Hello I'm Nora the Leca Queen and I'm good at
one thing growing plants in leca clay balls for the past few years I've turned my passion into an
obsession experimenting with over 300 plants and sharing my successes and failures with thousands
online I've shared my journey on Instagram YouTube and helped thousands of people transform their
plant care routines and today I'm going to share everything I've learned everything you need to
know to succeed in growing your plants in leca but if you can't watch this video for the
next 5 minutes without clicking off I've got some news for you you're probably not cut out for
growing plants in leca but if you're here to leca I promise you'll gain invaluable knowledge to
transform your indoor plant care here's what we're covering in this video what is leca explaining what
leca is what the benefits of using leca are and why it's an excellent alternative to soil getting
started with leca how to prepare your leca for first use rinsing soaking to remove all that dust
choosing the right plants researching your plants emphasizing the importance of understanding plant
needs I'll show you thriving plants in leca showing you different types of plants that are doing well
in leca clay balls how to prepare your plant for growing in leca making sure that your plant is
healthy and pest free the perfect leca setting up choosing the right containers net pots and so on
setting up the water reservoir ongoing leca care watering techniques bottom watering versus top
watering nutrient management nutrient schedules and monitoring light and humidity seasonal plant
care tips a little bit of troubleshooting and advanced care tips dealing with common problems
identify and addressing issues like root rot and pest infestations flushing your plants propagating
plants in leca we'll talk a little bit about the leca community and why connecting with other leca
Growers is beneficial and finally embracing the 'luck' factor in Plant care by the end of this video
you'll have the tools you need to grow thriving plants in leca the traditional potting mix Growers
may not want you to succeed with growing plants in leca but I'm here to change that I'll share tips
that have taken me years to learn so you can avoid the mistakes I've made made you will never look
at your plants the same way again now you might be thinking why should I use leca what's wrong
with good old-fashioned soil or potting mix let's talk about why you should consider growing your
plants in leca and move away from traditional soil or potting mix number one no more watering guest
work say goodbye to the constant worry of over or underwatering leca makes it virtually impossible to
drown your plants or to have them go thirsty you have control leca helps prevent overwatering and
underwatering by providing a consistent moisture level because of the nutrient solution in the
reservoir no overwatering greatly reduces the risk of root rot a common problem when plants are grown
in soil or potting mix number two you'll have healthier roots leca promotes healthy root growth
by providing excellent aeration the oxygen Rich roots lead to faster growing and more resilient
plants say goodbye to soil loving pests like fungus gnats soil mites and other creepy crawlies
they hate leca you'll have a cleaner healthier environment for your plants and of course it's
easier to maintain leca is reusable and easy to clean it doesn't compact over time like soil
ensuring a long-lasting low maintenance solution for your plants one of the pluses is that you
have visibility of the root system with leca you can see the root development more easily this
visibility helps you monitor the health of your plants and catch any issues early of course leca
is equal friendly it's an environmentally friendly option it's reusable reduces waste and helps
you use water more efficiently in this video I will rewire your brain about how to grow your
plants and how to grow your plants in leca cables giving you the tools to succeed where others have
struggled so what is leca leca is an acronym that stands for lightweight expanded clay aggregate leca
is basically clay balls when they're manufacturing leca they obtain clay from a Clay Pit run this
clay through a rotary Kiln rotate it at very high temperature and you end up with the characteristic
round walls that we call all leca clay balls now there's different kinds of leca depending on
the mine from which the clay was taken so you can have dark leca like this leca over here that
looks a lot darker than the normal red balls that you've been used to seeing so that is just really
because of the way that Clay is and you've got this kind of leca this leca is round and
it is a deep brown or red color depending on your screen and how you you're visualizing this
so the color of the leca is entirely dependent on the clay there's different shapes of leca
you can have very round leca you can have more irregular shaped leca and some people prefer to
have the irregular shape because they think that the roots attach better to the irregular shaped leca
which in some cases they do I don't know that's a a preference and also there is a little bit more
stability when you're using the irregular shaped leca because it packs well into each other Asos
opposed to using the round leca and of course there's different sizes of leca you've got the
micro leca you've got the bigger kind of leca going all the way up to really big round bowls of
leca clay balls so it entirely depends on what you have available to you in terms of what you're
using although it should be mentioned that when you you're transferring a plant which has got
smaller roots like peperomias plants like that using smaller type leca micro leca is generally
a better way to go it has has fewer smaller air pockets and retains more moisture than the larger
ones so those kinds of plants prefer that kind of setup while I'm talking about the different kinds
of leca I will talk about ceramsite ceramsite is what is sometimes sold as mini leca it's colored
leca which in most cases is not leca as we know it it's not expanded it's not lightweight these
little balls are actually quite heavy and don't have the same kind of capillary action that
normal leca like the one that I've just shown you over here has so what will tend to happen is
if you grow your plant in that ceramsite which is not expanded your plant is not going to do well
because it won't be receiving the moisture from the reservoir that it would if it was growing in
normal leca and invariably your plant is going to die so what brand of leca should you use well there
are numerous numerous brands of leca depending on where you live in the world that will of course
determine what you have access to one thing I highly suggest you do is contact a hydroponic shop
close to where you live find out what they stock find out what brand people living around your
area use and probably that is one way I would go another way to figure out what's the best brand
to use for you is to go on some Facebook groups there are lots of Facebook groups there lots of
places online where you can find communities of people who grow plants using leca clay balls and
you can ask them what brands they use and that's generally a good way to find out what a brand that
works for other people otherwise there are lots and lots of a sales of leca on places like eBay on
Amazon that really can be a little bit suspicious and you really should be making sure that your
leca is good leca before you start because that is the basis of everything if your leca is terrible
your plants are probably not going to do well and you will then say that growing your plants in
leca didn't work so the first thing you need to do is get yourself some great leca clbl to use
one thing that's really important for people to understand when they're starting to grow their
plants using leca clay balls is leca clay balls unlike potting mix or soil do not have any nutrition so
when you're growing your plants in leca clay balls you need to provide nutrition via nutrient Solutions
or fertilizers and I'll talk a bit more about what kind of fertilizers you need to use when you're
growing your plants in leca a bit further on into the video but this is something that's very very
important you need to pro provide that nutrition for your plants that are living in leca clay balls
right so you've identified a brand of leca that is perfect for you and it is in the bag depending
on what kind of bag You've Got 5 l 10 L 25 L whatever you need to prepare your leca when
you get your leca straight out of the bag it is going to be as dirty as depending on the brand
of leca some brands of leca tend to be cleaner than others but generally the leca is going to have a
lot of clay dust on its surface so the first thing you're going to need to do is rinse off your leca
and that cleaning process when you first put that first batch of leca under that tap or in that
water it is going to be filthy it is going to be really dirty so the objective is to try and
