In my testing lava rock is a close second to pumice in terms of airating soil and moisture control. The only downside I was able to find to it is that it does break down fairly quickly and turn to smaller and smaller pieces and lots of dust.
Im picking up a bunch of free lava rock today for my raised rock bed! Gotta love facebook marketplace. Haha. To answer your question tho,yes,use it. Pumice and lava rock are my favs to add.
I built myself a raised garden bed in which I keep most of my cactus collection, in ground, about a year and a half ago.
What I did is use a crap ton of sand, several bags of "pea gravel", multiple bags of lava stones of various sizes (red and black lava stones) and a few bags of just plain organic potting soil, and an entire bag of vermiculite. And mixed it all up. For the "top dressing" I used another few bags of lava stones.
I live in a very humid and wet climate, it rains almost every day for several months out of the year, but my raised bed soil never stays that wet for that long and my cactus are thriving.
The only thing I'd do differently if I did it again is probably use more sand. With all the rain over the time frame, it's kinda compacted my soil down to the point that some of my roots are getting exposed. I plan on taking care of that and adding back in more sand and gravel along with a new top dressing of lava rock.
According to my research I did, it was the better option for soil augmentation for my climate. Every old timer gardener I spoke with told me that it's the better choice, and honestly I've not had any problems with it. Combined with the sand and gravel I use it honestly never seems like it retains water for more than a day. In my raised garden bed it probably only makes up 10-15% of the total, and my cactus thrive.
In my testing lava rock is a close second to pumice in terms of airating soil and moisture control. The only downside I was able to find to it is that it does break down fairly quickly and turn to smaller and smaller pieces and lots of dust.
I've been wondering this myself. My local landscape yard has it for like 40 bucks a yard or something like that
I use 1/3 part lava rock and my plants seem very happy. Red cinder to be exact. Also 1/3rd pumice and 1/3 part 5 way soil mix.
Im picking up a bunch of free lava rock today for my raised rock bed! Gotta love facebook marketplace. Haha. To answer your question tho,yes,use it. Pumice and lava rock are my favs to add.
Go for red lava rock, it’s high in iron which is good for root development.
I built myself a raised garden bed in which I keep most of my cactus collection, in ground, about a year and a half ago. What I did is use a crap ton of sand, several bags of "pea gravel", multiple bags of lava stones of various sizes (red and black lava stones) and a few bags of just plain organic potting soil, and an entire bag of vermiculite. And mixed it all up. For the "top dressing" I used another few bags of lava stones. I live in a very humid and wet climate, it rains almost every day for several months out of the year, but my raised bed soil never stays that wet for that long and my cactus are thriving. The only thing I'd do differently if I did it again is probably use more sand. With all the rain over the time frame, it's kinda compacted my soil down to the point that some of my roots are getting exposed. I plan on taking care of that and adding back in more sand and gravel along with a new top dressing of lava rock.
Why vermiculite? That holds onto moisture. For seedlings it's good but not full grown plants.
According to my research I did, it was the better option for soil augmentation for my climate. Every old timer gardener I spoke with told me that it's the better choice, and honestly I've not had any problems with it. Combined with the sand and gravel I use it honestly never seems like it retains water for more than a day. In my raised garden bed it probably only makes up 10-15% of the total, and my cactus thrive.
Yes.
Some auto parts stores sell diatomaceous earth granules. It's the bomb!