Rice Hulls

[Rozgreenburn]

I finally found rice hulls at our local feed store. I purchased a 7 cu ft bag for $14- $15! They must have screwed up on the price! I love the fact I'm not paying for shipping. I will start using it in my next super soil. This will reduce the perlite and vermiculite ratio considerably!
If anyone has any tips, I'm all ears!??

 

[DopeDaniel]

They work as mulch but get everywhere, not sure that qualifies as a tip lol.

I like my wood chips better for mulch and use pumice instead of perlite. Hmmmmm, still not really a tip.

Price looks good but you knew that.

All this to say I have 1/2 a bag and am looking to see what other uses there might be.

 

[Frosty78]

They work as mulch but get everywhere, not sure that qualifies as a tip lol.

I like my wood chips better for mulch and use pumice instead of perlite. Hmmmmm, still not really a tip.

Price looks good but you knew that.

All this to say I have 1/2 a bag and am looking to see what other uses there might be.

It's great for silica content

 

[GthaEnigma]

I use it as a compost additive to get that silica available to my plants.

 

[Rozgreenburn]

I put some in my worm bedding, compost, and super soil. I should be able to purchase rice hulls on bulk, as they grow tons of rice a few hours South of here. If I can get bulk pricing, I'll add a goodly amount to my vegetable garden as well!

 

[Cradle of Mirth]

If you know you really need a fast shot of potassium too, you can turn them to ashes and thats about 85-95% silica, and other stuff mostly potassium, no decomposition needed ?

Oh and since they do decompose it does help to add extra perlite in, or pummice, lava rock, heat-expanded shale whatever you got for air. I go heavier on perlite ratio near the bottom since it floats up, and heavier on the rock ratio at the top. but breaking up the soil hyphae every grow isn't good for it if 5gal+ cause it will be a living soil at that point, so i'd say just make a good soil aggregate with it initially and top ammend after, or use something to take core samples out to drop a mix of fresh hulls with soil into the core sample hole as a replacement so you don't disrupt the hyphae too much.

I think rice hulls that have decomposed from the previous fall outdoors and get planted into the next spring, help my tomatoes be more frost hardy, i'm certain of it.

 

[meangreen]

I finally found rice hulls at our local feed store. I purchased a 7 cu ft bag for $14- $15! They must have screwed up on the price! I love the fact I'm not paying for shipping. I will start using it in my next super soil. This will reduce the perlite and vermiculite ratio considerably!
If anyone has any tips, I'm all ears!??

Im around brentwood california - we have rice country around sacto (lots of rice fields dry due to drought but huge rains and next crop should be bumper. Anyone know of rice hull source in norcal?

 

[Rozgreenburn]

Just picked up 2 more bags of rice hulls. 4 CU ft compacted for $15.00 each. At this price I need to use more.

 

[VAHomegrown]

Just picked up 2 more bags of rice hulls. 4 CU ft compacted for $15.00 each. At this price I need to use more.

Where are you able to source them at that price? I can't find any locally and what I've found online has been more than I'm willing to pay for a cheap AG byproduct.

 

[Willie]

Where are you able to source them at that price? I can't find any locally and what I've found online has been more than I'm willing to pay for a cheap AG byproduct.

Rice Hulls Soil Amendment - 50 lb Bag

Parboiled rice hull is a renewable resource that is a good alternative to perlite and vermiculite as well as being less dusty. Parboiled rice hulls have a pH near neutral to slightly alkaline. The rices hulls have little effect on the substrate pH. It is free from viable weed seed. Each 50 lb...

www.7springsfarm.com

 

[Rozgreenburn]

Where are you able to source them at that price? I can't find any locally and what I've found online has been more than I'm willing to pay for a cheap AG byproduct.

I order mine through our local feed store. I was wrong on the size, it's the same 7 CU ft that @Willie just pointed out. This stuff goes a long way.

 

[Cubejuiceconveyor]

I just started using par boiled rice hulls in place of other options for a soil topper to retain moisture, so far I'm happy with it. From what I understand it also helps to keeps bugs from thriving on the soil surface, ive seen scenarios where people used a non sterilized soil topper that comes preloaded with pests. Build a soil claims caution to using cheap rice hulls as they may contain heavy metals, not sure if this is actulaly common or just sales tactic, but something to think about I guess.

 

[Rozgreenburn]

Everything has heavy metals ! It's probably true, but to what degree? California says everything causes cancer and is bad. I'm not planning on eating any rice hulls for now, so I think I'm safe. I mix it with hardwood mulch for a topping { the hardwood keeps it from floating all over the place!}

 

[Cubejuiceconveyor]

Yeah it's quite a world we now live in. Not to far back lead mitigation processes and lead products in general were treated like highly radioactive waste. It's definitely not a good thing in prolonged or high level exposure, but it was how they used scare tactics in order to make money that is concerning. The large municipalities would want things inspected and charged money to enforce their standards. At some point standards were lightened a bit, because they found that lead was actually migrating into occupied structures from outside ground soil dust blowing in through windows. I had this conversation with my uncle whom is a property manager now in his 70's, he laughs about it and agreed that it was just another government racket. The average homeowner was dealing with lead paint before the 80's and we are all just fine. Point being that everyone is exposed to stuff every second of the day, and published safe exposure levels can sometimes be left up to interpretation, maybe Cali has something to do with this.🤔😏

 

[Caddis]

I just started using par boiled rice hulls in place of other options for a soil topper to retain moisture, so far I'm happy with it. From what I understand it also helps to keeps bugs from thriving on the soil surface, ive seen scenarios where people used a non sterilized soil topper that comes preloaded with pests. Build a soil claims caution to using cheap rice hulls as they may contain heavy metals, not sure if this is actulaly common or just sales tactic, but something to think about I guess.

They spray poison to kill the rice before harvest, didn’t think about it and used a bunch of rice straw for mulch on my garden two years ago, stunted to no growth.