Hey Fandog,

It's difficult finding soils that don't contain Perlite. Of course, the two main soil sellers here are Miracle Gro, Hyponex,, and a few off-brands.

Hyponex has very little Perlite, if any. It's a rich, black soil, that actually needs additional mediums for drainage purposes.

Mind if I ask why you're looking for a non-perlite medium? If you'd rather not explain, it's okay. :)

Which Dracaena do you have? Toni

My brother grows a very large Dracaena in pure black Scoria (lava rock).

Josh

Toni,

I read somwhere that perlite has flouride in it. I have a dracaena marginata that has spots on the leaves and brown tips and my water comes from a well so theres no chlorine or flouride. The cause is either a watering problem, too much sun or a disease. Its not that bad i just have to get to the bottom of this.

Al,

Im very interested. Should have paid more attention in my soil science class years ago that at the time i thought was boring. What are your thoughts on vermiculite? I did start using clay pots almost exclusively to improve aeration and drainage.

Here is an embedded link that will take you to a thread that gives a basic overview of what you can do to make growing a lot easier and avoid the common pitfalls that regularly bring growers to the forum with requests for help reversing the effects of mostly soil-related issues. Most issues can be traced back to an inappropriate soil that has left plants weakened and vulnerable, even to things like insects, diseases, and spoiled foliage. If you can get the soil right and supply light intensity that suits the plant, you're over the hump and on the downhill side.

After getting a look at the basics and a feel for the direction I would nudge you in, you can follow this embedded link to a thread that goes into much greater detail that should help you gain an understanding of the concept that governs things like aeration, drainage, and water retention. Gaining that understanding almost certainly represents the largest single step forward a container gardener can take at any one time. A healthy root system is an essential prerequisite to a healthy plant because a healthy plant is impossible w/o a healthy root system.

Have fun, and ask lots of questions. There are plenty of growers who will be willing to help you, after already having embraced the concept and put it to work for themselves.

Have a good weekend.

Al

I bought a couple of small bags of vermiculite about 20 years ago. I still have all but 1 or 2 small scoops of it left (that's all I've used of it in 20 years). In most soils, vermiculite increases water retention, and most growers using premade soils that are based on peat, compost, composted forest products, or other similar very small particles and come from a bag 'ready to use', already have much more inherent water retention to deal with than plants prefer.

Technically, you can't improve drainage or aeration by changing pot materials from say plastic to clay. You do potentially improve soil gas exchange, which is a significant plus, and which also helps the soil to dry down faster, which is also a plus. Drainage and aeration are most affected by the sizes and the gradient mix of the sizes of the soil particles.

Al

Ok thanks for the info, i look forward to reading it. In your opinion, should perlite not be used in container mixes with plants that are sensitive to flouride, or is the amount of flouride negligible?

Perlite's fluoride content IS a consideration, but its impact on sensitive plants can be reduced considerably by screening out the fines (over aluminum insect screening) and thoroughly rinsing the perlite before using it. Commercial growers limit the effects of fluoridic compounds in part by making sure media pH is >6.5 to limit its solubility, and by keeping ambient (and thus soil) temperatures below 90*. The higher temperatures increase transpiration rates, and in doing so increase the uptake of potentially toxic compounds.

More often than not, fluoridic compounds are blamed for what more rightly should be laid at the feet of EC/TDS (fertility or dissolved solids levels) levels that are higher than the plant favors (or even boron toxicity). MOST often, these unfavorably high levels are the result of using soils that can't be watered properly w/o risking excessive saturation of the soil and its effect on root function. Watering in sips to guard against a soggy soil leaves the grower in a predicament. Do I water correctly (to flush accumulating salts from the soil) and risk impaired root function or root rot setting in, or do I water in little sips to avoid the root issues and suffer the steady build-up of salts that are very often the real culprit as being causal of spoiled foliage.

You can bring along nice looking plants by using soils that allow you to water freely at will (to regularly flush the soil of accumulating salts) with no concern for adverse effects on root function, and by fertilizing frequently at low doses to keep fertility levels low.

Al

Hi Al

Hi, Rose. What's up?

Al

Al! Wow! I saw your thread from 6 years ago on Houzz. I've reread it 6 times.

I'm getting ready to select a blend of potting mix for my 2 Dracenas and I'd dearly appreciate your feedback before I spend $60, and before I use it .

5 parts orchiata pine bark to 1 part coarse vermiculite to 1 part chunky peat moss to 1 part Turface to 1 part kanuma.

The pine bark is large pieces. Kanuma is for acidity. I just got back from JEWEL for groceries. I never thought I'd find you!

My mix will be from Repotme.com.

I'm also getting the Oxygen pots from the same site; core dual oxygen pots.

Aeration! Drainage! Only the best for the Dracenas. But I'm worried. I'm new to

Please forgive sentence structure. During texting my words disappear! Have to keep re texting.

I've got to cook . Be back tonight. Thank you thank you thank you. I'm so happy you're still alive.

I LOVE what you write 🙂😃👏👍👀

Hi Rose. I have several old posts that still see some activity, a few of them regularly, so I'm not sure which one you mean. If you're talking about the 'Water Movement in Soil' thread, that one originally dates back to 2004 or '05. BTW - I'm happy I'm still alive, too! Thanks for the kind words. I'll wait to see what else you have to say. In the meanwhile, you might give THIS PAGE a look. Once there, you'll be able to browse either by blended/complete mixes or by aggregates.

Al

You can use brown rice in place of perlite

Sorry Bobbygrim,

I would not recommending using rice in potting mixes,

It's likely to rot after exposure to water &/or attract insects due to its starch content. Just get some Perlite or Pumice & do it right.

He's probably thinking of parboiled rice hulls; and, while they are reasonably stable for the duration of a normal greenhouse production cycle, their lack of long term stability would likely lead to structural problems for long term plantings (a year or longer). As an aside, when they have started to break down, fungus gnats love them. I'll take a moment to point out that concentrating on your medium's structure and structural stability to the degree you can be sure your soil will remain stable for the expected interval between (complete) repots is a very good way to approach media for container culture.

Al