Propagation: Vermiculite vs perlite, 0 by Zen_Man

Zen_Man wrote:
Corey,

Thanks for the tip on Lowes as a source for pine nuggets. Next time I am in there (our nearest Lowes is nearly 50 miles away) I will try to pick up a bag or two of them. When I first came to this area I couldn't find local ProMixBX and used an alternative product that a local greenhouse was using. The greenhouse management had had a "falling out" with the Premier ProMix distributor, and was buying in truckload quantities from the Fafard product line.

http://www.fafard.com/Products.aspx

That greenhouse had everything from small seedlings to big trees for sale, and a lot of things in big containers on outdoor tables made of steel grillwork for total drainage. The majority of their plants were in relatively large containers that required a lot of good drainage, and they were using a Fafard product that was primarily bark (probably pine) with some additives, including possibly a little Vermiculite and Perlite and a minimal amount of sphagnum peat. I purchased a couple of bags of their "favorite" Fafard product, which was primarily bark based, with lots of bark chunks and pieces, and had great drainage. I had very good luck with it for larger indoor grown zinnias. But it was definitely not something that I liked for seed starting. It was so "open" that your experience with lost petunia seeds would have been replicated even for my much larger zinnia seeds. Fortunately I found a local source for Premier ProMix BX, which I still prefer for seed starting, but as you can see in the picture, I add a significant amount of extra Perlite to my ProMix. (The bin on the left is "ready to use".) When I re-pot my seedlings to larger pots, I use a lot higher percentage of coarse Perlite for increased drainage/aeration.

One advantage of bark over Perlite that you might not think about is weight. Perlite is very light weight, it picks up very little weight from water, and large plants in a high Perlite mix can actually topple over in the mix. Bark has the weight and "friction" to hold the plant steady, even in an outdoor windy setting.

ZM
(not associated with any product or vendor mentioned or linked)