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Old January 23, 2022   #2
RayR
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Cheektowaga, NY
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Zeolites are a mineral deposit that formed from volcanic ash and an alkaline water source creating a inert hard glass-like mineral with a honeycomb-like structure that absorbs water and has a high cation exchange capacity (CEC) which makes it attract positively charged nutrient ions like calcium, magnesium, potassium, and ammonium
If your soils have a low CEC like sandy soils where water and nutrients easily leach out , then amending it with zeolite can help retain both water and nutrients and slowly release them back into the soil for plant roots to take up.
There are no general rules for how much to use since the situations vary, especially in container mixes.which generally don't have a low CEC. You'd have to experiment with it.
You would usually buy it in granules the size of sand grains ot coarse sand.
I have some and have played around a little with it. I wouldn't go crazy using a lot of it in a container mix because too much can give you the opposite result that you are looking for.
Zeolites are commonly used in horse stalls because as an adsorbent with a high CEC it has a high affinity for trapping ammonium nitrogen which reduces ammonia odors in the stalls.
Using too much of it in.a container mix can have a similar effect but locking up too much ammonium nitrogen would not be beneficial to the plants
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