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Turface as sand/perlite substitute?

Jcal

Decumbent Fanatic
I recently moved to a rural area and I am finding a hard time finding cp supplies. The sand sold here is only quikcrete. The perlite I have found is small and super dirty. Oddly enough I found turface at a John Deere supply store. I can get decent peat and lfs from lowes.

I plan on repotting some nepenthes and sarracenia and wondered if anyone has tried substituting sand/perlite for turface in their mixes?
 
Nick LeBlanc has with amazing results. He grows his Nepenthes in a perlite and turface mix and they look super healthy. The best part is that it's inorganic so you basically never have to repot.
 
Turface is a staple in all my heli mixes.... for mexi pings I use 100% turface with excellent results
One caveat, it will accumulate mineral salts and get crusty over time if your water is hard.

It has become very popular in cp mixes of all flavors...
 
Thanks for your input gentleman. I haven noticed the crusty buildup, though I only use rainwater.

I'll give it a go with a few of my Neps. It will be awhile before I repot my Sarrs.
 
i've started putting it in my nep mix, though not as a replacement for perlite. it's only been a few months but i haven't seen any problems.
 
have it in the mix for the neps, sarracenia, pygmy drosera, looks like it works just fine
 
I use it in the mixes of quite a few genera with, what seems like, good results. That being said, I wouldn't necessarily use it as a substitute for those other components, as each one brings its own benefits to the media.
 
Thanks again for the input. I'll just take the extra time to rinse the perlite and use turface and peat for my mixes. Glad to hear that turface didn't and to have any ill effects.
 
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