FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I keep reading about people using perlite in their mixes for nepenthes and mineral mixes for pinguicula. Since I have a couple of bags sitting around from my gardening years, I thought I'd give it a try. The TDS from the soaking perlite was a little over 100, so I committed to rinsing. That does not go well, since it crumbles when you handle it and it floats so it is hard to soak. Add to that, the grit gets everywhere and I bet its a risk to breathing. What a mess.

So I've said no to perlite. Not worth the headache to me. Am I making a mistake?

Some people like it, some hate it. If you don't want to use it you can substitue quartz sand and that will work about the same. So no, you are not making a mistake.

I haven't found rinsing perlite to make any difference. I do find it useful due to its light weight and larger size compared to sand so it will actually mix with LFS, and also makes it easy to mix up large batches of soil for outdoor plants.

I use pumice instead of perlite. It's also light weight and doesn't crumble as quickly or float as much as perlite (IMO).

Thanks, all. McG, I have not tried to work with pumice yet, so will probably give it a try

I take perlite straight out of the bag (I don't rinse it) and use it in all my ping, dew, VFT, sarr, orchid, nep, heli, and utric mixes. I think if you don't want to use perlite, sillica sand and vermiculite work well. My pings especially like vermiculite.

nimbulan wrote:I haven't found rinsing perlite to make any difference. I do find it useful due to its light weight and larger size compared to sand so it will actually mix with LFS, and also makes it easy to mix up large batches of soil for outdoor plants.

I've been using perlite for over 12 years for my plants, no problems at all from it. Of course it has to be fertilizer free perlite. So no Miracle grow for instance.

Perlite works fine, just make sure it has no added fertilizer in it. Esphoma is good, Hoffmann's. OR any organic perlite.

Personally, I would say it "depends." I will not use perlite in any Sarr pot or with most Drosera. Because I keep my pots sitting in several inches of water -- particularly those I put outside for the summer -- I have too many issues with perlite floating to the surface. It is simply not worth the trouble. (Oh, and you should most definitely take precautions against inhaling the dust from perlite.) I do use large grade perlite with some of my orchids and neps. But this isn't the perlite you will find at HomeDepot or many nurseries. I will use perlite in some standard potting mixes for "regular" soil plants like African violets.

My general-purpose c.p. soil mix is 3 parts sphagnum peat moss, 1 part perlite, and 1 part coarse sand. Everything that I grow is potted in this. Since my plants sit outside year-round, soil (perlite in particular) is prone to washing out of the pots during rainstorms. To get around this problem, I soak some LFS in water and then put a thin layer (0.5 inch / 1 centimeter) of it on top of the soil. My plants have sat through hurricane downpours without losing a speck of soil.

I wouldn't worry about the TD. That wasn't an accurate reading as the particles it was reporting wouldn't be absorbed by the plants.