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Bad perlite?

The only perlite Lowe's had was Miracle-Gro brand, is that going to be bad for my plants?

It says..

Total Nitrogen: .04%
Available Phosphate: .01%
Soluble Potash: .06%

The lady there said those were really low levels, so I thought it might be okay. I can take it back if it's ucky.
 
I don't know exactly what levels are good and what aren't, but I wouldn't risk using it
 
Poop. Where else would be a good place to buy Perlite? Or a similar substance that I could use?

This was all Lowe's had.
 
Ambellina check your other thread and especially my FIRST link of making my terrarium. That has pictures of the exact products I used. The perlite was fine..BUT DO NOT GET THAT PEAT...I REPEAT...DO NOT BUY THAT BRANDED PEAT MOSS....ONLY get the regular compressed bale WHICH HAS NO ADDITIVES.
 
Home depot, almost any nursery or lawn-and-garden store.
 
The peat I got was American something or other brand. I didn't see anything about there being fert in it, I guess I'll find out when I open it.
 
Welcome to TF! Perlite is just one of the many media that people use.... or choose NOT to use. Since many CP's grow in a nutrient poor soil, the basic idea to provide a media that doesn't have salts or fertilizers. What plants are you wanting to cultivate? For CP's, it is the texture properties that are important. Some are designed to drain well. Others are for water retention. Other good media are sand (like pool filter sand), sphagnum peat (in the 2.2 or 3.8 bales), LFS (small bags of Long Fibred Sphagnum). I'm not a big Perlite user, mainly sticking with mixing sand & peat, with LFS on top, but many people who grow Asian pitcher plants use Perlite, and or peat and orchid bark, needles.....

Do you have a Home Depot nearby? Or a Walmart? We can also mail you some if absolutely necessary!
 
It just sounded like one of the most common ones people use - so I figured I'd go ahead with that. I'll have to look for something else if I can't find good stuff though. I have D. capensis on it's way to me now, but I also want to grow:

Any pygmy Drosera
D. binata (But I just read that this needs dormancy, whereas before I was under the impression that it didn't - so I dunno)
H. minor
A few pretty butterworts
And I was going to do U. sandersonii but now some people are saying it's very invasive? So I don't know about that one anymore either. Boo.

I'll go out and check Home Depot and Walmart tomorrow morning (working today
smile_h_32.gif
) and hopefully I find SOMETHING useful.
 
Wash it well and it will be fine. You should rinse perlite anyway.
 
  • #10
I use the perlite from lowes and my plants are perfectly fine even with 1.5 parts of pelite for every 1 part of peat. No washing
 
  • #11
Perlite's pretty much perlite, so go ahead and use it. Never heard of any company adding fertiliser to perlite and if they did, they'd shout about it on the packaging.

Perlite opens up the peat nicely, enabling more oxygen to reach the roots. It's worth using.
 
  • #12
[b said:
Quote[/b] (JustLikeAPill @ Nov. 04 2006,12:54)]Wash it well and it will be fine. You should rinse perlite anyway.
In general, you should rinse whatever soil media that you use. I use a spaghetti collander to rinse and drain. Buckets can also be used. This removes dust and other impurites that could exist, like fertilizers and helps with unwanted mosses. You can rinse with tap water, but use store bought gallon jugs of distilled water for the plants.
 
  • #13
I also use one of those spaghetti sifter things for perlite, and shake it to get rid of as much of the fine particles as I can, then pour lots of water over it. This seems to help prevent the growth of algae in my pots.

-Ben
 
  • #15
I've seen that, and they add miracle grow fertilizer to the perlite.

-Ben
 
  • #17
I don't know what brand it is but my local Walmart carries perlite w/o fertilizer added. Just check the label and as stated before it should say whether there is some in there. Your best bet is to stay away from anything that Miracle-grow makes, feeding plants is there business. Not ours ! Unless it's dried bloodworms or something.
 
  • #18
I think I saw the same thing at walmart the other day - this is where I was going to go get perilite when planning to repot my plants. It was only two or three bucks, too.

xvart.
 
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