A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening vermiculite

Good Good morning to you all!

I am writing to see if anyone would have a suggestion for an alternative to vermiculite for potting plants - and seed starters?

I have started getting my little pots ready to put seeds in next year, and would like to have a good starter soil. So far I have a nice topsoil, but I think that adding vermiculite or alternative would be of benefit?

Many Blessings and Warm Wishes,
Patience

Welcome, Patience.
Perlite or pumice can add a little structure and room for air circulation in growing mediums. It also makes it lighter weight for hanging plants.

What she said.
I often just buy JiffyMix for starting seed, but I also mix some "soil" of my own. It's all about a balance between well drained soil and drainage that is too "steep," drains too fast, or too water retaining.
What I discovered last year is that vermiculite comes in more than one porosity or flake size, and I'm still feeling my way through all of this, even after 30 years of working with plants, but I have relied on commercial products in the past.
I might be inclined to avoid perlite, I don't base this on any factual evidence, but it reminds me of tiny marshmallows or or packing peanuts, and my thought is that is does not readily absorb moisture, but it sure is used in plenty of high grade soil mixes. I think vermiculite does double duty, retention and drainage.
At any rate...one very excellent additive (so I hear from growers) is coconut coire, I can't find it here without ordering it, but it is apparently somewhat like peat but has more structure.

thanks a mil!
Patience

Perlite looks like styrofoam, but it isn’t. This is a volcanic glass which, when heated, expands and becomes very porous And it does retain equal amounts of water to vermiculite. Vermiculite is also a mica-like mineral that is heated to expand and become porous. Perlite does float a bit. But vermiculite can kind of dissolve into a mud and compact.
Crushed volcanic rock can also serve.

If you buy vermiculite go for the very fine stuff. In fact if you can find the fine grade starter mix for seedlings you'll do great. I've used the regular grade so far and had the chance to work with a bit of the fine stuff and it works great for seeding.