get that water T that you're using to clecan your leca running as clear as you can get it you
don't want all that dust actually living with your plant it's actually really quite dirty and
you don't know what is in that dust so you want to get it off so that is the first thing rinse your
leca off as much as you can get that water running as clear as you can the next part of the process
of cleaning your leca clay balls tends to be a little bit controversial because not everybody subscribes
to this method this is where you soak your leca in water or nutrient solution you can give it one
two three soaks depending on how much time you've got and how you know how precious the plants are
that you're transitioning that will determine all those things but the soaking what you're doing
with the soaking is getting all those bits of clay or bits of crud that are within the leca clay
balls to actually seep out of the Leca clay balls and get them cleaner I'll give you an example of
this well I'll give you some evidence of how you can tell that there's actually a lot of deposits
inside your leca so when you get some clean water and check the reading of the total dissolved
solids and total dissolved solids are items that are dissolved in our water there's every water
has got total dissolved solids in it unless it's distilled or highly purified water so you just
get we water from the tap you've got dissolved solids in there and it's minerals all bacteria
all sorts of things you measure that so in my case in Melbourne when I measure my tap water it's
about 33 right so if I get leca that I've cleaned off that is water's running clear and I soak it
in there for a few hours or for 24 hours when I check the total dissolve solids reading of that
water it is raised by hundreds hundreds of units and I've done a video where I show this experiment
you can click on the link above and it'll take you straight to it that is telling me that I've got
total dissolved solid I've got dissolved solids in my leca that have gone from my leca into my
water so can you imagine what this would have done if I hadn't soaked my leca and have that go into
my plant who knows how that would have affected the health of my plant so I like to on the side
of caution and I soak my leca for not less than 24 hours especially if I'm using that leca for the
very first time it's different if you've used that leca for another plant before and all you're
doing is cleaning the leca but if you're using that leca straight out of the bag you really do
want to soak that leca a few times before you use it for your plants especially if you're using
it for some really really special plants that you love plants like this one for example if you've
got your special Thai constellation that you're wanting to put in leca for the very first time
you probably want to soak that leca to make sure that it's a okay for your precious plants another
thing that you can do instead of just soaking your leca clay balls in water is you can actually
soak your leca in nutrient Solutions so you can use Solutions like cal mag you can use Solutions
like um rooting agent something like clonex clone solution and that helps displace the solids that
are within the leca with the solids that are in your nutrient solution that are useful for your
plants so that's something that you might want to think of doing if you've got a bit more time on
your hands and you really want to get that leca as optimized as you possibly can let's talk about
choosing the right plants when you're growing your plants in leca if you are new to growing plants
in leca my advice to you is use a plant that you are not very precious about use something that
you can live with if your transition doesn't go according to plan that is the first thing I'm
going to suggest to you do not use the plant that your grandmother left for you before she died that
is not advisable you can transition that plant once you've got a bit more experience under your
belt so easy plants like pothos groups of plants for example so I've got this neon pothos over here they
work very very well in leca clay balls and they're cheap and easy to find lots of philodendrons do
really well in Leca monsteras like that one they do really really well in leca clay balls so plants that
are generally happy go-lucky easygoing plants will generally be okay especially when you're starting
out in leca clay balls but talking about plants as well you really need to look at the plant that
you're wanting to move from soil to leca look at the care that you need to provide for this plant
what kind of plant is it does it like to have a little a little water or does it like to have
a lot of water is it is it a plant that's like a cactus is it a plant that needs a lot of light
is it a plant that needs a lot of humidity examine these things and figure out whether these are the
conditions that you're actually able to provide in your environment because if you're not able
to provide these conditions for your plant even before you transition it to leca the chances are
that that transition is not going to be a success and that plant is not going to have a happy life
in leca it's not going to thrive and then of course you'll turn around and say that leca did not work
for you but you didn't take into account all the other things that you needed to put in place for
your plant so it's really important to know what it is you need to provide for your plant before
you even start thinking about moving it from soil to leca there are so many plants that can thrive
in leca clay balls all the plants that you see around me here are living in leca clay balls I've got alas
living in leca clay balls I've got peperomias over here they absolutely love it this is my Philodendron
tortum that is a loving life in leca clay balls I've shown you my monstera Thai constellation my pothos there
are a myriad of plants that you can grow in leca calatheas peace lilies just to name a few so it's very
possible to grow any plants that you love to grow in leca clay balls in leca the secret is to understand
what the plant needs and to tailor your care even though it's growing in leca clay balls to its specific
needs if you do that you will succeed so you've got a plant and you're looking to transition
it from soil to leca there are a few things that you need to do to prepare your plant the first
thing you need to do is of course research your plant and make sure you understand its needs
we've talked about that you need to make sure that your plant is healthy does it look like a
healthy specimen for you to transition because if your plant is already struggling it's already
on The Struggle Bus before you move it from soil to leca the chances are that that transition is
not going to go well because the that plant is already got issues and when you move it from soil
to leca that's stressing it out even more so the chances of that transition going well are slim to
non-existent at best check and make sure that your plant does not have any pest infestations because
of course a plant that's got pests on it is already not doing very well and when you do that
transition it doesn't is not that plant is not as robust as it would be if it wasn't infested with
those pests so make sure you check whether your plant has got any pests and if it does sort all
that out before you start doing your transition because if you don't it is only just going to
lecad to disaster so you've prepared your plant you've prepared your leca and you are now ready
for the transition what do we need to do so the first thing you're going to do obviously is take
your plant out of the soil now this is something a lot of people struggle with as well especially
depending on the kind of plant that you've got if your plant has got more delicate roots then you
really need to be careful about how you take your plant out of the soil the method I use is true
and tested for me I'll take my plant out of the pot Take It Outside and use my hose I'll start
off initially with the shower setting of my hose and eventually get down to the jet setting and
that just gets rid of all that organic matter and soil and I have nothing to worry about that
works really really well and I don't have to to worry about wasting water or anything like that
because invariably I'm doing it over my lawn or some plants outside and that water is used for
other things that works excellently other people actually soak their plants in a bucket in some
water and leave that plant for a few minutes for a few hours and when they get back all that
organic matter and soil is loosened off and they just use their fingers is to take it off a few
people use a little brush soft brush like a toothbrush just brush those roots and you're able
to get all that soil and organic matter off but I do have to mention that the point here is not
to get your roots clinically clean the point is not to get them as pristine as you can get them no
no the point is to get off as much of that organic matter off as possible you're trying not to damage
