Perlite, how much?

[fatbuds420]

What do people mean when they say 50% perlite?

Half pot full of perlite and half. Full of. Soil? (mix it ofc, but I'm talking about proportions I wanna get them right)

 

[013]

Yes it’s a ratio for example 2 parts peat to 1 part perlite.

Measure out 2 - 1 gallon buckets of peat moss and mix it with 1 - 1 gallon bucket of perlite

Or 1 gallon of potting soil mixed with 1 gallon of perlite.

 

[013]

But depends on who’s recipe you are following as to what the ratios are and what’s included in the mix. All kinds of soil additives rice hull, bat guano, pumice, oystershell flour, rock dust, humus,

 

[SmokingWings]

What do people mean when they say 50% perlite?

Half pot full of perlite and half. Full of. Soil? (mix it ofc, but I'm talking about proportions I wanna get them right)

I figure that they are saying that half of the mix, or 50% of it, will be the Perlite.

Optimally I figure the best way for mixing something like a basic soil mix is to give the ratios in "parts". As in, one part Perlite, one part Peat Moss and one part compost. That is a standard mix and it gets a bit more complicated when adding in the other amendments or dry nutrients which I figure @013 is getting at.

 

[013]

Thanks for bailing me out there Smoking Wings! Yes exactly - you can grow fairly low budget or astronomical with every secret sauce on the planet.

The perlite is used to add better drainage to your soil or potting mix.

Half soil & half perlite is a 50 / 50 mix.

 

[Bush Doctor 77]

If you are using peat/perlite, it's not soil. It's a hydroponic media. You'll also have to add dolomite to balance the acid peat. If you add compost, unless it's sterile, you will have bugs. I grow in Sunshine #4, and have been for years. It has peat, perlite, gypsum and a wetting agent(soap).

 

[SmokingWings]

Thanks for bailing me out there Smoking Wings! Yes exactly - you can grow fairly low budget or astronomical with every secret sauce on the planet.

The perlite is used to add better drainage to your soil or potting mix.

Half soil & half perlite is a 50 / 50 mix.

Lots of fun when some famous grower's recipe is given in bags of compost and bags of worm castings and then they mix in gallons of this and that. Finish mixing by adding in a 5 lb box of this and a 3 pound bag of that.

It becomes a brain-teaser puzzle trying to convert his or her soil recipe into something I can mix up in the wheel barrow instead of having to rent a cement mixer truck.

 

[fatbuds420]

If you are using peat/perlite, it's not soil. It's a hydroponic media. You'll also have to add dolomite to balance the acid peat. If you add compost, unless it's sterile, you will have bugs. I grow in Sunshine #4, and have been for years. It has peat, perlite, gypsum and a wetting agent(soap).

i'm using soil.

 

[SmokingWings]

If you are using peat/perlite, it's not soil. It's a hydroponic media. You'll also have to add dolomite to balance the acid peat. If you add compost, unless it's sterile, you will have bugs. I grow in Sunshine #4, and have been for years. It has peat, perlite, gypsum and a wetting agent(soap).

True. But I figure we were just throwing out examples on how to answer the original question of "What do people mean when they say 50% perlite?"

 

[Bush Doctor 77]

Perlite is not naturally occuring, not a component of any soil. I assume 50% perlite would be by volume. Simple, really. One bucket perlite, one bucket whatever and mix completely.

 

[fatbuds420]

another question, if i'm using soil, how much perlite should i use? (i want really really good drainage, i don't mind watering very often)

 

[013]

Ok if you have a 1 gallon of 50/50 soil/perlite mix

that’s 1/2 gallon of soil combined with 1/2 gallon of perlite and then mixed together. It’s a 50/50 mix.

 

[SmokingWings]

Perlite is not naturally occuring, not a component of any soil. I assume 50% perlite would be by volume. Simple, really. One bucket perlite, one bucket whatever and mix completely.

The Perlite that we buy in bags at the garden store or order on-line is man-made. But, in the grand scheme of things, Perlite is a naturally occurring material. In nature it is made, under the right conditions, lava enters water. The molten rock super heats the water and the rock expands around the very tiny boiling water droplets. When it cools off the rock has all those little stone bubbles.

But it is easier for a company to make the Perlite by melting the stone and mixing with water. They can control the temperatures and whatever else they figure they need to control. With all those controls it probably ends up being cheaper to make it than to go around the planet looking for naturally occurring Perlite. Plus if they make in in factories they can control the sizes of particles which makes for easy sorting.

Plus, the big bonus is, if they make it themselves it is easier to wash it and have bags and bags of white or light gray material. Not many gardeners want to buy Perlite that is dirty, coated with who knows what, and looks like it was used several times already.

 

[Bush Doctor 77]

The Perlite that we buy in bags at the garden store or order on-line is man-made. But, in the grand scheme of things, Perlite is a naturally occurring material. In nature it is made, under the right conditions, lava enters water. The molten rock super heats the water and the rock expands around the very tiny boiling water droplets. When it cools off the rock has all those little stone bubbles.

But it is easier for a company to make the Perlite by melting the stone and mixing with water. They can control the temperatures and whatever else they figure they need to control. With all those controls it probably ends up being cheaper to make it than to go around the planet looking for naturally occurring Perlite. Plus if they make in in factories they can control the sizes of particles which makes for easy sorting.

Plus, the big bonus is, if they make it themselves it is easier to wash it and have bags and bags of white or light gray material. Not many gardeners want to buy Perlite that is dirty, coated with who knows what, and looks like it was used several times already.

I had forgotten about natural perlite. Not many places it occurs in soil naturally, though.

 

[SmokingWings]

I had forgotten about natural perlite. Not many places it occurs in soil naturally, though.

Which is why we have people making it for us.

I think that there are beaches made of the stuff off some of the Hawaiian Islands.

Just looked it up. There are naturally occuring deposits of Perlite material all over the world. China, the US and several European continent countries have the deposits.

Trivia....about 50% of the Perlite use is for construction materials and approx 15% is for horticulture.

 

[MickFoster]

I prefer a 67/33 percentage......or a 2:1 ratio.

 

[TorturedSoul]

I usually either go with 25% or 100% .