Hello All, Title basically says it all. I have a few bags of pure Vermiculite sitting outside, and its time for my leopard gecko's tank to be cleaned and re-done because his coconut bedding is getting dirty, and was wondering if I could just use the vermiculite as the substrate? if not, I can get some coconut bedding, but its kind of a long drive? Thanks in advance:)
if you want to areate the soil, add perlite.
You've already got plenty of amendments. Just plant whatever you are going to plant and get on with your life. You'll be fine. Fertilize occasionally.
It depends on what you want to grow - some things like highly aerated soils. You've already included pumice in your soil mix, so you should be okay. Once a month, we use bamboo skewers (available in packs of 20+ at discount stores) to aerate our house plant soils. We just slide the pointed end into the soil 20 times or so.
Vermiculite won't aerate the soil, since its general purpose is to just absorb lots of water. Certainly good to add in. Perlite is used a lot, but frankly I have always found it to be just filler and not really do anything. It does add bulk to the soil which is why I think you find it in many soil mixes. As long as you have plenty of drainage, and no clay in the mix you should not have any problems.
PERLITE. Is what you need, vermiculite absorbs water, pumice is not used in container gardening(as far as a I am aware). Perlite is inert, organic and is found in almost all potting mix as it aerates otherwise soggy material ie, peat moss and coir. Good Luck Also coir comes in several grades, if you use the courser coir in your particular mix you will most likely not need perlite.