the roots here if you damage The roots the chances of your plants transitioning well go really really
low so the point is to get off as much as you can and leave the rest there so you don't have to
worry about getting it really looking sparkling clean as most as you can is what we're looking for
here the next step when you're transitioning plant there's two methods here the first method is what
I like to call the long method and the next method is where you're transitioning your plant and
putting it straight into leca after that washing off of the soil so I'll start with the long method
so the long method I like to call it the long method is obviously I call it the long method
because it takes a longer time before you can actually get your plant from soil into leca and
this method is really a gentle way of introducing the hydro way of life to your plants it's a gentle
way of getting it from living in soil to living in leca and once you've taken your plant out of that
pot and clean Off The roots You are putting that plant into either water or you're putting it in a
nutrient solution that is great for rooting I like to use clonex clone solution for my rooting when
I am doing the long method but you don't have to use clonix clone solution if it's not available
for you people use Rapid start any solution that you can find that will help your plant feed the
plant and help the rooting process you can use that but like I said you can even use water for
the long method and what we're doing with the long method is we are gently trying to get those
roots used to living in a hydro environment so we're taking them out of the soil environment and
getting them used to living in a Hydro environment what we're not doing and this is usually a
misconception that people get when we're talking about the long method they think what we're doing
is turning those roots into water roots that's not what we're doing because there's no such
thing as water roots there's no such thing as soil roots or water roots there's only roots that
are used to living in soil and roots that are used to living in a hydro environment or water so what
then happens when you're growing your plants when you put your plant in the long method is some
of those roots are actually going to transition they're going to start getting used to living in
that water environment and they'll be happy and they'll continue but in that process as well you
actually The roots continue growing so you might have new roots that grow that come off those older
soil roots as it were so you've got some lovely new roots that come from there but you've also got
some of the old roots that actually Slough off and die and that's where it's really important for you
to replenish that water or that nutrient solution weekly or two weekly and as you're getting rid
of that water you're getting rid of those roots that have died as well but you're also refreshing
the nutrient for those roots and you're giving it fresh oxygen so the long method really is a gentle
way you take your plant out of the soil you wash off the organic matter all the soil you put it in
your solution or your water change that water or solution every week or every two weeks to refresh
the nutrient solution and the oxygen and your plant is going to devel is going to have roots
that get used to living in the water environment or the old roots are going to die off but what
that does is it gets your plant into a state where it gently gently gently very ever so gently
changes its living space okay cause plants are a little bit like people they don't like change you
have to introduce change gradually and that's what the long method does for you so once your plant
has been living in that solution for a few weeks even a few months then you'll see those new roots
or those roots old roots are stronger and they're not dying it means they're happy to live in that
environment then at that point is when you put your plants into the leca clay balls and that plant
is invariably going to thrive so this is a method I like to use when I've got really really special
plants that I don't want to sort of lose in that transition process so if you've got a very special
Thai constellation for example a really really special plant that you think might not survive
the direct transition that is the method you'll be using the other method is changing your plant
directly from soil you wash the The roots the soil Off The roots and you put it straight into the
leca cbls and by and large the majority of my soil to leca transitions I use the direct method
most plants are quite happy to go straight from soil into that method they work it works really
really well I've done this for my bird of paradise my fiddle lecaf figs my monsteras monsteras are
very happy to go directly from s like a ho is particularly love it so this is a method that you
can use so you can use two methods your plants will transition okay now that we've got that
out of the way let's talk about reservoirs so once you've put your plant into the leca clay
like that you're going to need to put it in a reservoir and this Reservoir you can see there
this is the reservoir that contains the nutrient solution that's going to feed your plants because
remember I talked about the fact that leca clay balls do not have any nutrition so we need to provide
nutrients to our plants through this solution so there's different ways in which you can put your
plant into the cache pot and I'll talk about that a little bit later but this is what is called
the submerged method and in here is my nutrient solution but I'll double back a little bit here
and I'll talk about how you actually place your plants in the pot so when you're potting up your
plant in leca clay balls you're going to fill up your pot about a third of the way right and then
you'll put your plant on top and the reason we're filling that Nursery pot a third of the way is
we don't want those roots that are not used to living in a hyro environment to be exposed to the
nutrients that are going to be in our cache pot and so remember that third right so because we've
put our nut a plant a third of the way up we're going to make sure that our nutrient solution is
a third of the way or lower than that because in that way we're ensuring that our roots are not in
contact with that nutrient solution not until they get used to living in that hyro environment where
it's fine to leave them in that space so yeah that is how you put your plant up so it's really
important to make sure that you have that Gap you've got that buffer of leca that's going to be
in touch with the nutrient solution that does not have those initial roots those roots that were in
in the soil in contact with the nutrient solution in the reservoir let's talk about leca setups and
leca pots so there's generally two ways in which you can set up your plant you can use what is
know known as the submerged method this is the submerged method where you've got your Nursery
pot which contains your plant and your leca sitting directly in the cache pot and this pot this
Nursery pot is in direct contact with the nutrient solution that's in the cache pot so you can see
when I pick that up that it's in contact with that nutrient solution and it drips over there so this
is a submerged setup and you can also have what is known as the wick setup so this plant over here is
in a wick setup and you can see that in the wick setup you've got the use of a wick that is a wick
over there what happens in the wick setup is this Nursery pot which contains your plant and your
leca is not in direct contact with the nutrient solution that's inside that cachee pot only the
week is in contact with that nutrient solution different people have got different preferences
some people prefer the wick setup other people prefer the submerged setup you notice that for a
lot of my plants I use the submerged setup only because it's easier for me to do that because
I don't have I don't need to find an outer pot for my pot that where it's going to be suspended
whereas when you're using the submerged setup you need to make sure that your inside pot or your
Nursery pot is actually suspended from the top of that cache pot and that can be a bit different
difficult to find so I generally don't do that but one of the most important differences between
the submerged setup and the wick setup is usually generally the submerged setup tends to be a lot
wetter than the wiek setup so because this leca in this wick setup is really entirely dependent
on that little wick so that Wick will bring up the nutrient solution to the leca that's around
the little w and that via capillary action goes to the rest of the plant so it does tend to be a
little bit drier whereas this you can imagine I mean you've literally got depending on the depth
of your Reservoir you can have nutrient solution all the way up to there so this system just tends
to be a lot wetter than the wick system now this becomes really important especially when you're
trying to choose a setup for a specific plant so for example when I've got plants like cacti I'm
