Update. It has been just shy of 3 weeks. I lost a few peppers, but I expected to lose a few as I learned the ins and outs of hydroponics. The tomatoes are growing like weeds, and I'm starting to train them, so I can hopefully grow them in a screen of green style trellis. The second picture is a close-up of one of my Cherokee Purple tomato plants. A few of the leaves are starting to turn brown. Any idea what this might be? I water/feed all of the plants on the same schedule, and I'm not seeing it on any of the other toms.

I've wondered the same thing about nutritional value after nuking. It does seem that something nuked goes longer without ever going bad. The article seems to be a plug for a perlite company named Schundler. It always sucks to have to wonder if the company/plug is accurate or if it is just for marketing. When only one company is mentioned, it leads me to believe that it's more about marketing. Kind of like the trade magazine articles on hydro. Don't get me wrong. Marketing doesn't necessarily mean dishonesty. It does, however, mean that they won't be detailing the faults of perlite over other media such as coco coir or river rock. I personally use coco-coir and perlite mixed. I also reuse it. When finished, it goes on my garden.

I do okay with growing such crops in the soil in unheated hoop houses-spinach, lettuce as well as arugula and kale are all very cold hardy. Though some heat keeps them happiest.

Check out the Hydroponics forum. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Hydroponics forum