your tripping..you aint ever seen a hempy grow?? why would perlite matter?? the guy even said his roots weren't sticking out of the bottom but if he had more perlite they would be..all it really does is give more oxygen to your roots and its good for drainage.
Because it makes the soil float in the pot disturbing the roots, also if the pot dries in two days and is a soil grow (not a hydro perlite grow) then this is not the desired growing conditions and a perlite grow needs fertilizing different to soil.
Whereas i understand what you are saying do you not think reducing the perlite to soil ratio to 10 percent or there abouts is the right thing to do in his situation? I guessed he was having grow problems due to a few factors and just aimed to show him how a soil grow should go, if in soil the roots should be massed at the bottom of the pot by now and needind a good feed at this point but in perlite different advice is needed. To be honest i hesitated to say wether it was a potassium or calcium or phosphorous deficiency or a deficiency/overdose of nutes at all neither ph. The only point i could see from this grow that would be a usefull change for the next grow is the soil mix and the watering schedule combined with a good fertilizer schedule. If he wants to grow in perlite i would advise a whole new system and grow style. I looked into perlite and found it to be great at holding water and ferts in a soil mix, obviously these qualities are not being seen in his grow, i discontinued perlite use due to the dangerous dust that it gives off and if breathed in real bad for you, must wet the perlite in the bag before handling to stop any dust being raised, i see no reason for my grow to have perlite in my soil as i can do without. Vermiculate in my eyes is so much better than perlite in smaller amounts and buffers the soil somewhat, why is it that the price for perlite and vermicumlite have soared in the past few years, use to be cheap round my parts and is now about the same price as gold!