probably going to use a wick setup because those are plants that don't like wet feet they don't
like to be consistantly moist so using a wick setup in that case is good because it's a lot drier so
when you're transitioning your plants or thinking about pot setups it's good to think about the
kind of plant that you're dealing with and what kind of environment your plant prefers because if
you put your Cactus for example or your zz plant in a submerged set up with a very deep Reservoir
then that plant is probably not going to be happy and it's going to end up with root rot and then
you will say that I killed my plant because I was using leca not the case you needed to understand
what are the needs of your plants and how you can modify your setup to make that acceptable so for
example when I'm growing my ZZ plants I don't have I don't think I've got any of my ZZ plants in a
in a wick setup I've got all my ZZ plants and a submerged setup but instead of having a very deep
Reservoir I've got a very shallow Reservoir it's pretty much a dish and what that allows me to do
is make sure that the amount of nutrient in there is very little just a little because that's all
that plant needs I don't want it to be wet so just thinking about things like that is what's going to
help you succeed when you're growing your plant in leca just you know think about things just a little
bit carefully and you will definitely be heading in the right direction let's talk about pots what
kind of pots do you use what kind of pots should you use what kind of pots can you use when you're
growing your plants in leca the the choice of pots is as deep as the ocean and is entirely dependent
of the breadth of your imagination you can have DIY options you can have more expensive options
it is entirely up to you so I like to use my DIY options for the majority of my plants and that's
just because I have so many plants and my DIY option is this this is just a nursery pot that is
used for any other plant and all I do is put holes in those pots and by doing that I create what is
called a net pot so you can get net pots that are specifically for semih hydrop plants lots of semih
Hydroponics shops have them or semi Hydroponics websites you can get them but I like to use the
DIY option just use what you have so pots that you come in when you buy them from the nursery just
make holes in them and voila you've got a DIY net pot over there and you can also have simple cachee
pots this is a pot liner and I put this black tape around it I put the black tape around my pot liner
because I don't want my plants to develop algae so when you've got plants that are living in semih
Hydroponics this nutrient solution in here is nutrient Rich it's it's food right so algae algae
is all around us it's everywhere you can't get rid of algae algae will seed in that nutrient solution
and given the right conditions which is light food water the algae will start to bloom and grow so
you'll end up with red green looking yucky stuff all around your plant and all around your pot so
in order to stop the algae from growing all you need to do is cover your pot or get an opaque
cache Pot like this and by doing that you don't have any algae but okay where was I I was talking
about the different kinds of pots so one of the pots that I use is this one this is a little cute
pot it's a naked rooted planter and it's two pots in one so you've got the inner pot that's got all
those slits that allows for my for the air to go through those roots which is the reason why I make
the holes in my net pot when I'm doing my DIY net pot and it's got the little cache pot over there
and that act as the reservoir so that's one option this is something that you would have to buy
obviously costs money so if maybe you don't have as many plants as I do and you want your plants
to really look gorgeous something like that is an option you also have things like this so this is
a self-watering planter this is a Lechuza pot it's a Lechuza mini deltini I absolutely love this pot
because I just I love Lechuza pot it looks amazing it looks beautiful it looks really nice in my home I
love the fact that it's got that little indicator over there so it tells me what's happening in
my reservoir do I have nutrient solution in my reservoir or not and when it's depleting that
little indicator the little red indicator goes down so I know I need to fill that up the thing
I love about this mini deltini as well though is it's actually it's it's a wick system so some Lusa
pots do have a wick others do not so you just just have to look at the pot that you're thinking
about and see whether that's an option but I I love them so for this particular pot I actually
put those little holes ventilation holes in that b myself because I'm of the camp that believes that
ventilation holes really help with getting that air to my roots and in so doing preventing root
rot not everybody believes that but I believe that and I truly believe that it's one of the reasons
why I've had a lot of success growing my plants in leca clay balls so that's another option that you
can use I've also got these little pots these are little pots from the lecafy brand and they also
have an inside pot and an outside pot now these pots actually don't come with these ventilation
holes I put those ventilation holes and I put this little wick on there so that I could make this uh
Wick setup I absolutely love them I love these as well because they're clecar and because they're
clear I can actually see what's going on with my roots you'll find that I love to use Clear
pots when I'm growing my plant in leca clay balls let me see this isn't going back in hang on there we
go I love to use Clear pots you don't have to use Clear pots and I don't have clear pots for all my
plants but what clear pots allow me to do is take a look at my roots I can see what's going on here
and there's a lot to be said for looking at roots there's just a whole group of people that just
love looking at roots I happen to be one of them but apart from just looking at them because they
make you feel good you can see what's happening with the health of those roots and if there's
root rot that's setting in it's very easy to catch it early and deal with it as quickly as you
can before it actually kills your plant completely so that's the thing I love about clecar pots but
I should state that clear pots are not necessary you can use any colour pot that you like cuz you
can see this isn't a clear pot I'm using that so there are quite a number of pots that I have
that aren't clear so clear pots are an option so there's there's a multitude of pots that you
can use for semi Hydroponics so just be creative think outside the box and just you know the
world is your oyster I'll give you a little tip here when looking for cache pots you know cachee pots
like this so this is one plant where I've got this plant in a DIY um net pot right but I've got this
cachee pot what I do when I'm walking around the shops when I know I'm going shopping I'll usually
bring along my little Nursery pots just empty ones like this one and my 14 cm one the more the pots
I use more commonly 10 cm and 14 cm I'll bring them with me I'll have them in my bag and when I'm
just browsing and I come across a ceramic pot that doesn't have a hole in it and you know those are
really hard to find if it doesn't have a hole hole in it and it's glazed on the inside so that water
is Can it can actually contain a nutrient solution of water I'll take my little pot I'll put it in
there and see whether it fits and if it fits then I'm probably going to buy that pot and use it as
a cache pot so that's a little tip that's something you can do and that will add to your cachee pot
store and you can have your pots looking as lovely as you want to have them look so yeah try
it let's talk about water water is the elephant in the room when you're growing your plants in leca
the quality of the water that you're using to mix up your nutrient solution is very very important
one thing I'd advise you to do before you start growing your plants in leca clay balls is to know
the quality of your water so you can call up your local water company or whatever whoever supplies
your water or have your water tested and just to have a rough idea of what is coming out of
your tap if you are going to be using tap water whether the total dissolve solids what's the pH of
your water what are the minerals in there what's the level of calcium you know what's your chlorine
what's your chloramine levels all these things do end up being important in the long run when you're
mixing up your nutrient Solutions and that's also going to determine how your plants actually absorb
that nutrient and able to grow well so I'll give you an example of what I do for me so in we've
got excellent water in Melbourne our water is absolutely fantastic when I take my water out of
the tap the amount of total dissolved solids in there is about 33 which is so much lower than a
