Anyone growing in perlite only?

[PoweredByLove]

i've grown in pure perlite a couple times. it's like a passive hydro. you can feed more. but if it's between staying in coco and going to pure perlite just for building roots. i would stick with the coco. the roots move through perlite harder than through coco. perlite is like all obstructions. plus i find it tends to get cakey at the bottom after a while and gets to acting like a sludge more so than a mud. if you are doing the hempy i found that it worked best for me to use the bottom 1/3rd like a res and fill it with perlite and drill your runoff hole at the top of the perlite. then fill the rest with coco and plant up top in the coco. water like coco or hempy or however till the roots fill the res part at the bottom. then you can let the water roots do all the work and either continue watering everyday from the top or do a flood from the bottom.

 

[delta9nxs]

howdy! while i'm still enamored of turface it was proving to be labor intensive and expensive as we scaled up growing greater plant numbers.

so i started playing around with perlite again. specifically the xlp (extra large perlite) propagation grade from these people;

http://www.perlite.com/Perlite Brochure.pdf

the particle sizing is approx 1/4" to about 3/8" or 4-8 mm for those metrically inclined.

as you can see from their chart the air filled porosity comes out around 50% after cleaning.

we experienced slower growth and moisture distribution problems in the ppk using it alone so i began adding coco fiber to it in an effort to reduce the AFP and create some usable cation exchange capacity as perlite has none.

so we are using the perlite/coco mixture at 1 gal of roots organic brand coco palm product measured dry to a 5 gal bucket of wet and washed xlp perlite and getting outstanding results.

we are cleaning the perlite by floating it in a large tub stirring with a boat paddle letting the fines sink to the bottom and then skimming the floating good stuff off with a net. we are also giving it a brief 1.2 ec bath while doing this in the tub.

the coco is in a 1.5 cu ft bag and is loose fill so we just measure it right out of the bag. i picked this type because it is a coase grind plus a lot of long fibers and works well with the perlite, resisting traveling down through the perlite and clogging up the plumbing.

the combination of this size perlite and this coco fiber at this ratio comes out to about 40% AFP after mixing and has a decent CEC which is growing noticeably better plants than the perlite alone.

excellent lateral dispersion and moisture retention also.

in the ppk we are recirculating and applying about a quart every 15 minutes which is producing very rapid growth.

i hope this helps! later!

http://www.planetnatural.com/product/roots-organics-coco-palms/

 

[Jellyfish]

plus i find it tends to get cakey at the bottom after a while and gets to acting like a sludge more so than a mud.

That doesn't happen if you rinse it first. And use some vermiculite for God's sake.

 

[PoweredByLove]

That doesn't happen if you rinse it first. And use some vermiculite for God's sake.

it happens when you rinse it first too. the perlite rubbing other perlite causes it to create dust. also if i added vermiculite it wouldn't be PERLITE ONLY would it? i swear you knobgobblers find any excuse to have interaction with me.

 

[doneit]

Perlite is the simplest and easiest medium i have ever used... results are fantastic if you keep it simple!

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[painter66]

great looking plants doneit.
so what ph do you like to use from veg to grow ?

 

[doneit]

Thanks... 5.8 is perfect

 

[SMALLTUBES]

i did hempy buckets straight perlite...watered by hand once a day...huge yields....

 

[Natural high]

i did hempy buckets straight perlite...watered by hand once a day...huge yields....

I do similar. One plant in a large standard pot with 2/1 perlite & vermiculite, hand watered once a day (once the plant is large, less when smaller). One plant yields well over a lb in ten weeks under 600w.

 

[Lazyman]

I waa using 50/50 #3 perlite and coco, but it holds a lot of water and cuts root slowly in it. We did a couple runs of 180 plants each in 80/20 perlite/coco, and rooting was much faster, and the girls were much bushier than normal heading into flower.

Since this requires mixing 7 batches of soil per crop, its kind of a pian for my guys, and yeah, the dust is bad for you. I wouldnt advise it if flowering in trays, the pots will float.

I strongly recommend Smartpots or geopots, they catch almost all the fines and keep the trays and tanks tons cleaner.

I started a thread in the coco forum, but Vermicrop has a Gold 80/20 hydroton/coco bagged mix that i really like so far. Similar fast rooting in veg, but its heavy so pots don't float. Also, no bright white perlite rocks to worry about, stealthier!

It isnt cheap tho, i paid 19.25 a 50L bag, so its about double the cost of perlite/coco, but no mixing is needed. Just use it straight from the bag and water with heavy ferts from the get-go.

 

[YetiOG]

Strait perlite i do ph 5.5 to 5.8
Strait perlite or perlite mixed with rockwool croutons. Pass on the vermiculite. If you ph the mix correctly the first time (5.1) or use rockwool treatment you wont have to worry about ph peoblems. Theres nothing you can do about it with vermiculite added so far as when i tried it. I dont like vermiculite its gross looking and i prefer croutons properties over vermiculite.

Dtw or recirculating is mucho easy with perlite growing

I root in plasitc shot glasses of perlite and crouton mixture. Works better than anything else ive found. I soak it in the same food mix i use start to finish (2.0 ec yup thats alot but they root faster if i use the same food mix i feed start to finish. Never yellowing clones... then transplant into the mixture.

My veg plants in solos i water every 1 to 3 days. Water retention is not a problem in perlite or perlite mixes if you have enough medium for the plants size. 3 gal containers only need water every 2 to 4 days unless the plant is too big.

I dtw so i cant advise on how often to water in recirculating system, but you can do it continuous top drip if you get #3 or #4 perlite its large chunks. Ideally i intend to mix fine and large perlite with croutons but at this time only use finer perlite with croutons.

Ive found the crouton/perlite mix to be more to my liking than strait perlite. There is better water retention (can go longer without pouring) plus when wet its heavier and less likely to tip if you have smaller containers.another interesting thing is i found the plants rooted MUCH better in a medium containing 2 materials as opposed to a mono medium.

Growing in the lightweight inert mixture as i call it seems to prove superior results right away, even over coco which i had previously used for a couple years and was convinced it was all id ever use... i sure at those words. I noticed the roots from coco plants and perlite grown plants are no where near what roots from plants grown in LIM...

Some pics of my success using this medium



I hope this helps, if it does work for you let people know. I called it lightweight inert mixture for lack of a better term at this time. Id consider changing that name if someone proposes a better one thats more suited to the mixture

 

[Phaeton]

Chiming in to agree with YetiOG Lazyman, delta9nxs, etc.
I managed to split a container half and half Perlite and Rockwool croutons then took a picture of the bottom of the rootball after harvest.
Pure Perlite did not grow as many roots as the straight Rockwool.

Side by sides were done as well, pure Perlite versus straight Rockwool croutons in separate containers. Again, root development was stronger with water soluble media. Watering was done every six hours, perhaps more often would have transferred more nutrients?

I use Perlite, just not all by itself.