I happen to be on that other forum as well, and have trialed the Ultrasorb DE quite a bit. I've compared pure Ultrasorb with commercial seed mixes. I have mixed it into other soils, but haven't compared that aspect in a systematic way. Frankly, I've had incredible success. Tomato and pepper seeds come up at least a day faster when compared to off the shelf seed mixes (I've tried Jiffy, miracle gro, and a local brand) and overall germination is better, especially for marginal seeds. I have handling issues with tiny seeds and I've found it useful there. Watering is much easier. My least favorite part of seed starting is dealing with the hydrophobicity. You essentially don't have to worry about overwatering the DE. More importantly, the seeds are really easy to remove when transplanting without doing much damage. No damping off, though I've rarely had problems with that anyway. It has its own annoyances. It doesn't stay together even when wet, so you have to be careful about what kind of containers you use it in. The dust is a danger to be aware of. Note I can only testify to the usefulness of Ultrasorb, by Moltan. There are differences to be aware of, though I also don't understand why that poster was so concerned with the pH of the medium. I don't know enough about it to discuss. I was more worried about the salinity. Tiny seeds aside, I think Ultrasorb actually has the biggest advantage when it comes to very large seeds and things that normally don't transplant well. Acorns, walnuts, chinaberry, neem, are all things that did much better in the DE than either commercial seed starting mix or unsterilized 3:1:1. Hyacinth bean, castor bean, watermelon, squash, bitter melon, caesalpinia and moringa are other things I've had unusual success with. The lack of organic matter seems to minimize rotted seeds. This post was edited by greentiger87 on Wed, Mar 26, 14 at 19:38

Laura, i'm a fan of using diatomaceous earth for various purposes, but have a question about using it on plants. What purposes exactly? Can you list them? has anyone actually dusted their plants with it? Absolutely. It's the number one method by which to utilize it if there is a problem with a particular pest that will specifically be affected diatomaceous earth. It can also be applied in a ring around the stem at the base of the plant. My concern is that the de might dry the leaves out too much. I'm guessing that it might be good for the soil. It doesn't suck moisture out of foliage. The sharp surfaces cut through the insect cuticle and the insect dies of dehydration. there must be a reason that i've never heard gardeners using it for fungus and insects. I don't know where you're getting your information but it's definitely used for certain insects. 1) dust a lot of it on the garden at night 2) water the foliage thoroughly the next day before the sun gets too hot. Don't know where you're hearing your information. I only use it on foilage and occasionally around the stem. I would never use it as a soil additive. You should never use anything in your entire garden for the sake of using it. This is the easiest way to kill off the good guys (beneficial insects) that eat the bad guys (pests). If you want to use it on plants, don't get any on the flowers. It'll slice up the few honeybees we have left. And I don't recommend incorporating mass quantities into the soil. Earthworms are good things: You don't want to hurt them until you put 'em on your fishhook. Take the time to learn that there is not a "cure all" for every pest at every stage of it's life cycle. Some won't work if it's going to rain. Some don't work well if it's too hot, etc. Pest management is complex, if you wish to use products, do so responsibly which goes further than reading the label. If you want to learn, a good place to start is here: Integrated Pest Management This lecture is presented in two parts. Each part is 90-minutes in length. Recorded in Sacramento County in California's Sacramento Valley, this lecture is byMary Louise Flint, Ph.D., Director, IPM Education and Publications, UC Statewide IPM Project and Extension Entomologist & Cooperative Extension Specialist. Education: B.S. Plant Science, University of California, Davis Ph.D. Entomology, University of California, Berkeley Appointment: 100% Cooperative Extension Research Interests: Integrated pest management of landscape, agricultural and garden pests; biological control of arthropod pests; alternatives to pesticides; adoption of alternative practices by practitioners; innovative delivery of pest management information. Topics discussed in the Integrated Pest Management Lecture: * IPM references and resources * Preventing pest problems * Natural common enemies * Making less toxic pesticide choices * Controlling aphids, scales, caterpillars, coddling moths, tree borers, snails and slugs, and lawn insects. You can watch the programs now online: Just make sure you have Real Player installed or download it free. Integrated Pest Management Part1 90 minutes Integrated Pest Management Part 2 90 minutes You'll want to bookmark the following link to Professor Flint's Lab Research on: Controlling Pests in Gardens and Landscapes: Vegetables and Melons I promise you'll learn one or two things to put in your gardening bag of pest management arsenals. ;)

