Pumice is an effective and economical soil amendment, especially for large-area projects like reclamation, stormwater filtration embankments, sports turf, ag fields—enhancing the long-term ability of poor or damaged soils to support thriving cover vegetation, mitigate runoff, and resist compaction.

1. soil to support plant life requires
a friable silt loam texture. For
example, engineered ecology
embankments, biofiltration swales
and roadside filtration strips
function best with sandy-loam
textured soils.
The nature of pumice itself—a
lightweight, foamed-glass stone
riven with tiny vesicles—means it
also works to improve water- and
nutrient-holding capacity and
enhances root-zone respiration by
resisting compaction.
Economical and effective, the right
amount of pumice will condition
the soil to fit the need.
The performance target of the soil,
combined with a simple test to
establish soil texture, will deter-
mine if or how much pumice is
needed to change the texture and
enhance soil function.
Mitigating compaction and runoff
and enhancing the ability of the
SANDY LOAM TEXTURES: Best
for ecology embankments,
filtration strips, biofilter swales
and engineered wetlands.
CLAY TEXTURES: Adding pumice
breaks up the sticky density of
clay soils, mitigating compaction
and runoff erosion, enhancing
root-zone respiration for healthy
ground cover, optimizing drain-
age and water retention needs.
SILT LOAM TEXTURES: Unless
more aggressive filtering is
needed (ecology embankments),
soils in these textural range need
no additional conditioning with
pumice.
P E R C E N T S A N D
P
E
R
C
E
N
T
C
L
A
Y
P
E
R
C
E
N
T
S
IL
T
50
100
100
10100
50
50
10
10
SOILS
TEXTURAL
TRIANGLE
SILT
SILT LOAM
LOAM
CLAY
CLAY LOAM
SANDY LOAM
SANDY
CLAY LOAM
SANDY
CLAY
LOAMY
SAND
SILTY
CLAY LOAM
SILTY
CLAY
SAND
USE PUMICE TO CONDITION SOIL to the
IDEAL TEXTURE and PERFORMANCE LEVEL
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