lot of people around the world have and the pH is exactly where I need it to be so I use a foliage
Focus which is my primary nutrient when for my plants that are growing in lacquer when I mix my
foliage Focus as is recommended and this is only foliage Focus Focus I check the pH of my nutrient
solution it lies between 5.5 and 6.5 exactly where I needed to be for most of my plants that are
growing in leca it's fine I don't need to do anything else and I can use that to grow my plants
and it is good sometimes when I'm feeling a little bit frisky there is the thing about chlorine and
chloramine you can lecave your water out for 24 hours put it under some UV braids put it Under
the Sun and you'll have all that chlorine and chloramine um dissipating so your water is a lot
better some people actually use rain water other people use reverse osmosis water if the quality of
the water coming out of your tab is not great so reverse osmosis water you can buy reverse osmosis
water or you can go to reverse osmosis water unit that you'd have under your sink or for your whole
house there's different ways in which you can get good water so I highly recommend understanding the
quality of the water that you've got coming out of your tap and what is the best way of getting
that water to be in its optimal condition for your plants that are living in leca of course this
isn't something that should scare you off growing your plants in leca clay balls but it is something
that's really really important and it's something important for you to keep in mind and if you do
want to do this longterm it's something I highly recommend you check out out nutrients let's talk
about nutrients that you use when you're growing your plants in leca so as we've stated already when
you're growing your plants in leca you must must must give your plants nutrients because leca does
not have any nutrients if you lecave your plant in water and people talk about I grow my plants
in hydro and I lecave it in water and I don't put anything for months I just cringe and I Shake
in my boots because I'm thinking that is just wrong every living thing needs food to grow every
living thing needs building blocks in order to make its food and by you not providing the right
conditions for your plants the right nutrients for your plants you are just killing that plant
slowly it might not die today it might not die next week it might not die in six months but one
day it is going to cark it because everything needs food anyway rant over everything needs
food and for plants that are grow growing in leca or semih Hydroponics you need a nutrient that
has been specifically formulated for plants that are growing in Hydroponics what you are not doing
is going to your local store your local Bunnings your local Lowe's going and picking up any good
old fertilizer off the shelf and using that for your plant in leca that is wrong you might
be lucky if that nutrient solution has been formulated for plants in Hydroponics but you
might not the nutrient solution needs to be formulated for plants in Hydroponics I'll tell
you why when you're growing your plants in soil or in potting mix that soil or that potting mix
has got bacteria it's got fungi it's got microbes it's got all it's it's a biome it's got all sorts
of living things in there it's Rich potting mix is a living thing those living things that
are living in that potty mix will receive the fertilizer that you give them and they will
break that fertilizer down into components that the plant is then going to absorb and use in the
process of photosynthesis to make food and grow that's basically how that works right now when
you've got a plant that's living in leca clay balls which don't have any fungi or microbes or anything
in that system it doesn't have a microbiome that's set up to break down down those nutrients that
fertilizer what will then happen is that nutrient will just sit there and your plant is not able to
absorb it because it's in a state that the plant can't use it's in a state that the plant can't
absorb it's not available the nutrients need to be available to the plant in a form that's available
to the plant so nutrient Solutions or fertilizers that have been made for plants that are growing in
Hy Hydroponics are in a state that the plant can absorb that's really really important to realize
so what you are not doing is getting your fish Emulsion that you've been using for your plants
growing in soil your sea soil and putting that in your plant that is not going to help your plant
and I'll tell you your plant will probably be okay for the first few weeks not much will probably
happen because plants have reserves in stores but at some point things are going to go peir shaped
and your plant is going to die and then you'll say it's the lecker that killed your plant no it's not
the leca that killed your plant it's the fact that you didn't provide your plant with food that
it was able to take in so it's really important to understand the type of nutrient that you need to
give your plant now if you're not sure about what nutrient you need to give your plant this is where
you again go back to people who are a little bit more knowledgeable so and some sometimes if you
go to your hydroponic shop they might know go to groups of people that are growing their plants in
semi Hydroponics or in leca they will probably stir you in the right direction they will know what
nutrients they use in that specific country so for example I use growth technology folage Focus I'm
in Australia I know people in the UK for example pe people in other European countries can't get
access to foliage Focus not a lot of people in the United States get access to Foliage Focus but
there's other things to use out there there's the Flora series there's the dagro pro there's all
sorts of other nutrients that are formulated for plants that are growing in Hydroponics that you
can use so all you need to do is just dig a little bit deeper and find out what those are another
way you can know what's a good nutrient solution is by looking at the guaranteed analysis of that
nutrient that guaranteed analysis is is what tells you what's actually in that nutrient it tells you
how much potassium there is how much phosphorus how much you know calcium how much manganese all
these things so you get to find out what is what are the macronutrients what are the micronutrients
and you can tell whether this is good enough for your plant or not some plants need more phosphorus
some plants need more nitrogen that guaranteed analysis is what's going to tell you what's
in there if a nutrient solution doesn't have a guaranteed analysis I would be running for the
heels running away from that nutrient solution because it's probably not one you want to be
using another reason why it's really important for you to know what the guaranteed analysis of a
nutrient solution is is if your nutrient solution has got certain gaps in that you know maybe the
amount of calcium in there is not as high as your plant requires you're then able to supplement the
calcium so you might add to your nutrient solution some calcium you might need to add some magnesium
you might need to add certain things that are not as available in your primary nutrient so it's
really helpful to know that guaranteed analysis and that brings me on to additives so primarily
you can probably get away with just using a single nutrient solution if you're just using a single
one or or the Three Bottle one or however your primary one is but as you go along in the hobby
you might want to start thinking about other things other things that will enhance the growth
of your plant so for example things like silica you might add silica silica is great because
it's it's it's it increases the strength in your cell walls of your plant it makes your plant
more robust it's more able to resist disease it just becomes a generally stronger plant so you
might I think of doing that some people swear by silica for keeping their variegated plants nice
and wide so if you've got a variegated plant like your Thai constellation some people say if you use
Silica that white bit there is going to stay nice and white and not going to go Brown and Mankey so
you might want to do that you might want to add calmag because you don't have a lot of calcium in
your primary nutrient solution you might want to add things like beneficial bacteria which end up
being really good for your root system and of of course we all know that if the root system of your
plant is healthy and happy then the leaves and the rest of your plant is going to be happy as well so
there's all these things that you can add to your nutrient solution as you go along as you become
more confident in growing plants in leca that will enhance your plants even more than what they can
be because what growing your plants in leca will do is it allows you to optimize and optimize is
the word you can just fine-tune right down to the micronutrient what your plant needs give it
that and things just absolutely explode I should mention that if you are going to start looking
