THE ADVANTAGES OF AGRICULTURAL PERLITE

• Improves soil aeration and drainage.
• Makes moisture and nutrients readily available to plants.
• Inorganic and does not deteriorate.
• Serves as an insulator to reduce extreme soil temperature fluctuations.
• Has essentially neutral PH of 6.5 to 7.5.
• It is sterile and free of weeds and disease.
• It is clean, odorless, lightweight.
• Acts as an ideal medium for Keeping cuttings and ensures also.

  Increasing the percentage of rooting.
  Fastness in rooting and growing.
  Easiness in working with it.

Perlite for Rooting Cuttings

Growers have found that Perlite is the ideal rooting medium for cuttings
that come from many woody plants. It is important to keep the perlite
moist at all times and to keep cuttings out of direct sun. If temperatures
are cool rooting is hastened by applying bottom heat. Misting on warm
days helps the cuttings retain moisture and hastens rooting.

Perlite for Starting Seeds
Fine perlite can be used alone as a seed-starting medium or it can be mixed half and half with shredded sphagnum moss or shredded peatmoss. Many seeds have limited "pushing-up" power. Perlite alone or perlite mixes are ideal for seed starting because they are light in weight. It also offers protection to seedlings by resisting surface moss and algae growth.

Perlite in hydroponic cutlrue
Initially al culturers were made in the soil. But, The need to understand the mechanism of nutrient and physiology of the plants drove sceintists to soiless culture, on simple substrates and not composite ones as the soil. These experimental cultures, which have nothing to do with the soil or the soil mixtures, were named hydropinic culture or soiless culture.

Benefites of Hydroponic culture

• Horticultural perlite provides more constant moisture status aroun the roots at all times irrespective of weather or stage of root growth.
• Perlite ensures more even watering throughout the grwoing area.
• Thera is less probability of over-watering with horticutlural perlite.
• Perlite culture avoids wasting of water and nutrients.
• The use of perlite eliminates the need to grade growing floors accurately.

Other horticultural applications for Perlite are as a carrier for fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides and for pelletizing seed. Horticultural Perlite is as useful to the home gardener as it is to the commercial grower. It is used with equal success in greenhouse growing, landscaping application and in the home in houseplants.