kilacaLIbud
Active member
more perlite= more frequently watering -- less perlite= more likely to overwater.. both work fine .. in my opinion..
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as Al on gardenweb so eloquently points out, this is bullshit. Perlite excludes some quantity of water from the mix, nothing more. It does not improve aeration or drainage.
i stay in the 25% range and water once every other day.....but my friends been doing 50/50 with soil and watering twice a day and his buds are on steroids...he uses two part lucas formula too, such a weird combo but his dark purple comes out super stanky...and the OG kush really beefed up too...
only way to know is to run side by side and see whats up....im gonna copy his method under 1 or 2 lights next round and see whats good..
only way to know is to run side by side and see whats up....im gonna copy his method under 1 or 2 lights next round and see whats good..
Solidopc
Active member
I used to add extra perlite or vermiculite, whichever i had at the time to my soil when i grew on it. Perhaps 10-20% or so. Now i grow in autopots using coco/perlite, 50/50, works fantastic. Perlite does mean more watering, but if you're not watering and its automated, its all good, holds lots of oxygen and near impossible to overwater with this mix.
If you are using sunshine/promix as a base you CAN get away with less perlite in a smaller pot. I prefer to add perlite until the mixture will no longer hold its shape when sqeezed wet. This allows you to use bigger pots but dont hold too much water.
Pot size is crucial in organics!
Pot size is crucial in organics!
The char is majorly different than perlite in that it IS internally porous, very very porous in fact. It has a huge cation exchange capacity (nutrient/PH buffering) and also it does hold lots of water. However in my limited experience with it(picked it up a few weeks back) it maintains a nice level of aeration even if holding lots of water. not sure how it drains since I haven't added enough water to soak it yet...just keeps absorbing it...
I'm sure it shelters microbes like nobody's business. I definantly compost it first as out of the oven the char has a pH of 8-10 typically. I mix it with manure and worm castings and then inoculate with compost tea. I've also added some to my vegging mix without manure and just inoculated with tea. let it sit for ~a week and then planted a few small tester plants in it. so far all good after ~ a week, just starting to take off now. I do not plan to buy perlite again. this will absolutely replace it in my setup. plus it last for hundreds even thousands of years...read the terra pretta sticky if you want more info on char.
"Do not use compost from autumn leaves (they contain almost no nutrients and no nitrogen). "
While that is true they don't form a very nutritive compost, they can form a really nice compost that is fluffy and well drained. All by themselves they tend to get a little thick, like a mat IME, but interspersed as a portion of your compost pile they help keep it nice and aerated. It will be rich in carbon and humus and can be useful for aeration and drainage, not much nutrients though. well made compost can take a while to figure out how to make, and can be even harder to find at a store, but once dialed in it's a breeze and is a great way to increase aeration and drainage w/o perlite. it's a mainstay of jaykush's soil...
I'm sure it shelters microbes like nobody's business. I definantly compost it first as out of the oven the char has a pH of 8-10 typically. I mix it with manure and worm castings and then inoculate with compost tea. I've also added some to my vegging mix without manure and just inoculated with tea. let it sit for ~a week and then planted a few small tester plants in it. so far all good after ~ a week, just starting to take off now. I do not plan to buy perlite again. this will absolutely replace it in my setup. plus it last for hundreds even thousands of years...read the terra pretta sticky if you want more info on char.
"Do not use compost from autumn leaves (they contain almost no nutrients and no nitrogen). "
While that is true they don't form a very nutritive compost, they can form a really nice compost that is fluffy and well drained. All by themselves they tend to get a little thick, like a mat IME, but interspersed as a portion of your compost pile they help keep it nice and aerated. It will be rich in carbon and humus and can be useful for aeration and drainage, not much nutrients though. well made compost can take a while to figure out how to make, and can be even harder to find at a store, but once dialed in it's a breeze and is a great way to increase aeration and drainage w/o perlite. it's a mainstay of jaykush's soil...
drainage is basically a function of particle size. char can drain fine as long as it is coarse enough.
I have some decent "horticultural charcoal" I got from a bonsai guy. I throw it in the worm bin and in mixes.
if you check out secondtry's thread, he was using pyrolized rice hulls and pine bark
if you check out secondtry's thread, he was using pyrolized rice hulls and pine bark
Soil aeration indoors
Soil aeration indoors
Here is a pdf doc regarding soil aeration, particularly indoor potted plants.
It was produced by the Ministry of Agriculture, British Columbia.
Just 4 pages and to the point.
Ojo
Soil aeration indoors
Here is a pdf doc regarding soil aeration, particularly indoor potted plants.
It was produced by the Ministry of Agriculture, British Columbia.
Just 4 pages and to the point.
Ojo
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Yeow
Well it all depends on how heavy the rest of the media is. You could judge that based on the percentages and how heavy the pure ingredients are etc etc and add perlite to suit, and then go through your entire grow thinking oh wow maybe i shoulda had a liiiitle less or whatever it turns out like.
