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Clay

C

chilli whisperer

So my one friend has a plant and fish aquarium. He told me that before planting his plants in his aquarium he first put some clay at the bottom that gives the plants some minerals. I was wondering if this would help with pepper plants? About an inch layer of clay at the bottom of the pot and over that your normal potting soil? What do you use to give your plants that extra KICK!?
Thanks
J
 
lol clay is basically impermeable to water. if you layer it along the bottom you will hold water inside the container.
 
it does have some amount of mineral, but its not mearly enough to be meaningful.
 
generally speaking clay is the opposite of what you want in a potting soil. its only redeaming value is its got a high cation exchange.
 
Clay is what people try and avoid. What works real well is volcanic ash/powder, I used to use it and works great. I used "Chinchilla powder" from the pet store.
 
chilli whisperer said:
So my one friend has a plant and fish aquarium. He told me that before planting his plants in his aquarium he first put some clay at the bottom that gives the plants some minerals. I was wondering if this would help with pepper plants? About an inch layer of clay at the bottom of the pot and over that your normal potting soil? What do you use to give your plants that extra KICK!?
Thanks
J
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There is some validity to what your friend is saying. The caveat though, is being able to get roots to shoot through it. For us in the south, that red Ga clay is full of minerals and nutrients, but the issue is compaction. What's the remedy? Organic matter, or in our case here in the south, WOOD CHIPS! Clay's best friend. So, in short, yes clay has goodies, no it's not great for roots to try and grow into directly. You must amend with organic matter to create loam/humus.
 
Yea i also thought about the water not going to be able to escape. Maybe thays why its just used for plant aquariums. But what i think of getting me are some of those growth pellets you put under the rpots when transplanting to give the plants an extra boost.
 
Sorry for the short 1st response but ferts and compost is the only thing I use for a extra kick(figured someone else would explain the clay and water issues. Really if you mix your soil right you'll only supplement once mabe twice durning the growing season. I use a combination of worm castings, fish-bone meal, Epsom salt, blood meal, and organic potting soil or garden soil. Took the soil recipie from a pot grower and tweeked it some. Everybody has their own mix that they like some idiots even piss on their plants for that extra kick
 
it does have some amount of mineral, but its not mearly enough to be meaningful.
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Clay by definition, is a mineral composition broken down to the smallest particle size.

Many clays have more than enough mineral content to be meaningful. But it's not meaningful if you aren't employing it as part of a growing strategy. Many soil recipes utilize rock dusts (which are frequently based on clays) to boost mineral content. Additionally, these can be added to the compost pile, to be consumed and excreted by various critters and organisms.

But there is absolutely no way that applying a layer to the bottom of the pot will be useful, unless you're trying to make some sort of smelly detritus.

some idiots even piss on their plants for that extra kick
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Why would somebody be an idiot for employing free nitrogen? And saving a flush in the process?
 
god... the pedantry. 
 
minerals. everything is a mineral... metals are technically a mineral. so yea clay is a mineral.
 
the shit in clay is usually oxidized... iron, manganese, etc. most clays are aluminum and silica, nigher are  vital to plant growth, nor are they available for uptake.
 
the only time clay is going to give plants alot of nutrients is when its broken up and mixed THOUROUGHLY with organic material... then the clay is broken up into microscopic particles that have enormous amounts of surface areas. then all those cations... metals can be "gotten" by the plants roots.
 
if you throw a fucking... slab of clay into your pot you will get almost 0 nutritional benefit from that. dont do it.
 
I have kept aquariums for almost ten years now. The only thing I can think of for the clay is that it will hold the plants in place while in the aquarium. Some fish like to dig in the gravel for food and some just do it cuz they want a cozy place to lay. I'm sure the clay will hold nutrients, but the aquarium plants will get what they need from the water.
 
Glad you brought this point up, in my past life, I would water my plants with fish tank water. I noticed a 200-300 percent difference in growth, compared to without. If anyone is interested in talking about it. Just message me. Hopefully next season I will be in a house and I can have some fish tanks going.
 
god... the pedantry. 

if you throw a f**king... slab of clay into your pot you will get almost 0 nutritional benefit from that. dont do it.
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I didn't think it was pedantry. I actually thought the first explanation was akin to throwing baby out with the bathwater. But there is no disagreement about not lining a pot with an impermeable barrier. That's what you do when you dig a retention pond in sand, not when you grow a pepper plant.
 
most clays are aluminum and silica, nigher are vital to plant growth, nor are they available for uptake.
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Not available for uptake? Are you sure about that? Neither of those are considered beneficial trace elements? (granted, not required) Hmm...
 
