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What is that stuff..

megamoo

megamoo

Has anyone bought a seedling from a nursery and its got tiny little shiny rock like crystal things on the surface of the soil?

Once I saw it on these chilli seedlings that were in a 144 cell tray and the cells were only as big as the last joint of my little finger. They were sitting in a flood and drain hydro system under a HID light. It looked as though all they had in the cell was peat moss and these rocks things on top. The roots of the seedlings weren't growing out of the cell but the seedlings themselves were a foot tall! They would have gotten their main nutrients from the hydro system so I assumed the rocks were some sort of slow release mineral thing, or something to prevent fungi, or maintain pH?

Anyone ever work with the stuff and know what it is?
 
I bought some soil a LONG time ago that had flakes in it just as you described, but I never knew what it was or why it was included. The soil didn't have anything mentioned about extra minerals or anything added to it. It was a cheap bag of soil that I got from a local nursery
 
I've seen some soilless seed starting mixes with small shiny flakes that look like slate or something similar, but no, I don't know what it is.
 
Its a filler to bulk up the good stuff most of the time its mica, don't any harm or good????
Have seen it in alot potting mix
 
its for water retention. I've forgotten the compound's name.... let me google that for awhile.

i think its silica
 
I only have the pics in my memory, but it definitely looked like mica. Sort of tiny thin slates of brittle crystal. It must do something more than filler though because on top of the 144 cell tray it was only a thin layer, and the last thing they would have needed was filler in that case. Perhaps its a mulch thing so the growth medium doesn't dry out. Next time I'm at a nursery and I see it I'll ask someone.... I won't be surprised if I get a blank stare.
 
Not sure, but I don't think it's a filler, I mean in the few times i've noticed it there was just so little and the ones I did notice where very small so I think it may have been something like metal peeling off of the machinery used to grind up the mix??
 
My guess is it's a clay mineral of some kind, or at least a phyllosilicate. It's a filler only in the sense that it serves no purpose aside from holding nutrients in the potting soil. Most water retained by such minerals isn't readily available to the plant as it is weakly bonded within the mineral structure.
 
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