Napa 8822

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lancer99
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Napa 8822

Post by lancer99 »

I finally bought some today, and it's great!

My soil mix has been e-volving in my scant few years of experience, to where I've been going to more and more mineral- and less organic-based, lighter and not heavier mixes.

At first I was using builder's sand as the mineral component, but it's heavy, and no matter how many times you wash it, there are still a lot of small particles.

Then I started using Perlite, which is kind of nasty...incredibly dusty, floats to the top of pots when you water them, and is too light....plants were falling over in their pots.

But this Napa 8822 seems like the perfect compromise. It puts out quite a bit of dust when dry, but seems to wash clean quite easily (I didn't even try to wash perlite!). Heavier than Perlite, but much lighter than coarse sand. And, mixed anywhere between 1.5 and 3 to 1 with ordinary potting soil, it passes both the crumble and pot saturation tests.

Just my random thoughts...subject to revision if all the plants I potted up tonight die :)

-R
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Post by Tony »

I have been using it in place of schultz aquatic soil for almost a year now and I am happy with it as well, much cheaper too.
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daiv
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Post by daiv »

I agree with you both on the above points.

I think it is pretty much identical to the APS anyway and a much better value.

Maybe we could talk NAPA into carrying Coir to go with it? :lol:
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Post by Moonbeam »

I've been thinkin' about switchin' to NAPA when I finish my last bag of perlite. Are you supposed to wash the NAPA stuff before you use it?
ihc6480
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Post by ihc6480 »

Just finished my last bag of chicken grit which tends to yield a heavy pot so I guess it's time for an upgrade to Napa 8822 :)
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swords
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Post by swords »

I just scored a bag of Napa #8822 Floor-Dry cos I was out of Shultz APS. The Napa seems much lighter than the Shultz (dry it's rather like perlite) so you'll probably need some chicken grit just to keep the plants potted!:D

There is a high amount of silicate in the Napa product which is supposed to be good for plants. No mention of silicates on the Shultz package that I recall. Wear a mask or pull up your tee shirt when mixing it up this stuff is very dusty.


Some pics:

The bag is 24 dry quarts for less than $8 in my area.

Image

The stuff inside
Image

Empty pot dry-time tests I just started them today (5-15) so we'll see how long they take:

Straight Napa grit (wetted) combined with a good price it has a nice natural look compared to Shultz
Image

Napa & Cherrystone Grit size 2 mixed 50/50
Image

Someone on the CP forum asked me if you could use the Napa in an aquarium but I said I wasn't sure how it may affect the water for soft water loving plants and fish. Anybody here ever try the Napa in a planted aquarium?
Last edited by swords on Sat May 16, 2009 10:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
iann
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Post by iann »

The NAPA should be a calcined diatomaceous earth. It should have no effect on pH. Yes, its full of silicates but then so is sand (=quartz usually) and nobody raves about the nutrients in that. Silica is highly inert and that silica isn't going anywhere. But then plants don't need very much of it, so maybe there is a difference compared to something like straight coir which has zero silica.

Anyway there should no carbonates in the NAPA, which is what the fish guys would be worried about, but since they aren't selling it to grow plants in there could possibly be some impurities. I do various tests whenever I start using a new product in my soil, just basic carbonate, salt, and pH tests to make sure it isn't horribly noxious.
--ian
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Silenus
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Post by Silenus »

Nice, I am liking the look of the Napa. Where do you purchase your chicken grit, I hear many people purchase from feed stores but there is a wide variety of what they mix in with them. So if you can recommend a brand or a place where you purchase I'm sure it would make my soil mix a bit more jolly.
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swords
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Post by swords »

I use Cherrystone Grit: http://www.cherrystonegrit.com

They sell it for chickens, turkeys and improving icy walks! lol

I got a 50lb bag for under $9 at Mills Fleet Farm back by the livestock feeds next to the crushed oyster & "Chicken Scratch". I don't know what the bag with "CS" label on it is but the Cherrystone is just a pink-purple quartzite gravel. It comes in varying diameters, I have size #2 which their website says is 3/16" chips but it's really between 1/16" - 3/16", which is fine cos it blends right in with the Napa almost invisibly. In the pot tests up top I added extra Cherrystone to the surface so I could tell the pots apart.
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Silenus
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Post by Silenus »

Interesting, so you think a mix of:
2 parts general cactus soil mix (I forget the brand name)
1 part NAPA
1 part grit

would be a fine general mix for most cacti, currently I use a mix of 2 part course filler sand to 1 part cactus soil and gravel for added drainage.
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lancer99
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Post by lancer99 »

Actually I'm a little disappointed in the Napa 8822...it wasn't the panacea I had hoped it was.

It set up really hard in some of my mixes, despite having been washed multiple times. The more Napa, the harder it set up...next time I'll add a bit of nasty Perlite!

-R
BTW, Silenus, I haven't seen any great difference between standard potting soil and "cactus" mix....they both need to be significantly amended...just my experience.
iann
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Post by iann »

That's strange that it would go hard. I haven't used this exact thing, but the cat litter I use makes a soil so loose that I add grit to it so it stays put. What are you mixing in to your soil? Maybe it has too much fine material like some sands and it all locks together?
--ian
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Silenus
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Post by Silenus »

Odd, I was looking into switching over to NAPA and mixing it with a little bit of cat litter into a regular potting soil (not adding coir or peat, I'm not sure what anyone's opinion is on that), but reading that is changed my opinion a bit. Does anyone else have experience with NAPA I've heard good things before about it.
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Silenus
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Post by Silenus »

Image

I came up with that mixture today after reading the NAPA, it's made of cat litter, coarse filler sand, general cacti potting mix.

It drained all the excess water in a minute or so, and holds quite a bit so I think it's good.
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snopuppy13
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Post by snopuppy13 »

my mix is equal parts(give or take) coir,napa and perlite.
drains really fast and dries pretty quick too.
does hold enough moisture so i dont' have to water all the time in the summer.
pat
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