OR
How about mixing up a couple test batches? One batch with little to none, the other(s) with a lil more. [I would try somethign like 4 tests of 0% 15% 25% 35%] Grow some bagseed or tomatoes before your major crop planting/transplanting. Judge based on your observed reality rather than conjecture from various minds utilizing incomplete information.
There is no 'right' answer as nobody has your exact ingredients/grow style/climate/strains...
I hope this helps - I basically answered your question with more questions and more work!
IME - for peat with organics, I use about 20%
Well it all depends on how heavy the rest of the media is. You could judge that based on the percentages and how heavy the pure ingredients are etc etc and add perlite to suit, and then go through your entire grow thinking oh wow maybe i shoulda had a liiiitle less or whatever it turns out like.
OR
How about mixing up a couple test batches? One batch with little to none, the other(s) with a lil more. [I would try somethign like 4 tests of 0% 15% 25% 35%] Grow some bagseed or tomatoes before your major crop planting/transplanting. Judge based on your observed reality rather than conjecture from various minds utilizing incomplete information.
There is no 'right' answer as nobody has your exact ingredients/grow style/climate/strains...
I hope this helps - I basically answered your question with more questions and more work!
IME - for peat with organics, I use about 20%
"Do not use compost from autumn leaves (they contain almost no nutrients and no nitrogen)"
I use broken down/composted hardwood leaves but not for the reasons listed. I gather them in late fall early spring from the bottom layers where the microbial and fungal action has been most active.
They contain fungus and other life forms including BIM's...it also builds soil if you are a recycler.
I use a small percentage of perlite only because I recycle my soil and have a bit laying around here and there. Pumice works just fine as a perlite replacement...less messy and less floating. I'm also adding a bail of rice hulls to the next recycle...so pumice,perlite,and rice hulls.
I use broken down/composted hardwood leaves but not for the reasons listed. I gather them in late fall early spring from the bottom layers where the microbial and fungal action has been most active.
They contain fungus and other life forms including BIM's...it also builds soil if you are a recycler.
I use a small percentage of perlite only because I recycle my soil and have a bit laying around here and there. Pumice works just fine as a perlite replacement...less messy and less floating. I'm also adding a bail of rice hulls to the next recycle...so pumice,perlite,and rice hulls.
Double ditto Mr. J...There's lots of great material's out there,it's not all about NPK to the soil.
I know Ojo was just passing along info. so K+ for that....but there's more to leaf debris than most would think when it comes to what it can do for the indoor potted garden.
ijim
Member
The key word that is most often miss used id soil. If you are using a soilless mix of peat or coco then your base is lighter and you only need a small amount of perlite to keep it from compacting and caking. But if you use real soil you need at least 25% to keep it from compacting and aerated. When talking about mixes or giving advice we have to understand if it is soil or soilless. They are night and day.
yeah, but we also need to understand why adding 25% perlite does nothing for drainage and aeration characteristics, because people take this flawed assumption another step and get way off. Soil is also more than happy to compact around your perlite.
this is why people get the impression that "up-potting" results in faster growth than will occur when a plant is presented with unlimited amounts of ideal habitat. Up-potting addresses the medium problem with the ultimate solution to soil structure: roots.
this is part of the reasoning behind establishing clover in my containers before planting the cutting. I am after the soil structure of a well-colonized container while keeping the water and nutrient holding qualities of an otherwise imperfect medium.
this is why people get the impression that "up-potting" results in faster growth than will occur when a plant is presented with unlimited amounts of ideal habitat. Up-potting addresses the medium problem with the ultimate solution to soil structure: roots.
this is part of the reasoning behind establishing clover in my containers before planting the cutting. I am after the soil structure of a well-colonized container while keeping the water and nutrient holding qualities of an otherwise imperfect medium.
cjk
Member
perlite is a great ammendment for any soil that needs to be aerated. the more oxygenated you can get your roots the better as long as you can keep up with your watering. growth rates are increased with optimal aeration and perlite works great to provide this. think of hydroponics ... the reason you get such awesome growth rates is because of the optimal air/water ratio. you get such better aeration in hydroponics resulting in big healthy root systems and fast growth. i've grown in sunshine and see better results cutting the sunshine with a little additional perlite especially when i ammend the sunshine with a heavy compost. for every scoop of leaf mold or rich compost i'll add one same size scoop of perlite to help keep the sunshine's aerated consistency..
please show me anything anywhere with actual science behind it showing you can improve the drainage characteristics of a medium by adding large particulate matter.
The BB's in the pudding example illustrates this quite simply, yet the idea persists you can improve aeration by adding 25% perlite.
Perilte has no internal porosity. It does nothing but exclude both water and air.
Vincent VanGrow
Member
I personally like pumice as I am on the west coast, and prefer it to perlite. However, I am guilty of subscribing to the more air thing and have in the past put much more than I probably should have. This is also a knee jerk reaction to the mistakes I made many years ago starting out indoors, when my soil was muck and would routinely kill my plants. What percentage of pumice should i aim for? Thanks
