I would like to try Lou Sassi’s formula for ground goop that he describes in his book, but I am having trouble finding Vermiculite, which is a mineral used to enhance plant soil. Vermiculite is one of the ingredients mentioned in Mr. Sassi’s book called Basic Scenary for Model Railroads.It is supposed to be available at Lawn and Garden stores but neither the Lowes nor Home Depot websites mention it. Can somebody give me a source on this stuff?
George
Lowe’s and Home Depot hardly qualify as lawn and garden stores, let alone having any useful information on their web sites. I go to reputable garden centers that specialize in plants, not lumber and building supplies, for my garden and plant needs. I don’t know what area you live in, but a trip to your yellow pages will yield many garden centers that can help you out.
My personal endorsements for the following:
4 Seasons Nursery, Chesapeake, VA
Southern States Feed and Seed, multiple states and locations
Norfolk Feed and Seed, Norfolk, VA
McDonald’s Nursery, Virginia Beach, VA
After much searching for vermiculite myself, I finally found it at Lowe’s. Their website kinda fooled me, too.
I purchased vermiculite from HD but it is the coarse variety. I believe you want the fine grade.
I ordered from here.
http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/us/en/product/m11988/1
Regards,
Thanks to everyone for the replies. I will follow up on this weekend on the info all of you have given me.
George
I use a different formula, but I sure love ground goop. I use it for everything, changing the formula to match what I am doing. Experment, and let us know what you learn.
Where are you located? I thought some states stopped selling it. Claimed it caused cancer.
I’m located in the Nashville Tennessee area. I did read some stuff on the web that said it had asbestos in it, but I didn’t look all that closely.
George
I plan on running mine through a flour sifter.
I too spent countless hours driving around the city (Salt Lake City), making phone calls and looking on the Internet in search of the stuff. I finally gave up. I did find a couple of lawn and garden centers that stocked the big stuff in huge bags, but it was far more than I would ever need and not all that cheap. I finally ended up just using sand. It works great, its cheap and readily available. The sand I use is from a bag of sand that is used for filling in around patio bricks that I picked up from Lowes. If I remember correctly it was around $10.
I altered the receipe for the ground goop a bit though. I add about a half-cup of water and about a 1/8th teaspoon of powdered coloring agent that is used to tint concrete. I bought a box of the coloring powder at Home Depot for about $5. That stuff is concentrated. I will never use all of it.
I’m very satisfied with the results. When it dries (about 24 hours), it is as hard as concrete. That is the only downside. To plant trees, I have to drill a hole with my cordless drill. It’s pretty tough on drill bits, so use one that you don’t care much about. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m thinking that just chucking a nail in the drill will probably work.
Good luck.
[(-D]HA! I bet one of 'em’s California![(-D]
I used the flour sifter but it does not work that good and its more work than you think.
Vermiculite is primarily mica. Whether it contains any asbestos is questionable. It is available in large plastic bags at my local Home Depot for use in gardening. Even though it may be larger chunks, it would not be very difficult at all to break it down into small pieces. It’s going to crumble when you start mixing it with other ingredients to make Goop, anyway. In some areas, it is used as insulation and as a filler for concrete blocks.
Perma-Scene, a product which is no longer available, contained a lot of vermiculite and the box states very clearly that it contains no asbestos.