fine vermiculite

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The Mouse
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Ok, I'm not a beginner, but I'm new to using vermiculite!

This year, I'm going to have a go at growing some long parsnips for the village show, and all the successful growers seem to add fine vermiculite to their growing medium (along with lots of other things).

Most of the fine vermiculite that I've found online is being sold specifically as bedding substrate for people who keep spiders.
Does anyone know if this is any different from the fine vermiculite being sold for horticultural purposes?
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sally wright
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Dear Mouse,
put in to the search engine horticultural vermiculite. Then choose the medium grade. If you want some fine simply sieve a little out of the medium. Most garden centres stock it, but be wary of the stuff in the DIY sheds as if it is for insulation purposes it has chemicals added to make it waterproof.
I tend to use the coarse sieved portion of the medium grade to cover almost all the seeds I surface sow (not beans, peas, sweetcorn etc) as this allows light to the seeds which helps germination. The finer portion of the medium grade (the bit which goes through the sieve) I reserve for very fine seeds such as begonia, petunia and lobelia. Off hand I cannot think of any vegetable seeds that need fine vermiculite to cover them.
As for putting vermiculite into the compost, well yes you can but really it is too expensive to do that with. What I do do is save the compost from the seed trays (unless damping off has reared it's head) and put it in with batches of compost I am mixing for potting on purposes (but not pricking out!).
Vermiculite is a product made from mica which comes out of mines in russia, china, south africa and brazil. It takes a lot of energy and effort to mine, transport and make into vermiculite so it is best used sparingly.
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The Mouse
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Thanks Sally.

When trying to grow long carrots (in a barrel of sand, with holes then made where each individual carrot will grow, and filled with growing medium), all of the growing medium has to be finely sieved. I presume this is to do away with any lumps that might prevent the roots from growing straight. Wouldn't anything other than fine vermiculite be likely to do the same thing?


I would still love to know what the difference is between horticultural vermiculite and that aimed at reptile / spider keepers, if anyone knows :)
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Ricard with an H
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I would love to know the reason for using vermiculite at all, our garden centre/nursery uses it to cover the seeds. They say it helps to stop damping-off.

I just introduce a lot of grit into my seed compost but I don't really know if I'm doing the right thing. Maybe the grit should go into the potting on compost.

And, and..........I just had some fabulous flavoured and long/straight carrots from M&S. The variety wasn't shown on the packaging and after three seasons of trying I don't think long straight carrots that taste good come out of anything other than dedicated growing mediums and this would include parsnips.

It's another Black-Art.
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The Mouse
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The thing is that this year I want to have a go at growing some parsnips for their length, not for their taste, in an attempt to win the longest parsnip section of our local produce show in September. All the experts seem to mix (fine) vermiculite with their compost when doing this, so it seems silly to ignore their advice. I think it's for the water retaining properties, but I could be wrong.

Rest assured, I'll still be growing most of my parsnips the usual way, without resorting to such measures. In fact last year I won the longest parsnip section without doing anything different from normal, but it was the first year of the show and no one attempted anything special :)
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Ricard with an H
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So it's water retaining ? Rather than creating an open structure for drainage ?

I suppose it's entirely probable that those M&S carrots I refered to were grown in soil that was engineered for carrots, parsnips would respond in the same way so why can't you use the trick of stabbing the ground with a crowbar then filling the hole with highly riddled sandy soil so the root grows straight ?

Two years ago a farmer was televised on his carrot fields that had flooded and ruined the crop, you could tell the soil had been heavily engineered by the way he could pull bunches up with zero soil attached to the roots. Presumably that soil wouldn't hold nutrient so regular top dressing or nutrient watering would be required and the reason most carrots taste like parrafin.
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peter
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Either Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire or Suffolk I reckon Richard. Driving up to Cromer there are bedded fields with vast irrigation systems that look like Professor Branestawm mated scaffolding with tractor wheels, pylons and experimental radio aerials. These have root veg on normally and one does get delayed by JCB Fastracs towing trailers of carrots fairly often.
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