at adding things to your nutrient solution so if you're going to look at adding silica if you're
looking at adding calcium beneficial bacteria and all those kinds of things there's certain ways
in which you need to mix these things there's an order in which they need to be mixed in because
if you add your Nutri nutrient solution before you add your silica you add your silica at a
different point you might end up having what is called a nutrient lockout and that nutrient
actually ends up not being available for your plants despite the fact that you've provided
it but you've mixed it wrong and because you've mixed it wrong there's certain chemical reactions
that have taken place in those solutions that will maybe make the calcium not available or make the
pottassium not available so you want to make sure you're doing it right and you want to make sure
that you've got the pH at the right level for your specific plant so that's a bit more than the
101 course that we're doing today that's something we can discuss at a later date or there's lots
of information out there about how you need to mix your nutrients but that is something that
you need to be aware of okay now that we've got water quality and nutrients out of the way let's
talk about watering let's talk about how you're actually going to maintain the reservoir of your
plant that's living in leca so how do you actually get the water not the water the nutrient solution
how do you actually get the nutrient solution in that Reservoir some people water from the top
some people water from the bottom or from the side in my practice I don't think it really matters
whether you're watering from the top or whether you're watering from the side sometimes you might
find that it's actually not easy for you to access the side of your pot it's okay to water from the
top the plant will be happy it's not going to to kick up a fuss so for example I've got my serapia
simonia living in my Lechuza pot over here when I see that my indicator has gone down I just water
that from the top and I watch that Bob up to the top and that's how I do it for my other plants
I water from the side it doesn't really matter as as far as my practice goes I haven't noticed
any difference so yeah have at it water in the way that works best for you and your plants but
it's really important for you to understand that depending on the age of your plant and how long
it's been living in leca you want to make sure that you're keeping that Reservoir at the level that
you need to keep it at so if your plant is new to leca and still doesn't have those roots going
down to the bottom you want to make sure that that Reservoir is slightly lower less than that third
where those roots are so slightly lower but if your plant has been living in leca for a while like
this one you know you can be a bit more liberal with how you top up your Reservoir I'll give you
an example of my spider plants my spider plant is a very thirsty plant it drinks like crazy so I
tend to actually fill the reservoir all the way up to the top and the reason I do that is I know that
within the next 2 days all that nutrient solution will be gone because that plant is just thirsty
now I would not do that for a plant like an aliccia because I know that alasas do not like to
have wet feet they don't like to have their roots wet so I keep that Reservoir a little bit lower
than I would when I'm doing that with my spider plant so it's again coming back to understanding
what your plant needs observing your plants as you're taking care of them it's really the best
way because there are a lot of conditions that determine how quickly for example your Reservoir
RS dry so depending on the growing season so when your plants are really actively growing like
in the spring or in the summer oh my goodness you will find that you're filling up those
reservoirs so many times you know and depending on the temperature if it's really hot as well that
plant is just going to drink up drink up drink up drink up but when you're not in the growing season
Autumn wintertime temperatures are low there isn't a lot of sunlight chances are that Reservoir is
not going to be filled up for weeks because that plant is not drinking drinking as much as it would
so you're playing things by ear and you're seeing what's happening with the growth of your plant
and how it's actually utilizing that Reservoir so it's a game that you and your plant will get
to play and as you understand each other better you will know when and how frequently you need
to change that Reservoir let's also talk about exactly what you're doing with your Reservoir are
you topping up the reservoir or are you chucking out the nutrient solution that's in your Reservoir
and putting fresh nutrient solution in there this is a really interesting subject which um yeah
it's very interesting I'll tell you what I do and then I'll tell you what I advise so I have
like 2 million plants in my home obviously not 2 million I don't have the luxury of treating
every plant with kid gloves and I have a very busy life outside of taking care of my plants
so most times I find that I am just topping up my plants I'm topping up my reservoirs what I'm
not doing is going and clecaning them and putting fresh nutrient solution and getting rid of the old
one I'm just topping up which in and of itself is not the best practice but do my plants survive and
are my plants thriving yes could my plants Thrive better if I threw out the old nutrient solution
and just put fresh ones probably I don't know I'll never know until I start doing that but what do I
advise you to do I advise you to take your plant if your nutrient solution has been in there for 2
weeks I'll advise you to take that take this whole thing to the sink throw this nutrient solution
away or you know if you've got other plants that are living in soil or you know plants outside
throw that there throw that there so you're not wasting it maybe I don't know throw that there
as a lot of people do throw it in there wash out the reservoir clecan clecan that out because
you'll find it's quite dirty you've got the leca dust that always comes in you'll never get rid of
leca dust it always comes so don't worry about it you've got the leod dust it's a bit Mankey and
then if you've got you might have some bits of roots in there you might have some bits of flowers
for example if you've got hoers and your Hoya is flowed all those little flowers are going to drop
into your Reservoir depending on whether it's open or not so throw that out wash it out clecan it out
make sure it's nice and fresh put in some fresh nutrient solution your plant is going to love you
for it because a that nutrient solution has got everything that it needs it's clecan and it's got
fresh oxygen in that nutrient solution as well so it's great this is what I recommend you do this
is what you must always do people if you can do it do it if you can't do it it's not the end of the
world your plants are not going to die plants are very resilient look at mine it's not the end of
the world but I highly recommend that you do while we're on the subject of water Ing and reservoirs
we'll talk about flushing flushing is something that people that grow their plants in leca or in
semi Hydroponics will come across time and time again it's a very important thing that you need
to do for your plants so what is a flushing anyway flushing is when you take your plant you take your
little pot you put it under some running water and it just washes off your plant right it washes
off the leca it washes off your plant refreshes everything why is Flushing important I said
it already it will refresh your leca so you've got it's been sitting in that nutrient solution
it's been absorbing nutrient solution your plant absorbs what it needs lives out what it doesn't so
you've got all sorts of weird things happening in there that clean water will just wash everything
away and make it clean it's like you taking a shower it feels so good when you've taken a shower
right same thing for your plant what it also allows you to do is clean the lecaves of your plant
especially when you've got little lecaves like these you know it's really difficult to sit down
with your Hoya and clean every single lecaf but flushing allows you to just clean off the plants
you're cleaning off the plant you're cleaning off the leca it's fantastic and then at the same
time you're cleaning off your Reservoir you're putting fresh nutrient solution what flushing also
allows you to do is get rid of the efflorescence the efflorescence is that white stuff that
accumulates at the top of your leca so if you've had your leca sitting in that nutrient solution
for a while you might get this white stuff which is not mold we're not talking about mold we're
talking about e florescence you can see that it's little powdery stuff and when you flush your plant
all that just gets washed away it's deposits that have accumulated from your nutrient solution from
