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Percentage of perlite in your soil mix

Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2022 4:10 pm
by MikeB
Sarracenia Northwest recently posted this interesting video on YouTube:



With different people recommending different amounts of perlite in carnivorous plant soil mixes, the guys at Sarracenia Northwest decided to take the scientific approach. They tested mixes ranging from none to 60%, in 10% increments. Their results showed that 40-50% perlite is optimal for drainage and aeration. A real eye-opener is at the 11:55 mark where Jacob says "We have a large pot of flytraps that have been in the same soil for the past 8 years." That is truly amazing. I usually have to swap out my flytrap soil after 2 years (3 is pushing it).

In light of this, I'm adjusting my soil mix. I had been doing a 3:1:1 ratio of peat moss, perlite, and sand. I'm changing that to 4:3:1 to get more perlite in the soil. I'm not ready to give up the sand just yet.

Re: Percentage of perlite in your soil mix

Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2022 7:02 pm
by nycredneck
I just watched that same video the other day. I’m a 50/50 guy myself with all my plants growing well and I top water everything, Nep’s , vft’s, sarr’s.

Re: Percentage of perlite in your soil mix

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2022 2:21 am
by Intheswamp
My last mix I went with 2-peat, 1-perlite, 1-play sand...a 2:1:1 mix. The sand is not coarse, but I've been told it should work (coarse sand seems to fall in the category of unicorns and chicken-with-teeth). I'm thinking of measuring the mix and added a bit more perlite to it. The part in the video about the 20 and 30 percent perlite mixes not draining as well as pure peat was very interesting!!!

ETA: Possibly go to a 2:2:1 mix.

Re: Percentage of perlite in your soil mix

Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2022 4:49 pm
by Carnies
Intheswamp wrote: ETA: Possibly go to a 2:2:1 mix.
Same here, I just bought two 8 quart bags of perlite on amazon and it came in yesterday, I added some and the soil feels better than my 3:1:1 mix. The perlite is a really nice medium grain.

Re: Percentage of perlite in your soil mix

Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2022 8:17 pm
by Intheswamp
I know some people rinse their media (peat moss, perlite, sand, cow manure, etc) and some folks don't. I tend to fall into the "rinse everything" group...but I'm "OCD-Me", anhow, so it's only natural for me to do so. :mrgreen: One of my all time favorite things to rinse is perlite...fun, fun, fun!!!!! Yeah, right. :roll: Anyhow, I rinsed some the other day and thought I'd show the residue from two 32oz cups of some "Sta-Green" perlite from Lowes. I rinsed it inside of a paint thinner bag inside of a large plastic flower pot. I took a quick picture without much thought to it so it really doesn't show the silt as well as it could have. I just don't think this would have been good in the mix...plus the milky water that was poured off, too. There was probably only a 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup of silt and It probably wouldn't hurt anything, but....

Re: Percentage of perlite in your soil mix

Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2022 8:46 pm
by MikeB
I'm going to buy a 4-cubic-foot bag of perlite. I need to refill my 30-gallon tote with soil to prepare for a massive amount of repotting in February.

I also need to check with the local gardening club to see if anyone wants my old soil. With all the clay around here, tilling my leftovers into their planting beds would definitely improve their soil.

Re: Percentage of perlite in your soil mix

Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2022 6:18 pm
by Carnies
Flytrapstore uses medium grain perlite, I find that it breaks up the soil more evenly than the coarse size.