Smithson

Hi grimleybob,

Silica fuses (Glass melts) at 1,100C
That's what holds clay together as pottery.

Clay is a mixture of Silica SiO2 and Alumina Al2O3
in a varied blend with other things as well.

There is another material here that may be interesting as a growth medium,
while available in the thousands of tons.
A white porous Silica layer in the area of my farm.
I thought it was Diatomaceous Earth, because all the features agree on paper
but a friend who knew DE said it wasn't abrasive enough.

I tested it with acid to determine that it is not limestone related,
not one bubble.
It is easily broken out of the seam with a heavy hoe,
absorbs water to become a damp paste after hammer milling to dust
but never allows water to remain on the surface.
Even though it has fine particles it remains completely porous.

Combining the two concepts, I think it would be fascinating to kiln fire in balls,
because the material wants to hold water, and yet the surface would lightly fuse to hold form.
I think the tricky part would be to not fuse it too far,
completely into glass marbles.

Yet another fun project on the boards.

Hi rice555,

Your coco medium in the photo appears to be the dust that is thrashed out of the husk,
so that the fiber can be used elsewhere.
The stuff that I have in abundance is the unprocessed fiber and dust together
in crude form just as it comes off the shell, but without the outer smooth cover.

My next plan for it is to dig a water level trench 0.40 m deep,
packing it 0.30 with coco husk,
then throwing a layer of soil around 0.10 m thick over.
In this way any water that passes through the surface soil
will be captured in the coco, readily available for the plant still.
It then amounts to a retention trench, without costing lost field space.