Perlite? Really??

[vin marioni]

We mixed perlite and coco on our first coco grow here, and they don't look so hot lately. I can do handwatering with soil, but the coco/perlite mixture has us guessing too much. Treat it like soil? or hydro? Seems like they didn't like getting watered twice a day, that was too much...Got a pump to do drip, in 5 gal buckets...

You guys need to come by and help us figure this out!

treat coco like soil untill u have some root mass, then water water water. at first only water when it needs it, about the same as u would dirt.

 

[Carl Carlson]

Comparison of Six Soilless Media in a Vertical Production System (it's a PDF download from ufl.edu)

See Table 1.

Vertigro are a simple top drip system - they're stacked square pots.

thanks for posting.

scotts metro-mix 366-p, now by SunGro and called metro-mix 366 coir

Formulated with Coir, horticultural grade Vermiculite, bark*, starter nutrient charge, Dolomitic Limestone and our long-lasting wetting agent.

This is a light, fluffy mix consisting of 30-40% coconut coir pith, 20-30% horticultural vermiculite, 20-30% composted pine bark, and 10-20% perlite.

 

[kaiser_soze]

the more drainage you have, the more times you can water... plants really like the wet/dry cycle. Adding perlite can certainly accommodate this process. I've used it before, but i dont any longer, because i dont want to water so much.

 

[synchro.surfer]

I've never used perlite in my coco and never will. Perlite is typically used to provide aeration and moisture retention to growing mediums that do not excel in those categories. Coco is great in both of those categories and adding perlite only seems redundant.

If you have plants drying out pots quickly, 1. Your plants are actively metabolizing and transpiring, a good thing 2. Your plants probably would do well in larger pots, especially if you are hand watering.

I drip feed past runoff my 3 gallon pots 3 times a day on a timer. Before i had the drip setup I hand watered and it was a PITA. Often I couldn't keep a consistent schedule and it wasn't uncommon to have dry pots. The plants never really suffered but now my current drip setup is a "set it and forget it" deal which is better in every way.

+ k ... exactly what i was looking for

 

[Carl Carlson]

I've never used perlite in my coco and never will. Perlite is typically used to provide aeration and moisture retention to growing mediums that do not excel in those categories. Coco is great in both of those categories and adding perlite only seems redundant.

Adding coarse perlite to coco will increase the air filled porosity. I agree that it's not necessary, but it's also not redundant.

 

[zor]

I'm running blumat drip in hempy with a 3:1 coco/perlite.

Sweet! Was wondering how this would turn out! Could you share more info on IC about this?

 

[zor]

perlite is much cheaper than the bcuzz coco i use. After reading that there is so much debate on which is more effective, ive decided to mix perlite in with my reused (overused perhaps) coco to stretch it out a bit more. It seems to give comparable results to fresh coco even after a few runs like this.