Spent Rice Hulls

[RanchoDeluxe]

I can get spent rice hulls for free from a local brewery. I would like to use them in both my compost and as an aeration amendment. Are there any special considerations or methods to employ before adding them to my mix or compost? I seem to remember reading something about this.

Thanks
RD

 

[Scrappy4]

I can get spent rice hulls for free from a local brewery. I would like to use them in both my compost and as an aeration amendment. Are there any special considerations or methods to employ before adding them to my mix or compost? I seem to remember reading something about this.

Thanks
RD

They should work fine. The hulls are used to filter wort. The shape of the hulls prevents channeling to occur as the wort drains through the bed of hulls. The wort is ussually some combination of grains and water that has been heated for a specific time and temp. After brewing the wort has a high sugar content as the starches change to fermentable sugars. The filtering removes any solids and yeast that may have been in the wort. I doubt any of these solids would hurt compost, and might even be good for it as diversity can be helpful....scrappy

 

[RanchoDeluxe]

Thanks Scrappy always appreciate your input.

I did a shitty job of asking the question.

I was under the impression that spent rice hulls should be soaked in something w/ a high N content so the microbes that populate them don't rob N from the soil. I guess the question is more specifically for using it as a replacement for perlite in the soil mix. Sorry for my confusion.

 

[OrganicOzarks]

You should be able to use them as aeration with no problem. I also believe scrappy is correct in that the remnants of the brew process will be good for the soil.

 

[OrganicOzarks]

You should be able to use them as aeration with no problem. I also believe scrappy is correct in that the remnants of the brew process will be good for the soil.

 

[SeaMaiden]

I can get spent rice hulls for free from a local brewery. I would like to use them in both my compost and as an aeration amendment. Are there any special considerations or methods to employ before adding them to my mix or compost? I seem to remember reading something about this.

Thanks
RD

I'm envious, I currently cannot locate rice hulls locally. I use them a LOT. I mix them with compost for mulching, I use them in coir cultivation to lighten it, and I prefer them as a replacement for perlite. I can still find visible rice hulls in some of my beds two years later, so decomposition is affected by a few factors.

I would like to get a few bales to make biochar using a method seen in a video where a pyrolizer wasn't needed at all. They simply made a small fire, then began burying it with hulls. A smoke vent would form, and they'd bury it with hulls. They continued doing this until they used up all the hulls, then they began turning the hulls to ensure all became charred, but not burned (no ash!). Once all were charred/blackened, they stopped the burning by hosing them down and spreading them out. This was in the tropics (can't recall if it was PI, Indo, or where), and they were using a lot of rice hulls, looked like they were planning to apply it to some acreage. I've got a measly 1,000', so I figure a few bales should suffice. Whenever I can get them.

I use the hulls packed for animal bedding. I'm not sure that they would cause a drop in N because I think they're rather high in C, but cannot say for certain. I only have my observations with what I've been using for a few years to go on here. I would use them and have a source of ready N on hand, maybe a tea or three would suffice.

 

[BugJar]

they make a great amendment to soil but I tend to use them in compost often as a sort of ghetto bokashi with good results

as a bonus they contain whatever lactobacillus was native to the grains they were used with

 

[DuckDuckGoose]

whats up Rancho,

this is an article about rice hulls, i posted it in the perilite forum but it's useful over here...



http://www.greenhousecanada.com/content/view/2512/131/


from the article...

“We were not sure whether rice hulls, as an organic component, would hold up the growth regulator,” said Roberto Lopez, a Purdue assistant professor of horticulture and co-author of a HortTechnology paper that outlined the findings. "Testing showed that there were no differences in plants grown with rice hulls or perlite."

Pansies and calibrachoa were planted in an 80/20 mix of both peat and perlite and peat and rice hulls and then treated with several different growth regulators. The plants treated with and without growth regulators and grown in peat and perlite and peat and rice hulls had similar heights and stem lengths.



i'm gonna go get some hulls today!!!

DDG

 

[SeaMaiden]

I have to make a special trip to the Central Valley. Just can NOT get anyone local to bring them in for me. I even offered to buy half the pallet right there, on the spot, pre-paid.

DDG, thanks for reposting that.

