Vermiculiate - Perlite for cornfield/soybean clay

[Treevly]

a) The cornfireld/soybean clay/loam is not bad. It's clayish, but not the heaviest and the pH is neutral or very slighlty below. (b) The other spot is similar but slightly more acidic, probably because of slighly poorer drainage, and is unworked. The pH runs around 6.3.

Perlite and vermiculite are useful for drainage. I'm inclined to use a bit of V. for (a) and Perlite (or both) for (b.) The holes will be filled mostly with a triple mix: black earth, compost/humus and peat (with some small organic additions for food.) What do you recommend in the way of V. or P. for drainage?
Thank you.

 

[WHIPEDMEAT]

perlite and vermiculite are different in water holding capacity



perlite helps aeration vermiculte holds up 10 x amount of water or more of its volume

 

[St. Phatty]

sometimes i worry about the stealth part of Perlite.

white specs like that don't occur in natural soil very often.

on the other hand, they're tiny white specs.

 

[Big Eggy]

For some reason perlite was out of stock for like 100miles for me this year so I used vermiculite and washed sharp sand.

I read somewhere here recently that the silica in the sand helps with stem strength.

 

[Big Eggy]

sometimes i worry about the stealth part of Perlite.

white specs like that don't occur in natural soil very often.

on the other hand, they're tiny white specs.

Yeah the huge green plant is usually the give away

 

[Cvh]

Check out also this thread if you're looking for alternatives to perlite.
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=359144

 

[St. Phatty]

Yeah the huge green plant is usually the give away

especially if it's dry.