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vermiculite

vermiculite

1 9.6
A light mineral that expands when heated and is used to keep things warm or improve garden soil
  • noun
  • /vərˈmɪkjʊˌlaɪt/
  • Specialized
: vermiculita
  • Gardeners also mix the compost with vermiculite and use it as greenhouse potting.
  • vermiculite processing
  • vermiculite waste

This is just perlite, vermiculite, sphagnum, peat Moss and and humus.

Examples

  • You can enhance your garden's fertility by mixing vermiculite with compost to improve drainage.

  • I used one part clay (harvested from the yard) to six parts vermiculite as my insulation material.

    Blog text (20)
  • And then we're going to be using vermiculite to store the tubers in, which looks like that right there.

  • Query about the vermiculite: would using coarse or fine vermiculite work better?

    Blog text (20)
  • Separate the seeds and let them dry overnight, then sow on vermiculite.

    Blog text (15)
  • Other gardeners root them in pots filled with potting soil, wet sand, or wet vermiculite.

    Blog text (22)
  • And I had trays of modified algae and even a few houseplants growing in damp vermiculite that put out a little extra oxygen every day.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • Vegetable transplant producers use large quantities of growing media, consisting primarily of peat moss, perlite, and vermiculite.

    Academic text (2001)
  • To improve aeration in the soil, many gardeners add vermiculite to their potting mix.

  • When starting seedlings, it's beneficial to use vermiculite for moisture retention and root development.

Surface Forms

vermiculite singular
vermiculites plural

Morphology

vermiculite = vermicul + ite

Formed from the Latin combining form 'vermicul-' plus the specialized mineral suffix '-ite', neither of which is a productive or familiar English base for a B1 learner, so the meaning is not derivable from its parts.

Etymology

Vermiculite comes from the Latin word vermiculus 'little worm' plus the mineral ending -ite. When heated the flakes open into worm-like, accordion shapes, which explains the name and why this mineral is useful for insulation and for helping soil hold water.