There are so many debates in the gardening world about all sorts of different topics, but one that seems to be especially divisive is whether or not you should use clay pebbles on top soil. 

Yes, actually, clay pebbles on top soil are especially helpful because of soil aeration. Placing clay pebbles on top soil you’re able to help moisture penetrate the soil further, you’re able to help the soil keep hold of moisture for longer, and you’re able to stop the water from compacting the soil too much. 

All of this combined helps with better soil aeration.

By now, we think it’s pretty clear that clay pebbles at the bottom of your planters help with drainage if you’ve found that your soil becomes overly saturated with water easily. 

How Do You Improve Soil Drainage?

But lately, the debate about using clay pebbles on top soil has sprung up, and today we want to throw our two cents in. So, clay pebbles on top soil: will it help improve soil aeration?

How it actually helps with soil aeration is a little more complicated, but we’ll be explaining it all throughout today’s post. 

As ever, that’s just the shortened version, so join us below if you want to learn more about how clay pebbles can help you improve your soil aeration at home!

Keep reading.

Can I Mix Clay Balls With Soil?

Using clay balls with soil is a great idea, but it depends on what you mean by mixing. If you’re talking about throwing a bunch of clay balls in your soil and mixing it around, then it’s actually pretty wasteful. 

To have too many clay balls in your soil will mean wasted space for roots to grow. It’s true that using clay balls in soil can help with roots forming deeper in the soil, but if you mix through too many clay balls, you’ll end up over-saturating the soil with it. 

Remember, roots can grow around clay balls, but they can’t grow through them, so the more you use, the less space there will be for your plant roots to grow.

But yes, you can mix clay balls with soil, but we’d recommend doing so tactically. The two main areas are on top soil, and at the bottom of any planters. Why? Well, we’ll explain all that below.

What Are Clay Pebbles Used For?

Bottom Of Your Planters

Clay pebbles are used for a number of different reasons in gardening, but perhaps the most common way is at the bottom of planters. 

The reason they’re used in this manner is that the hard, round clay pebbles help stop soil compacting too much when wet because they’ll actually expand. As everyone knows, the more compact your soil is at the bottom of a planter, the more moisture the soil will hold on to. If this happens, it’s all too easy for your plant’s roots to rot and eventually your plant will die.

When clay pebbles are used at the bottom of a planter, though, the soil isn’t able to become quite so compact when wet, which means there’s more room for better drainage of the moisture after watering your plants.

You probably already know all about that though, since using clay pebbles in this way is pretty common. But today, we’re here to talk about using them for your top soil. So let’s dive in!

On Your Top Soil

Using clay pebbles on your top soil actually helps with getting water deeper into the soil and therefore closer to your plant’s roots. That’s because clay pebbles free up the soil (again, making it less compact) which allows for more moisture to penetrate deeper into the soil. They’ll also help hold on to that moisture, too.

Clay pebbles are great at holding on to moisture, and this will slowly be taken up by your plant’s roots and surrounding soil, meaning if there’s a longer stretch of time without rain, your plants ought to be just fine since the clay pebbles act as a sort of water reserve.

Today’s post is all about soil aeration, though, so how does the fact that clay pebbles help with:

• Holding on to moisture
• Allowing the moisture to penetrate deeper into the soil to the plant’s roots
• And preventing the soil from becoming too compact 

Well, it’s all to do with that last point. Soil aeration is the rapid exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen between the spaces in the soil and the atmosphere. That might sound a little technical, but the key here is the spaces. 

The more space there is in the soil, the easier it is for carbon dioxide to be released and oxygen to penetrate deeper, helping keep your plants happy and healthy. 

Since clay pebbles help create this space naturally, and even more space when wet as they expand, clay pebbles can help with soil aeration when used on the top soil.

Are LECA And Clay Pebbles The Same Thing?

This is a really important question. LECA (or Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate) is similar to clay pebbles in terms of what it does (it’s designed for better moisture retention, drainage, penetration and aeration).

But it’s actually designed as a complete replacement for soil when growing plants in your garden at home. It’s been tested and altered and the final product is an organic soil replacement that helps plants in all the ways mentioned above.

Clay pebbles, whilst still doing the same job as LECA, are used in conjunction with soil, and not as a replacement product.

Is Perlite Better Than Clay Pebbles?

Technically yes. Perlite is superior to clay pebbles in terms of the quality of the soil aeration and the improvements it brings in terms of moisture retention, drainage, and penetration. 

But although it’s better at the job (slightly), it is a little more difficult to get hold of, and clay pebbles are often cheaper too (depending on where you’re buying from, of course, so be sure to shop around).

Because that we wouldn’t necessarily advise one over the other, if you’ve found that your soil aeration is particularly bad, or that moisture issues are killing your plants frequently, then you may need perlite to help fix the issues more effectively.

How Do You Use Clay Balls For Soil?

If, after reading today’s article, you’d like to try to use clay balls in your soil, then there’s really only one piece of advice we’d give: use them sparingly. 

In a planter, you’d want only 10% of the planter to be filled with clay balls at the bottom mixed in with some soil, before topping off the rest with just plain soil. 

As we said earlier, the more you use, the less space there will be for roots to grow effectively.

The 10% rule applies to using clay balls in top soil for soil aeration, too. Just mix the top layer of soil with the clay balls before placing it back around the plants. This will be more than enough to help fix any moisture issues and help with your soil aeration.

But most important of all – just have fun. Experiment with clay balls to see how it helps improve your growing, and eventually you’ll find the perfect combination for your garden!