Perlite - A Soil Amendment To Improve Clay Soil In Your Garden
by John Yazo
Horticulture perlite has served the professional grower for many years, and is becoming more commonly used to help the home gardener solve a variety of common problems with their garden soil. It has the ability of promoting drainage and aeration in heavy clay soils, horticulture perlite also provides optimum moisture retention for successful plant growth.
Perlite is the generic term used for a natural formed siliceous rock that has its own distinguishing features that sets it apart from other volcanic glasses. When heated to a suitable point, it expands fro 4 to 20 times its original volume due to the rapid expansion of water that is contained in it. This is the process that is used to create the extremely light weight perlite that is used for gardening purposes.
When used as a soil amendment in heavy clay soils, water ponding, along with surface crusting may be eliminated, and plants root systems will have the ability to fully develop by penetrating the soil that has been mixed with perlite growing media deeper. Horticulture perlite can provide many benefits to garden soil, container gardens and even roofscapes where weight is a very important factor.
Perlite is a unique volcanic mineral that is produced for horticultural purposes by heating it to approximately 1600 degrees Fahrenheit. When heated, the raw product pops into a granular form that is snow-white in color, and these particles are comprised of tiny closed air bubbles. The surface area of each of these particles are covered with small cavities that provide an extremely large overall surface area. These surface cavities is where moisture gets trapped to make it available for plant life to use when needed. In addition, due to their irregular shape air passages are formed in the growing media around the perlite that provide excellent soil aeration.
Perlite has many advantages when used as a soil amendment in the home garden. It improves the aeration and drainage of soil, retains moisture to make it readily available for plant life when needed, it has an essentially neutral ph of 6.5 - 7.5, serves as an insulator that reduces the fluctuation of soil temperatures, and is sterile, along with being weed and disease free.
Perlite can be used along with vermiculite in your growing media. The perlite will provide good aeration, moisture retention, and drainage, while the vermiculite will provide for good nutrient retention. These two products can be mixed in equal parts, or according to a specific garden or potting media mix design.
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