would have never thought of that.. wonderful.. thank you!!!

Grind it DRY though. Found that out the hard way

hhmm might be a good idea to wear a breather mask doing that

I use an old coffee grinder and there isn't a dust issue

have to be sure it doesn't contain asbestos.. even if you can't see the dust it could be a problem

they still do allow 1% of it.. the safety guy at my work said the bag will say asbestos free .. if it doesn't.. it most likely has it in there

http://www.ehow.com/facts_6031...

Holy Smokers! I had no idea . Thanks Allison. I'm going to check out the bag that I have.

Great tip not only about the seedlings, but the asbestos in the vermiculite.

I did a little research and feel that it is safe to grind the vermiculite.

The % allowable is stated 0.1%, not 1% in the link below. Also, the contamination problem was over 20 years ago and the industry does have testing put in place.


http://www.vermiculite.net/
http://www.schundler.com/verm-...
From schundler link "Vermiculite itself does not contain asbestos; it was just the Libby, Montana mine which was contaminated because of the presence in the mountain of a secondary mineral called diopside. (To read more about diopside, go to sites like The Mineral Diopside.)"



I will continue to grind the little amount that I do.

Just got an email back from the Manufacturer of the vermiculite that I bought.
"It is asbestos free and safe to grind down."

I'm not worried.

have to read the labels... I just talked about it with my safety guy a month ago.. he said it's still out there

I often sprinkle coarse vermiculite under and over seeds that I direct-sow outside. It keeps them moist and aerated and prevents crusting

I cut a narraw trench a little deeper than I wnat the seeds to be sown.
I fill a 2-liter soda bottle with coarse vermiculite.
Then I shake/pour it in a thin, shallow line on the bottom of the trench, then smooth-firm it level.
I drop the seeds on top of that layer of vermiculite at whatever spacing.
Then I shake/pour the right depth of vermiculite over the seeds, making the trench level or very slightly below grade.
Then I firm it again, and mist the bed or sprinkle gently with a fine rose head.

I have two sizes of vermiculite. I use the bigger, more coarse size to mix into potting mix. The "horticultural fine" grade is very small, particles are about the size of sand. I use this one as the top layer when seed starting.

Karen

For indoors seed stating, "fine" is what I would use for very fine seeds needing to be sown on the surface. For anything else, I usually assume that coarse vermiculite chunks will provide enough humidity, and allow plenty of air to get in. I feared that fine verm iculite might encouage rot, but that may be a bogus fear.

I just know that I killed an entire tray of petunias - 128 cells and 200-300 petunia seeds - by trying to sown them "on top" of a bark mix that was too coarse. They fell into the cracks and were never seen again.Next year I'll be using a layer of fine vermiculite under (and maybe over) petunia, alyssum and lobellia seeds started indoors in propagation cells.
.

Karen, where do you get that fine vermiculite? Do you buy it locally or order it?

Woofie, I buy it locally. The last time I found it @ Worm's Way, prior to that at another really nice garden center.

You can see here, there are different sizes.
http://homeharvest.com/soilame...

Karen

Thanks for the link! We don't have any decent garden centers nearby, and the stuff is light enough it might be feasible to have it shipped. But I'll check the farm supply where I get my potting soil first.

The one brand in that link is one I've used (the Mica-Grow). If you only use it to sprinkle of seed containers, 8 qts. goes pretty far.

I always use it on top of seed containers, both under lights and wintersown jugs.

Karen

Yes, that was what I was thinking of using it for. Sounds like it would be an improvement over what I've been doing.