing your soil.
I understand not wanting to spend the money, but soil is an important investment.
If you are wanting to cut costs, it’s still possible, but I suggest you first look up “soil science” and how that applies to garden soil. Learn what the requirements are and then look for a local soil supplier. Not bagged soil from your local big box store. I’m talking about the same place you’d buy bulk gravel from. You can find garden mixes and soil bases for much cheaper and sold by the cubic yard.
Edit: also, roasting the sticks for a few minutes won’t do enough to kill the fungal/bacterial spores. To get it hot enough to do so, you’d need to burn through the stick which would just turn it to carbon. Which, carbon (ash) is great for soil especially when trying to adjust the pH, but still won’t accomplish what you’re trying to do.
Get bulk Compost. Or cover crop and till it in. Or make friends with a local farm. Start a worm bin. Perlite is cheap, natural, and a little goes farther than you think.
Buckwheat hulls
I don’t know if it is cheaper or better but you may want to research rice hulls as an amendment.
P.S.
I transported plants that had rice hulls as part of the mixture, it can be messy because the hulls are lightweight. Nothing crazy, but I usually had to go over the area the plants were with a whisk broom.
If you’re in a rocky area just mixing the native soil with the manure and compost should do the trick. Old leaves work well too.
Hey, I’m outdoor gardening and I’ve tried a bunch of ways. Using the burnt wood is ok and I’ve seen roots growing right into char. But! Too much can make the soil more alkaline, which was bad for a section that had tomatoes.
People go nuts saying the nitrogen gets robbed when you add wood chips, I don’t believe this completely. If anything add nitrogen fertilizer if it seems light green. But overall I have sandy soil already and it’s the clay content that holds water.
Usually I’m adding peat and compost to my beds.
If you’re growing in the ground you don’t need perlite or vermiculite, just keep adding topsoil and compost
If you were to make charcoal out of hardwood, break it into pebble sized bits, there’s no reason it wouldn’t work as a substitute.
In fact, thank you all. I hadn’t thought of it before, and it’s a grand idea.
Look into biochar. It’s basically charcoal, and has some similar properties to perlite in soil.
Are you talking about growing things in pots indoors, in pots outdoors, or in the ground?
It matters. Outdoors you would amend your soil, but not with vermiculite or pearlite, which would be overkill for outdoors. You’d blend in organics, like (sustainably harvested) peat for water retention and organic mass (compost) for aeration. Your vegetable garden will improve each year as you tend the soil.
For indoor potting, we tend to buy sterilized things so that we don’t get problems. But we also use those things in small quantities so cost is less of a factor. They’re not requirements, these amendments, but simply useful. You can grow without them, but you might have to pay more mind to water balance, pot type, etc.
The first question is… what are you setting out to achieve?
Look around for local ranchers, stables, etc. No idea if you have any or not – but last year my papa & I got a trailer loaded up with year-aged, well composted manure for free. The stables offered riding lessons & boarded horses – a dozen horses produce mountains of poo! Important: manure must be *aged*. Fresh manure would burn the plants, be too chemically hot /strong to apply. Age it a year.
Garden loved it. You could mix that with sand or perlite 50/50 for soil as a garden base, plants will thrive. May not want it alone (might be too rich) but amend it with soil for optimal consistency & bam, set!
Could use something like grain husks as a lightening agent. Usually we just go moss, sand, compost. In my area we have the opposite problem, clay soil & gotta add sand. Compost is always best though to get towards that black gold ideal.
Hello, you can turn the sticks into something that has very similar aeration properties as perlite, but also able to hold much more water and nutrients. Instead of roasting, you need to turn them into ‘biochar’ by burning down to coals and then quenching with water. It behaves much the same as organic material in the soil, but does not decompose and therefore can work as a soil amendment for hundreds of years or more.
It does take some time, the branches need to be dried, then after burning the biochar needs to be composted or charged with fertilizer so that it doesn’t rob the soil of fertilizer.
Otherwise I would just experiment with adding sticks. Because they are a thin diameter they should not rob the soil of nitrogen like fresh wood chips will when mixed into the soil because the ratio of nitrogen to carbon is higher. But they could cause other problems like making the soil drain excessively fast if they decompose rapidly and leave lots of voids in the soil.
Rice hulls will work and they’ll add organic matter to the soil after a short time.
Perlite is a renewable resource, its volcanic rock and it’s constantly made by nature.
I don’t really like the color of perlite, so I alternate it with charcoal.Depending on the plant, you can fill it with nutrients
Crushed ceramic pieces act similarly in the soil. Old pottery, pulverized.
Pumice or granite grit.
You could make Charcoal pretty easily, wash it to remove ash and grind it up it has similar properties as Perlite
You don’t need to mix perlite or vermiculite into a garden – they’re really for pots. A combination of compost and topsoil is all you need.
To agree with others: Given your description of your soil, you’d probably be better off incorporating more compost (which you can make yourself, lots of good guides online). If you’re still having issues and think drainage might be a problem, an alternative to perlite could be anything else that takes a long time to break down. So, pecan shells, wood chips, etc all might help.
Also, if you’re low budget I recommend looking up “Grow Food for Free” by Huw Richards. Lot of excellent advice in that book. He also has a YouTube channel.
Vermiculite is natural, and it doesn’t go away. Buy it once, use it in your soil blend, and that’s it.
Pumice is quite cheap in the PNW
Aged pine bark fines if you can find them. They are based out of west Va. I’ve also switched over to rice hulls for areation and mulch.
Perlite and vermiculite are natural and cheap if you order on Amazon. 120 qts is like $38.