Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - Painting pressure treated lumber

I am going to build a porch railing and am debating whether to use PT lumber, cedar or standard white pine. My preference is PT lumber but the railing needs to be white and my experience w/ PT lumber is that it does not take paint very well, no matter how I dried and primed it.

Any suggestions on how I could prep the PT lumber so I can maximize enamel paint life?

Maybe a white stain? But it must be a deep white to match the rest of the porch and trim.

As you already know PT needs to be dry for paint to last. Once the wood is dried, quality primer and paint applied it should look good for a long time.

I would shy away from white pine. Here in the S.E. even when kept well painted it doesn't always hold up.

Cedar is a good choice [just not cheap] In order to paint cedar white it MUST have a good quality oil base primer applied. With out a good priming the tannins will bleed discoloring the white paint. Latex primer is not sufficent but latex finish can be used over oil primer.

Thanks - cedar seemed like the best choice but I was not sure about prime/paint. I will go w. cedar and a good oil prime.

I can't over state the importance of priming cedar well. Use a good exterior oil base primer and coat the cedar well. If you are not sure if you have primed it well, prime it again. As long as the cedar is coated well with primer you shouldn't have any problems.