Rice hulls as soil amendment
 

Someone posted about a product I use in my horse stall as a soil amendment.
That has made me think of other products easily available at the feed store used around horses and their possible benefit for growing bananas (besides the horse manure I already use ;) ).
Rice hulls came to my mind. Anyone using it to amend potting soils or even for plants in the ground?
I heard it might slightly increase the PH level.

Re: Rice hulls as soil amendment
 

Everything like that is great. My buddy uses raw wheat germ and other such things. Don't know about what kind of molds you would grow in pots though.

Re: Rice hulls as soil amendment
 

I use Riceland parboiled rice hulls (PBH) as a substitute for perlite. For most potted plants, I use 1/3 PBH plus 2/3 peat moss. An advantage or PBH over perlite is that PBH supplies slowly soluble silicate. Musa are silicate accumulators, e.g., see Effects, distribution and uptake of silicon in banana ( Musa spp.) under controlled conditions | Xavier Draye - Academia.edu. Silicate may increase disease and insect resistance. A disadvantage of PBH is that it biodegrades at about the same rate as peat moss.

Re: Rice hulls as soil amendment
 

I totally agree. Where do you buy them? Do you get them in bulk or bag?
Thanks.

Re: Rice hulls as soil amendment
 

Last time I checked at the feed store where I buy my horse and chicken food, a #50 bag was $8.That is significantly less than #50 of Perlite, Vermiculite or Peat Moss.

Re: Rice hulls as soil amendment
 

I have to order online and the shipping charges kill me.

Last year, I bought here:
Rice Hulls Soil Amendment 50 lb - Seven Springs Farm Organic Farming & Gardening Supplies LLC

This year, I will try this source:
https://www.hummert.com/product-deta...led-rice-hulls

Re: Rice hulls as soil amendment
 

Try feed stores in your area. Here in Southern California horse owners use it as bedding alternative to pine shavings for their horses.

Re: Rice hulls as soil amendment
 

The issue with buying form a feed and tack store, which I just did, is they have seeds in them. now I have sprouts of one kind or another in all my recently planted pots. so I'm looking for par boiled or weed free rice hulls. Preferably local.

Re: Rice hulls as soil amendment
 

In my experience: not recommended. I prefer "3/32 minus" aka "Horticultural Sand" (not rock dust). You can obtain it from A-1 Soils in San Diego county.

A1 and other bulk soil sources also sell pre-made soil mixes, including one or more made with Horticultural Sand, Triple-shredded redwood bark, and composted greenery waste. Good stuff.

Either way, these folks sell by the yard or half-yard. A (cubic) yard is 202 gallons. So if you take 20 5-gallon buckets that's a half-yard.

Back in my nursery maniac days I'd just have them dump 15 cu.yd. in my driveway.

Re: Rice hulls as soil amendment
 

I like the rice hulls in the bottom of the pot for drainage. but the jury is out for me as using it in the potting soil.

Re: Rice hulls as soil amendment
 

You can pasteurize it in a tamales steamer:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/IMUSA-Al...-301563011-_-N

The brand name is IMUSA (funny coincidence). You might have to cover the holes with window screening.


Or, if you are a millionaire, use one of these:

https://shop.durablegrowingequipment...-Tubes_c15.htm

Re: Rice hulls as soil amendment
 

I use wire mesh, the weather grade type for attic ducts.

Re: Rice hulls as soil amendment
 

I use medium septic fabric first then the rice hulls. septic fabric is not biodegradable, but lets roots grow thru it and rips when the plant is pulled out of the pot, wont rip when dry. and lets water out readily. cost is pennies and you can buy it at lowes and home depot.

the septic fabric I have been using for awhile. the rice hulls were recommended to me by tytalor and some of the pots I recently repotted, well I liked what I saw.

Re: Rice hulls as soil amendment
 

In my experience Rice hulls will rot here.

Re: Rice hulls as soil amendment
 

your probably right there. but my stuff do not sit in a pot that long. :ha:

Re: Rice hulls as soil amendment
 

I know this is an old thread but I like the topic. I use rice hulls in a few of my cacti mixes, they don’t stay wet enough to rot. A few other things I use from the feed store are Safe-T-Sorb and Oyster Shell. Crushed Oystershells I use as an aggregate in soilless mixtures and as a source of calcium. Gotta be careful with the PH though. And Safe-T-Sorb is just calcined clay which is a hugely common soil additive for bonsai. I use both for cacti mixes. I’ve been toying with the idea of using the calcined clay in place of pumice which I try to use in place of perlite but I need to look into it more since I’m not sure it would function as a 1:1 swap.

Re: Rice hulls as soil amendment
 

I think you would be happy with its performance and you should have no issues with the transition.

I use it as an ingredient for a base mix I make called" AL's Gritty Mix" for some of my plants.
This is an internet recipe I picked up for ferns,bonsai,and tufa plantings.
There is actually a thread somewhere in here about it.
From there barks,charcoals,or what ever I have on hand can be added to fit the plants needs. Pretty similar to what you're doing.

Re: Rice hulls as soil amendment
 

WARNING!

I discovered something about rice hulls that needs further investigation. Apparently, rice hulls contain something that is phytotoxic that is worsened after rice hulls are milled to finer particles. I milled rice hulls in a food blender. The milled rice hulls contained a substantial amount of fine powder along with coarse particles. If you try this, wear a mask to avoid breathing dust. I mixed it with 2/3 screened peat moss to germinate tomato seeds. The resulting tomato seedlings were stunted and leaves browned around the edges.