OK heres the story which actually kind of links into some of the other posts I have made on here but originally I used the very last of my perlite only to find out (when my PH meter arrived) that the soil was 8+, this of course left me with no choice at the time but to swap to the other bag of soil I had (PH 7) but I did not have any perlite left only some vermiculite. I added about 20%-30% verm to my soil, I cannot afford to transplant again and in fact my main plant seemed to love it and is flourishing, I know perlite is the much better option but surely vermiculite will be OK in these circumstances as it does aerate the soil and I know it retains moisture a lot more then perlite but if I watch how much/often I am watering surely this mix will be OK??? Believe me if I thought my babies could take another transplant I would do it but I really don't so guess I'm kinda stuck with this soil mix however I think I may be thinking things are worse then they really are. I spent over an hour tonight searching for posts on all forums for people who have used just soil/vermiculite and there seems to be very few Basically I just need to know as I have some seeds arriving tomorrow whether I would be better growing in just straight soil or soil/vermiculite as perlite is not available to me.
If your having PH problems I would try to find some perlite and skip the vermiculite. I dont even use vermiculite.
I was having PH problems mate but it was due to the soil so I now have some soil which sits between 6.5/7 so just about right I think. I have some exodus cheese seeds coming (I know people say not the original I just had to try them and see if they compare) but what I would really like to know is should I go and grow in str8 soil or soil and vermiculite for these seeds. I will be unable to get any perlite for quite a while as I just blew all I have left on nutes, ph down, lime and various other bits and pieces needed. I did however manage to save 80% of the perlite by putting in a big bucket adding water and scraping the perlite off the top. Please don't ask how I knew perlite floats like that a totally different story. I am thinking that due to only being about 10% of the old PH 8 soil left with the perlite that it should be OK when mixed with the more acidic soil as I am no expert but cannot see it being enough to increase soil PH.
Got any small gravel pebbles, rocks anywhere near you? You would be suprised at what you can use to help with drainage. Even if you have any hydroton sitting around you can use that. Just never see to many people here asking about vermiculite. I never been a fan of anything that helps retain moisture. You may not have to water as often with vermiculite. I`ve noticed outdoors that perlite will sometimes work its way up to the surface when not that far down in the soil.
Do you mean just putting gravel etc at the bottom or actually mixing it in with the soil??? If your on about mixing it in surely that could work quite well for drainage as long as there small and not lots of them??? Hmmmm what to use old recycled perlite mixed with new soil and then ph test a few times before actually potting or mix some small gravel pebbles in with the soil before potting any ideas which one you would choose???
I dont see why you couldnt re-use old perlite, just rinse it off good. Small gravel in small amounts mixed in with the soil would work.
Looks like that is the way to go, I will try and separate as much old soil from it as possible, I am pretty sure there is such little soil in it now that it would never have an effect on the overall PH. Thanks for your help and input tplat. Is also good to know I can use small gravel in small amounts if the need arises. It will be interesting to see how the ones in soil/vermiculite do, in any case they were bagseed from a nice bag