When it comes to growing live plants and meadows, it all depends on the quality of the soil. The plant’s root system requires constant oxygen, and the carbon dioxide inhaled from the roots must leave the root zone. This extremely important gas exchange is the key to good growth.
This means that the soil must be resistant to compaction, maintaining the water and nutrients necessary for plant growth. Adding pumice to your garden and growing the soil can help you meet these basic requirements.
Pumice is a Soil Conditioner
Pumice is an excellent soil improvement in the garden, regulating humidity and ventilation. Pumice is a product extracted from volcanic rocks. This happens when a volcano erupts violently and magma erupts. When it cools quickly, the bubbles fall on the formed rock and it is a pumice stone. Unlike other products made from volcanic garden stone, such as vermiculite and perlite, pumice is ready for use from the ground and does not require industrial processing. Pumice should not be confused with the pomace, that is, the rest of the chopped fruits, such as grapes, olives, and apples. You probably use pumice every day without realizing it – you’ll find in cosmetics, a sandbox, water filters, and rubbers. This is the “brick” from which jeans are made. Why not use it in the garden?
Advantages of Adding Pumice to Your Garden
- Pumice contains very few minerals and does not decompose. Pumice does not add nutrients but improves the structure of the soil.
- Loosen heavy soil. It also prevents soil compaction, even if filled with water, and improves ventilation.
- It improves drainage in all types of terrain and avoids immersion, even in case of intense rain or excessive irrigation.
- Maintains excess moisture in the porous structure. Pumice acts like a sponge and holds water until plants need it. In this way, the water is constantly released into the soil. Thanks to the unique structure, the need for watering the garden can be reduced by up to 35%.
- Pumice is also suitable as attractive, durable, and useful bedding.
- Add to the compost heap to reduce odors, regulate humidity, and mix with the worm substrate.
How to Use Pumice in Your Garden
Pumice supports lawn management
For the reasons described above, pumice is a very effective complement to the soil in preparing high-quality beds for new lawns. Pumice-enriched soils can solve problems with root soils, which are usually compacted or have a weak structure that contains water and nutrients.
Public parks, sports fields, and golf courses with heavy pedestrian and car movements and an urgent need for water and fertilizers to remain attractive in the vegetation benefit significantly from improving the quality of pumice. In dry areas, the porosity of water containing pumice reduces the need for water.
Pumice can also be used with an existing lawn as a dressing after aerating the lawn or intense vegetation to restore or maintain the correct soil structure.
Restoration and reduction of soil runoff with pumice load
The vegetation on the road is important to keep the soil in place and prevent damage to drains, slopes, escarpments, and other areas subject to severe erosion. The vitality and vigor of this vegetation will benefit greatly from improvements in gardening (air exchange, water, and nutrient retention) when the pumice is in the soil. Soil with soil quality is especially important when efforts and costs are invested in planting and mulching these technical areas, especially in a drier climate.
For the same reason, pumice for ecological drainage channels and banks along roads and tracks can be mixed freely with dense, heavy soils with weak water properties to improve drainage, uptake, and improvement. Retention problems and therefore water supply will increase during reduced maintenance: heavy traffic along the corridors.
Like pearlite, pumice works as a soil correction
A 1992 study by the Department of Horticulture at the University of Illinois showed that the physic-chemical properties and, therefore, the harvest value as a soil correction are comparable to those of perlite. Perlite has a well-documented and effective place in soil formation, but Perlite is not as profitable as the limited areas in major soil improvement projects, such as golf courses, parks and green areas in the city, sports complexes and green plants, high-quality pumice, ecological slopes, and renovation projects.
Other horticultural applications for pumice
Land mulching with pumice- the thick pumice stone is an excellent and attractive cover for flower beds and shrubs. The soil under the cover remains moist for a longer time and is less susceptible to irrigation. Weed problems are minimized with a few inches of pumice. The pumice does not decompose and therefore does not need to be replaced. Our white pumice can be painted on request.
Conclusion
You can use it directly from the package or saturate it with useful nutrients and germs. This process is called activation or overfeeding. To activate pumice, soak it in a nutrient solution such as compost for at least 24 hours before mixing it with the garden floor.