Process for the encrusting, pilling or granulating of seed material

Claim 1

In a process for the gas and liquid-permeable encrusting, pilling or granulating of seed material through the use of a laminar material comprising a three-layer mineral which is expandable under the effect of a liquid, the improvement comprising: encrusting, pilling or granulating seed material with a three-layer mineral comprising a basic material which is a fine-grained reversibly expandable material adapted to rapidly absorb or give off polar liquids, such as water, said basic material including lamellar particles in the form of extremely thin, uniformly even platelets comprising over 50% of said material by weight, having a thickness of from 0.5 to 10 microns and surface dimensions corresponding to an equivalent diameter of 10 to 200 microns and a particle thickness: equivalent diameter ratio equal to or less than 1:10, said particles possessing hydrophilic properties at their planar surfaces; and forming extensively cohesive and adhesive coatings when dried out of an aqueous mass, said three-layer mineral having a dry mass of 35 to 65% by weight relative to the total weight of the moist mass so as to evidence a substantial plasticity with a permeability to gases and liquids at a coating thickness of up to about 5 mm, said basic material being obtained by the expansion of a three-layer mineral selected from the group consisting of vermiculite or hydrous mica with a polar liquid followed by structure-protective mechanical fragmentation of the expanded mineral to provide a mineral of the aforestated characteristics.