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| I just moved to a new place and planted two palms. As the Mr and I were playing around in the dirt, we noticed our hands were extremely shiny. Even after wiping away much of the dirt from our hands, the residue left our hands glittery. I looked closer at the soil and it has lots of little shiny flakes in it. What would it be and should I worry about my new plantings? I've also planted some blue fescue and a golden bird there. If I find it elsewhere, is it safe to do a veggie garden? Thanks! |
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| Years ago I was on vacation with my family in the Adirondack mountains of northern New York State, and we visited an area where mica was mined. The ground was covered with shiny flakes, and it was mixed in with the soil. It could be mica flakes that you are seeing. It might be worth the effort to learn more about the local geology. To my knowledge, mica flakes are not toxic to plant life. |
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- Posted by lazygardens PhxAZ%3A Sunset 13 (My Page) on Sat, Mar 9, 13 at 18:04
| I agree, sounds like mica, or maybe shale particles. It's just dirt. |
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| Thanks! After doing a google search for mica, I'm certain that's what it is. :) |
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| Vermiculite will give you shiny, glittery soil. If so, it would be a very good thing. |
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| Sounds to me like someone used vermiculite in the past - it's a common seed starter and garden soil additive, and can wind up in compost if somebody dumped a dead potted houseplant into it.. Vermiculite eventually breaks apart into tiny individual sheets of mica. No problem there, except that it means the vermiculite has lost its ability to hold water. |
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| lolol...Dont worry about it , its just anti-freeze I poured over the fence, You can thank me later in the fall when your cabbages dont freeze up. |
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- Posted by weirdflowers 5 (My Page) on Wed, Mar 20, 13 at 18:41
| Here's a little geology for anyone interested--more in-depth than necessary, but kind of neat I think: The group of minerals to which vermiculite and the various micas belong, the phyllosilicates (or clay minerals), is interesting. There are two basic components: the SiO₂ tetrahedra (T) and the XO₆ or X(OH)₆ octahedra (O), in which X is a cation, usually Al or Mg. In a mica, two T layers surround an O layer, forming a sandwich, and multiple sandwiches are bonded by interlayer cations. I think it's reasonable to think of micas and chlorites (very similar structure) as "complete" phyllosilicates, composed of repetitions of the entire T-O-T/interlayer cation sequence. They form in metamorphic and cooler igneous environments, and are moderately unstable at surface conditions, so they weather into other clay minerals. Clay minerals can sort of be lined up according to how much of the T-O-T/interlayer cation sequence is still intact; some minerals are T-O-T with no interlayer cations; some are T-O; some are just O. Depending on the exact structure remaining, it is possible for some of these minerals to capture water molecules and expand, or to hold onto varying amounts of nutrients in the form of cations. Contrary to what demeter said above, vermiculite does not break into sheets of mica; mica weathers to vermiculite. Vermiculite can bond to water, whether it has been flaked into smaller pieces or not, because the bonding takes place at the molecular level. The people who said mica are probably correct. It's not just that it's shiny, but also that if it's a phyllosilicate and you can see individual grains of it easily, there is a good chance it's mica, because when it weathers to other minerals, the grain size tends to get microscopically small. Someone above also mentioned shale particles: shale is composed largely of clay minerals, including some micas, but in my experience, the micas flake off of the rest of the rock very easily so any shiny flakes in the soil may be mica that came out of a shale, but are probably not technically fragments of shale. |
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- Posted by toxcrusadr 5 (My Page) on Thu, Mar 21, 13 at 13:49
| Thanks for the minerology weird! I've forgotten most of that over the years. re mica and vermiculite, isn't ag vermiculite just mica that has been roasted till it expands? If someone dumped potting soil into the compost or on the ground, or used straight vermiculite in the garden, does that somehow bypass the normal weathering process? Or do you end up with the same thing? Academic I suppose, just curious. |
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- Posted by weirdflowers 5 (My Page) on Fri, Mar 22, 13 at 11:44
| When vermiculite is heated, it expands. To produce the vermiculite in the first place, mica has to weather or undergo hydrothermal alteration. Without getting too complicated, when micas are heated, they alter to feldspars (if there is enough Na and K around) and amphiboles (Mg and Fe). I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "bypassing the normal weathering process." |
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- Posted by toxcrusadr 5 (My Page) on Fri, Mar 22, 13 at 13:41
| Than answered the question, thanks. I was just trying to figure out whether potting soil vermiculite would look the same as weathered mica when mixed into soil. |
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