Smashed Red Brick Any Good For Soil Mixing?

duartix

I've found a place where they sell crushed red construction brick. The pieces have a 3 to 7 mm dimension with all sorts of shapes (hardly spherical, more like chips).

Since these bricks are made of fired clay I guess they have some good properties like:
water retention,
good drainage,
no physical colapse,
low price.

From what I've read here and there I guessed they could make a good base for soil mixing instead of granite grit.
I'll be repotting maples, junipers, a spruce and an elm.
My climate is hot (Mediterranean)

What do you think?
Which organic base could be best for that mix? Peat, sphagnum moss, pine bark?

Attached Images

tijolos.jpg (47.9 KB, 213 views)

Advertisement

Tiny-Plant

I can't see why the brick would be bad? I use fired clay in my bonsai soil alot... Just make shure the brick is clean, and that it hasn't any toxic stuff in it...

__________________
The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single cup of tea

duartix

What about the organic element?
Which would you suggest?

FredL

duartix, I wouldn't be shy about using it. In fact, it sounds ideal to me. As for organic material, my experience suggests that you have a pretty wide latitude here. I've used a number of different mulch type products, mostly bark based, all of which allow good drainage and take awhile to decompose. My favorite is a big pile of mulch in my back yard which was created when the tree guys took down several big oak trees some dead, some dying, in my yard when we moved into our new house and they chipped up the branches. I was a little surprised at what they left, it was quite a bit finer than what I've seen left from chippers generally. It seemed to be about the right consistency, so I started using it last year and have been very happy with the results. I use about 1/2 small lava rock (used here for landscaping) or other rock based material, about 1/3 bark or wood-chip based mulch and 1/6 garden loam. I've been very happy with the results.

Fred

Fletch

duartix;

Provided its been fired high enough (and, as was mentioned before, is free of toxic substances) you should have no problem.

A test you might try on the stuff before you commit though could be as follows.

If you can get a small sample, put it in enough water to cover it. Leave it sit for a while (several months even, covered in water the whole time, if that's feasible) and then drain the water off and see if there has been any breakdown of the particles.

- Compare it to a sample that was kept dry during your test.
- Try rubbing it between your fingers and see if it crumbles or leaves small bits of grit or slime behind.
- Try crushing it and see if it's any easier than the dry sample is to break up, that sort of thing.

If you don't see any evidence that it breaks down during your test then go for it.

Actually, your post may have answered a problem I'm having in finding an alternate to turface for my soil mix, I'll have to check and see if I can find any suitably sized crushed brick to give a try myself.

FredL;

Just a couple questions about the mulch source you're using.

1. Do you know what the Oaks were dying of when they were cut down and ground up? I'd personally be a little leary of using possibly diseased wood as a source for soil components for my trees. Any limbs, twigs or dead trees I need to dispose of go into the fire pit in the back yard just to be certain I don't go spreading anything to my collection.

2. I've been told, by an individual who is actually a professional botanist, that using any wood or bark based mulch that isn't well decomposed already actually robs your trees of nitrogen as the organisms that break down the wood consume nitrogen to do the job. As a result, I've discontinued using bark as my organic component and have reverted to peat and loam only this past year. It's still too early to tell whether this will have a significant affect on my trees, check back with me in a couple years .

Regards
Fletch

__________________
Advice worth every penny you paid for it.

Regards
Fletch