# Granular mineralized soil substrate



## azappetti (Sep 24, 2017)

Is it possible to make a granular mineralized soil substrate (3 to 5 mm), such as commercial, that does not dissolve in water?
regards


----------



## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

I doubt that it is possible for an average hobbyist. You would have to bake the wet soil, first making sure there was enough clay in it to make it possible to form the tiny clumps you want. Then you would need to find a way to break up the resulting mass into uniform chunks. That would soon seem like real work!


----------



## azappetti (Sep 24, 2017)

I followed the AaronT procedure How-To: Mineralized Soil Substrate. Then I bake the mineralized mud at 250°C for 2 hours, resulted in a solid and hard mass. But when I immersed it in water, it melted.


----------



## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

It would take a much higher temperature to turn that into particles not soluble in water.


----------



## Skizhx (Oct 12, 2010)

I have no idea what temperature you'd need to achieve, but you're probably looking at something on the order of a kiln.

Even so I'd speculate the soil would lose some of its desirable properties after being hardened.

My guess is you might as well just get a bag of flourite for all the trouble and final product it would be worth.


----------



## azappetti (Sep 24, 2017)

The problem is that in my country these substrates are very expensive.
I tried to increase the temperature. I obtained granules very porous but they do not collapse in the water!!!:rain:


----------

