Perlite substitute?
John T Lonsdale (Tue, 04 Jul 2006 09:28:55 PDT)

For years I've used perlite in my bulbs compost, to very good effect. I use
Supercoarse grade and sieve it to get rid of the fines. Over the past
couple of years I've noticed a trend towards more fines and less Supercoarse
particles - to the point where, today, I spent 45 minutes sieving 8 cubic
feet of perlite and ended up with less than 50% by volume of sieved material
I can use. This seems to be a waste of time and energy and a
misrepresentation by the manufacturer of the perlite (Schundler).

Is there anything out there that anyone has practical experience with that I
can substitute directly for the perlite? I use about 50% perlite in my mix
and don't want to have to learn a whole new watering regime unless I have
to.

Thanks and happy 4th.

J.

John T Lonsdale PhD
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