Wool pellets are fairly new product in the gardening space. When in contact with the soil, wool pellets:
- Hold more than 3x their weight in water, so you don't have to water as frequently and keeps your soil from drying out as fast in the hot summer months
- Slowly release nitrogen, potassium, and other micronutrients essential for plant growth and health
- Repel slugs and snails
- Biodegrade in ~6 months
- Support American sheep producers
First and foremost, wool pellets break down faster in the soil than raw wool, so you’re getting those advantageous properties of wool to your soil faster. Raw wool can take anywhere from 2-5 years to breakdown in the soil which sounds nice, but the process of biodegrading is what actually releases the nutrients vital for your plant's growth and health into the soil. Wool pellets continually release nutrients throughout the 6 months it takes them to biodegrade. This also helps increase the soil porosity which I'll touch on a little later.
The pelletizing process heats up enough to help kill seed heads that may be present in the raw wool. This ensures you don’t end up with unwanted grass or weed seeds popping up all over your garden.
Wool pellets are super easy to use, just mix into the top 3-6 inches of your soil at a rate of 1 pound per 10 square feet of garden space, water, and plant. Wool pellets can be incorporated more easily into the soil and dispersed more evenly than a raw fleece. You can also mulch with wool pellets around already established plants to retain moisture and suppress weeds.
Wool pellets don’t impede the root development whereas a raw fleece can. Roots can easily grow around and through wool pellets.
Trust us, raw wool takes up A LOT of storage space! Wool pellets take up significantly less space than raw wool and are already bagged in a cute little compostable package. Wool pellets have a long shelf life of over 3 years when stored in a cool, dry environment. We keep our wool pellets in our garage and they expand a little bit with the humidity in the summer, but they still keep their shape and have the same beneficial properties! Wool pellets only start biodegrading when in contact with the soil.
As wool pellets expand and contract with moisture, and eventually biodegrade, they leave air pockets in the soil which increases uptake of oxygen and nutrients to your plant roots.
We are happy to provide you with a natural and renewable soil amendment and fertilizer to keep your plants happy and healthy during the growing season. If you would like to purchase wool pellets, they are available on our website, krpelletco.com. We can ship them right to your door (US only)! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
My best,
Megan ❤