Insecticide usage of diatomaceous earth MUST be a fine dust so that it coats all insects with an exoskeleton and dries them up (kills them). However, if you mix it in your potting mix/soil or even dust once and then spray with water, you have pretty much removed any potential Insecticide use. Livestock caretakers must constantly be dusting as any moisture or even other dust that coats the DE will not allow it to stick to and dry out insects. So if you think you are protecting your potting mix/soil from any insects by mixing a dust DE product into your mix, you are throwing your money away (although it is certainly not harmful to anything, plant or insect). It is actually generally NOT used around farms anymore, it is too time consuming. It is still fed to animals because it is both a good calcium supplement and can actually rid several intestinal worms with prolonged usage. Food Grade (NOT feed grade) is great for people to eat also for those same reasons. The only real distinction of Food Grade is the levels of potentially unwanted metals (think lead). So if you are eating it directly or through a plant you should look for food grade, I believe there is only 1 mine in America that produces Food Grade DE with safe levels of the toxic metals. Others have pointed out the usage as a soil conditioner and so I won't, but I would say there is really no reason to mix in the fine pesticide powder as it is more expensive and won't provide any pesticide usage if mixed throughout. That being said it is not nearly a "broad spectrum" insecticide as even if you powder coated your entire lawn, the next day after a good dew it is mostly inert and will never be actively hurting insects again unless you re-dust daily. Some oil-absorbent material for garage cleanup is also the larger particle DE and cheaper than cat litter. Really, any oil-absorbing silica product for garage spill cleanup could likely do the same job as a soil conditioner, so shop around and see what people are using as a ratio, I honestly was looking for the same thing when I found this post. The big thing that may concern some is whether there are potentially unwanted metals in it, and the only sure way to know is if it is specially labeled "Food Grade". For me personally I would consider "Feed Grade" to be fine. Good luck trying to find oil-absorbent or cat litter labeled "Food Grade"! I thought I should comment, even though I am late to this party, because it is one of the top links in google and yahoo search.

Momscottagegarden, if your leaves are skeletonized to such an extent they look scorched and brown, there's a good bet you are dealing with some sort of leaf chomper. It's too early for Japanese beetles, so if you are not seeing snails or slugs, then some sort of larvae is more likely than not attacking your leaves. Some of them only show themselves at night, so you may not see them unless you skulk around your garden with a flashlight late into the night. Snails and slugs are pretty easy to spot day or night. If you don't see anything during the day, you might find something during a night time garden walk that looks like a little green caterpillars munching away. In fact, these are not true caterpillars: they are probably the larvae of other insects that lay their eggs on or under your rose leaves. One that has plagued my rose garden this time of year is the rose sawfly. They are a real pest but with a limited schedule for decimating the leaves of roses in your garden and while the leaves are ugly and won't win awards at a rose show, they generally don't kill the plant. If you're on the East Coast, the plague happens once annually in the spring. The variety that feasts on roses on the West Coast has two complete life cycles so they are twice the trouble. I wrote about rose sawfly larvae and have pics of the larvae on my garden blog here: http://thewiedersgarden.blogspot.com/2013/07/unwelcome-guests-roseslug-sawfllies.html Insecticidal soap or even just some clear liquid kitchen soap is often all you need to treat the rose slugs (my blog post explains) but DE will also be affective against either the sawfly larvae or snails or slugs. For my money, if you have it, and you have a problem, I would spread it. I spread it routinely in my garden to catch these kinds of problems early on. It also helps control fleas and other pests in the garden that can become pests for your pets as well. That said, I do agree that identifying the pest is important, but in the meantime, DE is a good product to use for basic, routine pest control and I wouldn't hestitate to use it even if you aren't able to identify the culprit.