Glad you brought this point up, in my past life, I would water my plants with fish tank water. I noticed a 200-300 percent difference in growth, compared to without.
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That buildup of excess nutrients and ammonia in the water column is fertilizer for plants, but just food for algae in the tank. Makes perfect sense.
 
texastepin said:
I have kept aquariums for almost ten years now. The only thing I can think of for the clay is that it will hold the plants in place while in the aquarium. Some fish like to dig in the gravel for food and some just do it cuz they want a cozy place to lay. I'm sure the clay will hold nutrients, but the aquarium plants will get what they need from the water.
 
Glad you brought this point up, in my past life, I would water my plants with fish tank water. I noticed a 200-300 percent difference in growth, compared to without. If anyone is interested in talking about it. Just message me. Hopefully next season I will be in a house and I can have some fish tanks going.
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I was actually thinking about watering my plants with fish tank water. I thought it would help with growth too!
 
solid7 said:
 

Not available for uptake? Are you sure about that? Neither of those are considered beneficial trace elements? (granted, not required) Hmm...
 
Click to expand...
 
plants dont require aluminum, but some plants can take it up into their tissue.
 
plants can use SILICATE, but oxidized forms of slilcion are what you will find in clay. oxidized sillicon is sillica... what they make welding cups / mig nozzles from sillicon dioxide mostly.
 
silicate is reactive... its kinda like phosphate, and its weakly soluble in water.
there IS shit in clay that plants can use. iron calcium sodium ... pretty much all metals can be used in creating a clay lattice.
 
the problem is that homogeneous slabs of clay are NOT going to give up their cations... you have to smash up the clay into teensy particles for it to have any good nutritional value.
 
you CANNOT just throw wads in. it wont do shit. dry it out, fluidize it in a mill, then add it back to your mix if you really want to use clays. read up on how clay is minned and purified... its not impossible to process your own clay, alot of pottery people do it with simple shit, its just not going to be worth the effort imo. 
 
if you want that ionic "holding" power of something like a clay rich soil, then just throw in some peat or some shit. peat has some decent CEC.
 
millworkman said:
The years I mixed my East TN clay in with my potting mix were the best years I ever had growing in pots.
Listen to the guru, check out his plants, and ignore the rest. :)
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lol im imagining you throwing in baseball sized wads of clay...
this is what you want in your soil.
 
claypowder.jpg

 
NOT this.
 
1.27.14-mixing-clay-bodies-15-1024x768.jpg

 
nuff said. this should be obivious to all.
 
texastepin said:
I have kept aquariums for almost ten years now. The only thing I can think of for the clay is that it will hold the plants in place while in the aquarium. Some fish like to dig in the gravel for food and some just do it cuz they want a cozy place to lay. I'm sure the clay will hold nutrients, but the aquarium plants will get what they need from the water.
 
Glad you brought this point up, in my past life, I would water my plants with fish tank water. I noticed a 200-300 percent difference in growth, compared to without. If anyone is interested in talking about it. Just message me. Hopefully next season I will be in a house and I can have some fish tanks going.
Click to expand...
I dont change my water and haven't for many years, I have enough plants in their that keep things clean and dont have to mess with things. Ticks of some people when they see my water clear and I dont change water lol, other wise I would use the water for plants :)
 
millworkman said:
Nope. It gets so dry here most of the summer I just take about 10 gallons out of the ground, and pound it out with a rake and shovel while mixing it into my mix.
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yes exactly... the red clay we have here runs from like... 12 inches down to 36 inches.
 
this is "glacial" clay from what i was told. its clay that was dragged out of the ocean? its rich in iron and impurities that make it shitty for pottery... but when you dry it out and powder it... AND add sand, organics and what ever else fluff, it makes a perfectly acceptable soil.
 
problem is its a monolithic layer here in houston. it retards percolation SEVERELY... and it gets worse the deeper you go... the clay goes from red to a hard plastic grey clay that is very pure.
 
this had grey plastic clay does not dry out well at all. its cold... and hard like modeling clay.
 
dragonsfire said:
I dont change my water and haven't for many years, I have enough plants in their that keep things clean and dont have to mess with things. Ticks of some people when they see my water clear and I dont change water lol, other wise I would use the water for plants :)
Click to expand...
 
 
what about the fish poop? doesnt it build up and cover over all your nice rocks and crap?  or do you have one those gravel filter things?
 
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