I have grown in 100% perlite Hempy buckets before with very good results. I have never heard that it was high in acid and high in water retention - perlite doesn't actually absorb water - the irregular surface holds the water. The original Hempy calls for perlite and vermiculite, but I prefer just perlite. It's a great stand alone medium that allows for a lot of oxygen to the root zone and extremely fast growth, but it has to be watered a lot.
Perlite floats and gets EVERYWHERE so I would use something that doesn't break down and stick to everything (it clogs pumps in the res, which sucks). Hydroton is much more user friendly for an inert medium. It can be reused many, many more times, and even ran through boiling water to clean them up. Don't get me wrong, I buy a pallet of perlite every spring, but I always curse the grow gods when I crunch on it with my bare feet, or when I see it in my reservoir floating and sticking to the sides and air stone tubes lol. I use it on top of my rockwool mini cubes because it keeps nice and dry, so no fungus gnats. Those larvae suck. Literally. If you don't mind it being messy then rock it!
I think the OP was talking about doing daily hand watering like a Hempy - not DWC. He won't have a reservoir, pumps or airstones - just a bucket filled with perlite with drain holes 2" from the bottom of the bucket.
I wasn't talking about dwc either. I'm talking about perlite coming out of drain holes and spilling out of planters, etc. I got his point. I'm just saying its messy as fk
Why leave quotes and no reply? You read that and assumed I am talking about DWC (at least I assume you're trying to point out something to prove your point). I use rockwool and I have a drain back system. I use rain gutters. My reservoir has 2 pumps. A delivery pump on a timer with a manifold, and a circulation pump that runs 24/7. I also keep 2 air stones in my reservoir running 24/7. I also drop bottles of ice in it twice a day during the summer. When the plants are seedlings I hand water them on a mesh tray over the reservoir. Perlite is my 3rd largest consumable purchase after rockwool and nutrients. I'm not saying anything bad about it, or trying to argue about semantics with people. I'm just saying it is messy as hell. I've had it get in very odd places. So what you want to argue about stupid shit?
I agree with you, Mick. It will work and no buildup. Drawbacks are that you have to water every few hours and it gets algae like mad on the top layer. Sorry you thought I was talking about DWC, but if you really have grown with 100% perlite you can't disagree that the stuff is messy. And it slowly breaks down. And it can't be reused without a serious pain in the ass. Have a good day dude. Oh, I use MaxiBloom too. Works great.
No not at all. I was merely making a point that the reasons you don't like perlite have nothing to do with the way the OP is going to grow. In addition, you also recommended hydroton instead of perlite for a hand water bucket grow - when all he wanted to know was, has anyone grown in 100% perlite.
Its a forum. We're all entitle to our opinions. Hydroton would be unpractical because of porosity, you are correct. It would work better with a NFT timer (1 minute pumps ON, 4 minutes pumps OFF) and an ebb flow style system. Too labor intensive for hand watering, for sure. On a side not, I bought a 150 gallon smart pot of perlite for $50 from Northern Roots hydro in Redding. I've already used half of it in 4 months.
I would post a photo but my account and phone aren't working with the uploads. I've asked ops for suggestions but to no avail.
Photobucket - Photo and image hosting, free photo galleries, photo editing. Well I tried image hosting but even that failed lol! Fuck an a.
@Shasta_Lake_California I wouldn't take any advice from this guy. He's suffering from Avid poisoning Growing in 100 % perlite is something people have been doing with great success. The Best Medium in the World: 100% Perlite !
[URL-http://s1234.photo bucket.com/user/legoclasses/media/IMG_20170624_112807_zpsaddp00y6.jpg.html][/URL] Hopefully it works this time. I'm inept with tue android phone. I want an iPhone again. Ugh
Fuck. Forget it. Using this forum sucks when you can't post photos. Anyway, enjoy your perlite grow! Good luck.
All of them taken is a shit starter. He's jealous of other peoples skills. He likes to start shit. Then he talks shit. He has a serious inferiority complex. And yes I use avid for mites, which is why he is being such a cocksucker
Instead of having an intelligent conversation, he prefers throwing out meaningless insults and can't admit when he is wrong. Some dude had 2 weeks left in flower with spider mites and I suggested just letting them ride it out because of how late in bloom it was. Then I said that I have such a bad mite problem that I have to use chemicals (for instance it is 113* and 30% humidity today... Mite heaven). He suggested ladybugs. Then another guy questioned the ability of ladybugs to eat mites, and I wasn't sure ladybugs or predator mites had enough time to even make a dent, so this dude starts throwing insults out and freaking out. So I tried to be nice for a while, then I just "ignored" his ass because he's probably underage (an assumption based on his maturity level displayed in his posts) and doesn't even grow anyway.