4 Cubic Foot Organic Planting Soil Additive Palmetto Vermiculite Coarse 120 Quarts Course Grade

Great product for a great price, my plants love it.

There are places where vermiculite can be purchased for less (if you can drive to pick it up - over 700 miles is a tad far for me), but this is the cheapest I could find for delivered. Nice product.

Soil amendment additive for moisture retention

I ordered this at least twice and am pleased with the quality of the product, but have issues with the quantity. The last bag ordered had thee cubic feet instead of the four cubic feet advertised. I use a #10 can to scoop out soil components. A #10 can holds slightly more than one tenth of cubic foot. The last bag yielded only 27 canfuls of coarse vermiculite. I normally get 38-40 from a full four cubic inch bag.

I received this July 2020, was sheltering in place so I didn't go to my community garden, then I ordered some more for an eventual project (I wanted to create soil using the recipe for Mel's Mix from Square Foot Gardening). I didn't start blending my new soil with this vermiculite until this spring after I was fully vaccinated and venturing out again. I had the impression that it didn't go very far but I didn't measure the volume. In hindsight I can figure out that each "4 cubic feet" bag was probably closer to 2.7 cubic feet. I was mixing my soil 1/3 peat moss 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 a blend of five composts. I'd fill three 5 gallon buckets with the ingredients then scatter them in my raised bed box and mix them with a hoe.I remember thinking "gee, this vermiculite doesn't go very far" because I literally only got about 8 bucketfuls total from both "4 cubic foot" bags combined. I googled "cubic feet in 5 gallons" and it's about .66 cu feet per 5 gallon bucket, so I got .66x4 = 2.64 cubic feet per bag.At $39.99 + tax (over $42) per 4 cubic foot bag, this stuff is EXPENSIVE even if you were getting what you paid for.So, the good thing about it is, it's nice and coarse and doesn't have much dust. I still hadn't figured out I got shortchanged, and I liked it so I was going to buy more but they're out of stock. So I ended up buying another variety from Amazon (supplied by Farmtek) that is *incredibly* dusty and has a fine silt in the bottom, and it's also not very coarse.Then I bought some from a local garden supply store that was also a bit dusty and not as coarse.HOWEVER ... this one does not say on the bag that it is asbestos-free. The Farmtek bag says "asbestos-free" and the one I got locally says "CERTIFIED asbestos-free."Since Libbey Mines supplied 70% of the vermiculite produced and sold in the US for decades up until 1990, and since their vermiculite was contaminated with asbestos, I'm a bit concerned about any product that doesn't say "asbestos free." Again, I didn't even know about the asbestos issue until I received the FarmTek bag with this huge "ASBESTOS FREE" label on it and I went "erk! Why would they say THAT???" and researched it.There are still three mines producing vermiculite in the US, and it's also shipped here from South Africa and China. My understanding after reading up on it is that the industry is well-regulated in the US, the imported stuff isn't checked but some people who tested it said it's asbestos-free. I think vermiculite does not naturally occur in the same place as asbestos, it just happened to in the Libbey Mines, so it was a bit of a fluke. Still, I inhaled a LOT of dust while I was decanting these bags so .... not a good feeling that it's not certified asbestos-free *and* it's in my soil now!

Bought for use in the greenhouse, and it didn’t show up. I contacted the seller who immediately sent a replacement. Works great in our seed-starting mix.

We started a Square Foot Garden. The SFG book recommends Mel's Mix which requires vermiculite. It mixed in easily with the other recommended products (compost and peat moss). Seems to be working fine.

The seller sent it quickly! The bag was way heavier than another brand. I forgot to take pictures as I was too excited to mix it with my other soil ingredients! I forgot to mention almost no dust