Noobish question about perlite

I hate asking 'noob' questions but I haven't ran across anyone talking about this.

Like many, I have no quality nursery or greenhouse within an hour drive so I had to make due with what was around closer. I mixed up some soil using Earthgro potting soil, Earthgro organic humus/manure, dolomite lime, and perlite. Unfortunately, the only perlite I could find is Miracle Gro perlite. I was really trying to avoid using any of there products but after stopping at 5 places I gave up.

Anyone ever use this perlite?

Mix was:
40lb Earthgro potting mix
40lb Earthgro organic humus and manure
approx. 1.5 cups dolomite lime
8qt. bag of Miracle Gro perlite

I'm hoping that it's a small enough percentage of the total mix that it won't mess with me too bad but I dunno (the potting mix had a small percentage of perlite in it but it doesn't specify quantity). I'd like to add more but I'm really kinda scared to.

I do have a grow journal at: https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/356693-suckrs-first-indoor-grow.html if anyone is interested.

I dont think Miracle-Gro could screw up baking sand. Perlite is pure silica dioxide no mater who makes it.

A good Nursery should have the stuff in bulk. Mostly they keep it around as a supply that they use... but if you ask nice they will sell you a bag. A giant bag about as big as you should be about $15 - $20

im using MG perlite without a hitch.ive mixed it with FFOF and Scotts Top Soil.my mix was just 35/65ish perlite/scotts.ive actually used earthgro before but seemed to include some free critters.bad 1s.grew some bagseeds out in the earthgro they yielded pretty shitty but i was pretty newbie then too.

Dinosaur Bone said:

I dont think Miracle-Gro could screw up baking sand. Perlite is pure silica dioxide no mater who makes it.

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I was only concerned because the perlite is "enriched with Miracle Gro plant food". I mean it's a very small amount by the looks of it (the NPK is .04/.01/.06) so I'm not overly worried about it, just wondering. I think I'll go ahead and add my second bag to the mix. I'm going to pick up a big bag next time I go to "the big city"

BudReaky said:

im using MG perlite without a hitch.ive mixed it with FFOF and Scotts Top Soil.my mix was just 35/65ish perlite/scotts.ive actually used earthgro before but seemed to include some free critters.bad 1s.grew some bagseeds out in the earthgro they yielded pretty shitty but i was pretty newbie then too.

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Scotts is what I was hoping to find but no luck. Did you remember if you mixed anything with the Earthgro or use it straight up? I was almost expecting critter issues with this stuff but it was literally the only thing I could find that didn't have slow release stuff in it. I'm hoping to fix this though. The mix is sitting on a black tarp under a glass box cooking in the sun. I know this could potentially introduce my own outside bugs but I don't really think it'll hurt much.

I'm hoping to yield slightly better than shitty...but I'm not expecting a lb per plant either.

A quick rinse and soak would easily wash off the MG.

just wash the perlite out if it concerns you. THEN add it to your soil mix. But I've used it plenty of times no problems at all

I use the MG perlite and peat fresh out the bag with NO problems whatsoever. the amounts are really low and used/flushed within the first couple weeks anyway.

the only real issue with MG is time release nutes, and that sounds like it's really mild, so I doubt you would see any issues. Our local home depot, lowes, and walmart all sell bags of just perlite, it's a fairly common gardening supply. I have alkaline water, but I do 3 parts top/potting soil, 2 parts perlite, one part peat for my soil mix.

yeah i mixed the earthgro with perlite 30/70 im sure u could get a better yield then me,it wasnt an ideal grow.but i would never buy it again its just crappy looking and way to stick and branchey. scotts top soil is available at lowes and home depot.

I looked at Lowes, Home Depot, a couple of hardware stores, and a shitty greenhouse that's just essentially like the garden section of Lowes. Nobody had any soil without nutes except Earthgro and nobody had perlite other than Miracle Gro.

The Earthgro potting soil had all kinds of shit in it - sticks, roots, rocks, little pieces of plastic, and I found a chunk of glass that looked like half a marble. The humus/manure actually looked pretty decent. While the power was out the other day I sat and picked all the random shit outa the dirt. I rinsed the second bag of perlite and dumped it in and I may yet pick up a bag of peat and add some but I dunno... I'm pretty happy with the PH where its at and don't know if I wanna really dick with it too much more.

Just bought myself a bag of earthgrow shit yesterday. I needed to do some transplanting. As soon as I got home and opened the bag, I IMIDATELY walked with it to the dumpster, and threw that bitch away! Hands down the WORST dirt I've ever seen! I'd rather go out into my back yard and dig up some dig shit and sand to grow in. Needless to say, I'll be going to get my real, non nute soil when I get off work today. So I can do my transplanting.

HookdOnChronics said:

Just bought myself a bag of earthgrow shit yesterday. I needed to do some transplanting. As soon as I got home and opened the bag, I IMIDATELY walked with it to the dumpster, and threw that bitch away! Hands down the WORST dirt I've ever seen! I'd rather go out into my back yard and dig up some dig shit and sand to grow in. Needless to say, I'll be going to get my real, non nute soil when I get off work today. So I can do my transplanting.

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Yeah, I certainly don't doubt that its not an optimal growing medium but I haven't decided on what kind of hydro setup I want yet and my organic compost pile is still a bit too fresh. My plans are to hopefully do a small hydro and small organic grow next time around to see if I can tell a difference in the buds (not so much for yield but for flavor/overall quality). I've been around general gardening long enough to know that that shit in the earthgro bag is shit - and not the good kind of shit - just shit, but that's what I'm working with for now.

** I hope you didn't buy the earthgro because I said it looked ok.. The wife got a couple bags for some potted flowers and such and both her bags looked better than the one I used. I would say there's little to know consistency from bag to bag and batch to batch. It also says on the bag that it could contain any number of things things in any number of percentages and from a 'local source'. Maybe your 'local source' is just a bit shittier than mine?

yeah i dont think anyone is gonna promote earthgro for any kind of growing.but it made it to harvest for me like i said so dont give up(a shitty harvest).personally i would just get some MG moisture control way before i went with earthgro again.or just take that hour or 2 trip to the next city city and stock up on some FFOF or ive herd plenty of good things about "Promix" but ive yet to stumble apon it.ive read about cooking your prenuted soil mix to remove most of the nutes but it takes some time.just flush the shit out of it.leave a hose running on it for a day.

you have to wash the shit out of the MG perlite. i used it in my shotgun terrariums last time i grew some fungus and it took forever to get clean.

In sunny 3rd world Spain I cannot get the vast range of products that UK or US growers have access to - just have to make the best of what we can get. There is no decent soil available - all you can get here is substrate based on peat or forest product - OK, I make that a base and mix my own additives to that.

Yeah.. I had this "cooking" outside to try and somewhat sterilize the mix, and it did get hot - like smoking hot, so hopefully I won't have the bug problem at least. It seems like the longer this stuff sat around the more I wanted to dick with it. I've added all kinds of stuff to it at this point, so much so that it'd probably have been worth the gas and money to just drive to "the big city" and get shit that was good outa the bag. I just recently transplanted my seedlings into this mix and the runoff was right around 6.8. Hopefully it'll stay in that area and I don't have any problems with it.

This run will certainly be a big learning experience - I already have a list of about 50 things to not do next time.