 

[DuckDuckGoose]

I have to make a special trip to the Central Valley. Just can NOT get anyone local to bring them in for me. I even offered to buy half the pallet right there, on the spot, pre-paid.

DDG, thanks for reposting that.

no probs,

the hulls that i'm about to go get are $25.00 for approx. 50 lbs. i think the lady said it's packaged into a compressed plastic wrap bale. i guess it will expand greatly, but at that price it's cheaper than the perilite in my region. at home depot it's $7.99 for a 9 litre bag and at the 'dro' shop it aint much cheaper.

think i'm gonna try and char whatever i have left over...if i eff it up i'll still enjoy having a small fire out in the snow !!!


DDG

 

[ClackamasCootz]

DDG

It's the wrong time of the year but if you can find a kiddy-pool to set the bale in before you begin breaking off sections of the compressed hulls you'll be glad that you did.

VOE

 

[SeaMaiden]

I was getting 4'cu for $8, whereas I was paying more than double that for half the amount of perlite. There are SO MANY arguments to switch from perlite to rice hulls I think I've forgotten as many as I've made.

So, it starts with cost, and ends with sustainability, to make the story short.

 

[DuckDuckGoose]

DDG

It's the wrong time of the year but if you can find a kiddy-pool to set the bale in before you begin breaking off sections of the compressed hulls you'll be glad that you did.

VOE

hahaha, i actually thought of how i'm gonna crack it open without making an absurd mess.

i have a huge hydro res' that is now used as a mixing bin, i'll put it to good use. is there any benefit to soaking the hulls in fish hydrolysate or any other pre soak solution?

DDG

 

[ClackamasCootz]

DDG

This isn't a warning or anything like that - think of it as a promise that I can easily make: you get a chunk of compressed hulls wet and you'll be swearing (loudly) for a couple of hours trying to get this mess separated and distributed in your soil mix.

What a PITA - again VOE

 

[BlueJayWay]

Permastall horse bedding (rice hulls) $9 at the farm store, 50lbs.

Their website is flash player so i cant view, but they spray their hulls with something that is "natural and organic" to aid in absorbency - trying to figure out what it is....

 

[OrganicOzarks]

DDG

This isn't a warning or anything like that - think of it as a promise that I can easily make: you get a chunk of compressed hulls wet and you'll be swearing (loudly) for a couple of hours trying to get this mess separated and distributed in your soil mix.

What a PITA - again VOE

I am glad I have yet to have this happen. I believe even with a cement mixer it would be a pain in the ass.

 

[Scrappy4]

Permastall horse bedding (rice hulls) $9 at the farm store, 50lbs.

Their website is flash player so i cant view, but they spray their hulls with something that is "natural and organic" to aid in absorbency - trying to figure out what it is....

The closest brew store to me carries the hulls and charges $35 for 50lb bags of it. The owners wife was pretty upset when after dragging the bag up to the counter that I balked at her price. This makes my lava rocks look pretty cool price wise, and those rocks ought to last far past what the hulls would last. But if I could get hulls at $9 per 50 lb, I might be singing a different tune.....scrappy

 

[SeaMaiden]

http://www.mallardcreekinc.com/products/equine/rice-hull-blends.php

Look for something like this, Scrappy.

 

[BlueJayWay]

I was paying $30 from the brew store and the bags were originating in Arizona.

The brew guys always thought I was making rocket fuel, why else would I be buying bulk from them right? Lol

$25 for food grade rice hulls at the farm store.

I'll be getting the permastall hulls once I verify the stuff they spray with is nothing to be concerned with.

I like using rice hulls and pumice together....and some of the larger volcanic rock

 

[DuckDuckGoose]

my sack of rice hulls weighs 50 lbs. it cost $25.
i weighed out a litre of the bone dry rice hulls and it was 160 grams.

so.... 50 lbs x 448 grams = 22400 grams of hulls

22400 grams total / 160 grams in a litre = 140 litres of rice hulls

the perilite at my 'dro store is $30 for 2 cubic feet (58.5 litres). i'm saving loot now and using a more versatile product. whatever i don't use as an aeration amendment can be turned into bio-char. rice hulls for the win!!!!

DDG