your water it could be calcium it's just all sorts of deposits and that just gets washed away and it
refreshes your leca so flushing is something that is highly recommended how frequently do you need
to flush look it depends on how many plants you've got how frisky you're feeling about the whole
taking care of plants in leca process people do it every Fortnight some people do it every
month can you get away with not flushing your plants for longer than that yes you can there
are a lot of people I know who actually don't flush their plants at all so it is possible to do
but then again it really comes back to what is it what kind of practice do you want to do for your
plants we know that it's good practice to flush right we know what the benefits of flushing are so
yeah it's it's good to flush your plants whenever you can flush your plants I highly recommend
that you do you're now an expert you've moved your plant from soil to leca it's living its best
life in the leca cables but how do you make sure that your plant actually thrives because leca is
just a medium it's just one thing it's just the substrate that the plant grows into you need
to make sure your plant is getting the amount of light that it needs remember circling back to
researching your plant and what it needs to thrive make sure you're giving your plant the light that
it needs so you've either put your plant in front of a lovely window where it's getting unobstructed
direct bright indirect sunlight or whatever kind of sunlight that it needs you've got it in front
of a sheer curtain if that's what it needs and if your home or the place where you've got what
your plant does not have the light that it needs you've probably got a grow light on there to make
sure that your plant gets that light that it needs there's ways that you can make sure that the plant
is getting the light that it needs you need to make sure the plant is getting that light because
it doesn't matter how well you take care of your plant in leca if it's not getting that light it is
never going to thrive same thing with humidity a lot of the plants that we keep in our home are
tropical plants right and a lot of plants that grow in the tropics it's humid there there's a
lot of humidity it's sometimes it can get to 70 80% humidity come to our homes you've got 20%
humidity that plant is not going to thrive so you want to make sure you're giving your plant
the humidity that it needs a simple way of doing that is grouping your plants together so you can
have your plants living in one spot in one room and they'll create a little micro climate and that
allows that humidity to go up you can also use a humidif fire if you need to but while we're on the
subject of humidity humidity is something that's really really important especially when you're
just in those early stages of transitioning your plants from soil to leca humidity can be your ally
so when you're transitioning especially plants that have got very very thin roots like peperomias
this kind of plant for example um plants like o let me see even some alocasias honestly plants
that really you're thinking these lecaves are they just need a little bit more support giving your
plant more humidity will help that transition it will help support the roots and a simple way of
doing this is just putting a plastic bag around that plant as you're doing that long method or as
you've just done the transition put a plastic bag around your plant that will raise the humidity
around those leaves support those leaves until the roots can kick in to give that moisture to
that plant and keep the turgor in those cells the turgor up so that your roots your leaves aren't
limp right and you can even after you've put it plant in the plastic bag put that plant that's
surrounded with a plastic bag in a propagation box for example so you've just really upping the
humidity or you can even use a cha to get that humidity up this so so many things you can do
to help your plants reach that humidity level that they need in order to help them survive this
is a little alocasia cutting that I got from an alocasia this plant does not have any roots all
I did was put the cutting in some leca that was pre- soaking and I put this humidity Dome I
got this from I think I got it from Ikea and you can see there's actually moisture around that
Dome so that plant has been well supported and and you can see those lecaves are firm they are
really really firm so in as much as this plant doesn't have any roots just yet it's the lecaves
are being supported by the humidity around there and yeah so humidity is something that you should
not Overlook so something as simple as this is a way in which you can support your plants in the
short term let's talk about some seasonal care tips you know we have seasons and things happen
with our plants in various Seasons so I absolutely love spring I love the growing season I know
every plant parent loves the growing season we all know what we need to do in Spring no dramas
our plants have got the maximum amount of light that they need they're probably nice and humid
they're growing it's all lovely come Autumn come winter things start to take a turn so when you're
growing your plants and like a clay balls one of the things you can do to help your plants along
because your plants aren't growing as much is you can actually d dilute your nutrient solution so
instead of giving them the full strength of the nutrient that you give you can dilute it so I use
foliage Focus for my plants at 5 mls per liter of water so when it's not the growing season in the
Autumn or the winter I'll maybe half that and give them 2.5 mls per liter because I know my plants
aren't growing as much so they don't need as much nutrient and one of the ways you can actually
tell that your plants aren't growing as much and don't need as much nutrient is you start to see
a lot of efflorescence you start to see a lot of white fluff on your leca during the Autumn and
the winter months because your plant isn't growing as much it's not taking up that nutrient solution
but because evaporation is still happening you get that nutrient or calcium and all the other things
that are in your nutrient solution precipitating on top of your leca and it manifests as that
white powder or that efflorescence so when I see that I know that I need to reduce the amount of
nutrient that I'm giving my plants but depending on the plant as well I know that I probably
need to support my plants by giving them a lot more light so that's when I'll either move
them closer to the window if they weren't closer to the window remove those sheer curtains if I
had the sheer curtains on during the summer time to protect them from the direct light or I might
actually turn my grow lights on or have more grow lights on those particular plants if want them
to keep growing especially for plants like alocasias that do have a dormy during the winter time you
want to give them those conditions where you're keeping them warm you're giving them the light
and chances are then they'll stay a little bit happy plants like Oxalis plants plants that
tend to just you know sense that conditions aren't right so I'm going to stop growing drop all
my lecaves and just be a bit of a drama queen so you might want to think about doing things like
that to help your plants through those seasons if you want to still have their company but of
course when you're looking at the summer months for example it gets really really hot so you want
to think about where you're placing your plants where is it is really in front of that window does
it need to be there but of course bearing in mind that because it's very very hot your plants are
taking up a lot of water and nutrients so you Pro you need to be a bit more Vigilant than you would
be in the summer months or the winter months in terms of having those reservoirs run dry because
they do run dry and especially if you're growing your plants using the wicking method it's very
possible that your plant will actually end up getting dry rot because they're not getting water
so you can see this is a plant that doesn't have any nutrient in that nutrient in that cache pot
so that is something that can happen especially in the summer months so you really need to just
be thinking about what are the processes that are happening in your plants and what do you
need to do to help them along let's talk about common problems root rot root rot is a common
problem that a lot of people experience when they're growing their plants in leca especially
newbie leca plant parents and I find that usually root frot is because the reservoir has not been
managed very well the plant has not been given the conditions that it needs so if you are putting
your Reservoir too high for example and your plant is just recently been transitioned to leca the
chances of it getting root rot are very high if you're not changing over your nutrient solution
regularly chances of root rot go up if you're not providing the plant with the conditions
that it needs light for example the plant is not achieving optimal conditions chances of root
