Perlite or hydroton on the top of soil, for watering purposes??? Any opinions??

Perlite or hydroton on the top of soil, for watering purposes??? Any opinions??
I'm just sick of having to kind of re-even out my soil after every watering. Any suggestion helps!!

A good soil mix won't need anything extra on the surface. We're not entirely sure why you need to re-even the soil after waterings. If the water doesn't soak into the soil well enough, there are a few options. First off, you can spray the surface with a spray bottle before watering to help it soak in more evenly. Amendments like Perlite mixed into the soil help with drainage and therefore will help water soak in easier. The drawback is that better drainage causes the soil to hold less water for a shorter length of time.

Mother's Finest said:

The drawback is that better drainage causes the soil to hold less water for a shorter length of time.

Click to expand...

Absolutely. I mixed sand and perlite in my soil and I have to water everyday, sometimes twice a day.

Mother's Finest said:

A good soil mix won't need anything extra on the surface. We're not entirely sure why you need to re-even the soil after waterings. If the water doesn't soak into the soil well enough, there are a few options. First off, you can spray the surface with a spray bottle before watering to help it soak in more evenly. Amendments like Perlite mixed into the soil help with drainage and therefore will help water soak in easier. The drawback is that better drainage causes the soil to hold less water for a shorter length of time.

Click to expand...

Los Muertos said:

Absolutely. I mixed sand and perlite in my soil and I have to water everyday, sometimes twice a day.

Click to expand...

Let me clear my question a bit. I do use FF ocean forest and there is no problem with it soaking up the water or drainage. Its just like literally where you pour and the water hits the dirt. where it hits it creates like a hole or a "berm" where the water actually "hit" the surface of the dirt. Then when it all sets there is a "crater" that I grenerally kind of fill try and "even out" the soil "at the top" again. Does that make sense? lol sorry

i bought 3 big bags of hydroton for my ebb & flow used for 2 grows washed it off and has been sitting for awhile ...2 months ago i got this idea to use in my soil along with the heavy amount of perlite i use have to water every night but i like it ...as for the crater i get that when i use a pitcher like u make koolaid in seems to just blast threw whatever i have on top....i mix soil,perlite & hydrton all together so its all the way threw my pot

not sure if u are using used hydroton but if its new wash it good the dust will run outta the bottom of your containers when u water and your have a huge orange mess....plus dont use your bathtub like the people at the store told me to do i didnt realize how much of a mess it was to clean til i put a bag in tub to soak that was a choir cleaning what was left over.also i had fungus gnats not real bad a few here and there once i started using this, problem solved .they really cant be over watered somedays i water twice GOOD LUCK

I would recommend perlite because I have found that it kills fungus gnats. I had a lot of them from using unsterilized soil and they were killing seedlings, which are very vulnerable to the larvae eating their roots until they flop over and die. So I tried perlite for the seedlings instead of soil, using some hydro fertilizer. It worked perfectly. I can actually see the dead fly bodies on top of the perlite. It appears that they get cut up on the sharp edges of the perlite, like with diatomaceous earth, and die from drying out or whatever. Diatomaceous earth is too fine a dust and is just a mess to use and the dust is harmful to the lungs and virtually impossible to prevent getting stirred up into the air and then as soon as you water it it washes away so perlite is much better. Perlite is basically glass that's puffed up with air and has a lot of little sharp edges. I haven't even seen one gnat crawl down through it. They just sit on top. The perlite dust is bad for the lungs too though so you should poke some holes in the bottom of the bag and pour water in it to get it wet and rinse out some of the dust before you start putting it in the pots, or don't even poke the holes if you don't want a mess of water running out. I don't know if it would be good for filling in your watering depressions or not because it would probably move around a lot itself when you throw water on it. Maybe a layer of perlite followed by a layer of Hydroton. That would still stop the gnats getting to the roots.

Neither they both hold moisture in the soil causing the pot to dry slower . Water in easy and you want have that problem .