rot go up again so you need to be thinking about all these things as you're taking care of your
plant making sure you're optimizing and as you're optimizing the chances of you getting things
like root rot are lower but if you do get root rot certainly you need to take that plant out of
that leca grab yourself some hydrogen peroxide 3% hydrogen peroxide make a solution whack your plant
in that hydrogen solution for a few hours up until it stops bubbling get rid of all those roots that
are rotted and you might need to actually re-root the plant so maybe you might need to do the long
method for your plant get that root system going really support that plant and when I say support
that plant I'm talking about upping the humidity if it needs it making sure the plant is warm
making sure the plant has got the most amount of light that it can tolerate so that it starts
to create more roots and is in a better position for when you put it back in those Le a cables so
it's again these are things that as you grow your plant in leca for a lot longer you get a knack
for these things and you get you can actually tell whether a plant is getting root Trot or Not
Another important thing actually is yellowing of leaves so when your plant starts to develop yellow
leaves for no particular reason and like oh what's going on here pick up the plant look at the roots
give it a whff if every if things are looking a bit sus you probably have root rot and that's
something you need to sort out pests I would love to say that plants growing in leca clay
balls don't get pests but that is just not true that is a serious m conception that people seem
to have what we end up not having are things like fungus gnats soil mites pests that are dependent on
potting mix or soil we generally don't have those but things like thrips things like spidermites oh
our plants are fair game so those are things that you can get anytime so again things like this
vigilance vigilance is what you need you need to be vigilant monitoring your plants all the time
so when you're taking care of your plants you're not just watering and walking off you are spending
time with your plant you are looking at the leaves is there anything different are there any streaks
on there grab yourself a magnifying glass or one of those Jeweler typy thingies with a little
light on there examine your leaves front and back examine the stem make sure that everything is
okay and if you do see something you are treating it immed immediately you are isolating that plant
isolating the plants around it inspecting them to and treating that plant accordingly so whether
you've got spite thrips whatever you put in all those protocols for how you're going to treat that
plant whether you're using your systemics you're using Foliar treatment just get in there and sort
that out immediately but talking about pests it would be remissive me to not talk about prevention
because ultimately prevention is better than cure we want to make sure our plants don't get
infestations of course they will because everybody gets pested right but you want to be vigilant
and try and stop things before they happen so when you get a new plant you are quarantining that
new plant my new plants quarantine in the garage before they even come into the house and see all
its new friends it have to prove that it doesn't have any pests so you're inspecting that plants
you're treating that plant if it does have pest before you introduce it to the general populance
but one of the things that I really advocate for is again prevention but by making sure that your
leaves are clean you have to clean your leaves so flushing will help you clean your leaves as
you're getting that water on the leaves that will help you clean your leaves which is excellent
but also just literally manually cleaning your lecaves so I've got what I like to call my clean
and pest deterrent spray that I make using neem oil and peppermint oil and I'll spray that on my
plant clean my lecaves and that not only keeps the leaves clean but it does act as a deterrent so
you must must must make sure that you clean your plants take the time commune with your plants
see how they're going if you see if there's any pest treat them immediately leca is a fabulous
medium for propagation if you have not propagated a plant in leca clay balls I urge you to do so it is
fantastic it propagates the plants propagate so well The roots come out so fantastically and your
plant is going to love you I propagate my Hoyas I propagate my filad dendrin I even germinate the
corms from my alocasias directly in leca clay balls and by using leca you're killing two birds with one
stone you are getting rid of one step so if you're propagating your plant in water for example you'll
propagate in water and then you'll need to either move it into soil potting mix or put it in leca
but if you propagate in leca that's where it lives that's where the plant lives it will get roots
and it will just live there so you don't have to come back and do something else you don't have
to disturb the roots roots are fine it's lovely plants love propagating in leca some people like
to actually put spagna moss on top of the leca when they're propagating to make sure that there's a
lot of moisture in there that's one way you can go but propagating and leca match made in heaven
I'm not going to tell you some Advanced tips and tricks that I use to make sure that my plants
thrive in leca the First Tool in my Arsenal is a heat mat I absolutely love heat mats they are
not expensive they work really well to raise the temperature around the root ball of your
plant and help those roots get nice and toasty and grow well I love to use a heat mat when I am
propagating my plants when I first transition my plants from soil to leca even when I'm doing the
long method I got my heat mat I put my plant over there and it is nice and toasty and they grow
really really well really really quickly so if you're wanting to ramp up the growth of your
plants growing in leca I highly recommend you grab yourself a heat mat the next thing that
I love to use is an Air stone connected to an air pump yep just the simple ones that you use in
your aquarium they are an absolute God send I use them when I am first transitioning my plants
or when I've got a few special projects so I will if I'm doing the long method for example
I will grab a little Air stone and I will put it inside the nutrient solution and what that
does is it in increases the oxygen levels in my nutrient solution so remember how I said you need
to refresh your nutrient solution every few weeks to make sure that you've got fresh oxygen in there
this just supercharges that nutrient solution and those roots just go absolutely ballistic I kid
you not so when I'm doing a special project or when I've got a plant that I really really love
that I'm concerned about I will put it in my long method put it on a heat mat and put my Air stone
in there so it's bubbling away it's heating away and that plant is just imp plant heaven and within
no time those roots are going to be happy and I'll have my plant in leca and it's absolutely thriving
I've used an Air stone when I was transitioning my fiddle lecaf fig my giant fiddle lecaf fig from
soil Sela I had an AirStone in there 247 for three months I kid you not and the roots that were
formed were just to die for so I cannot say enough about an Air stone I highly recommend you get one
if you don't have one grab yourself a ph and TDS or EC conductivity meter these are not things you
absolutely need to have but it's really important they're going to help you as you're mixing up your
nutrient Solutions you will then be able to mix up your nutrient Solutions well you know exactly what
you're doing you're taking the guess work out of it you're making sure your nutrient solution is
within the right parameters of pH for your plants to absorb the nutrients that you're providing
it's the right concentrations of nutrients for the right plants you're checking the conductivity
not something you must have but something I highly recommend that you get grow lights are something I
highly highly recommend you get if you don't have I use grow lights for a lot of my plants because
I have a lot of plants and I don't have as much window real estate so for plants that are not
living directly in front of a window a grow light is the only way to make sure they get the light
requirements that they need at the moment I've got probably in excess of eight grow lights in various
places within my home I know I've got a grow light that is shining on my bird of paradise plant
at the moment and I'm really hoping I can get that plant to flow there's no way I can get that
plant to flow while it's living inside the house without giving it the kind of light that it gets
when it's outside and the only way for me to do that is to use a grow light so if you don't have
adequate light in your home I highly recommend you get a grow light but to go with your grow light
I also recommend you get yourself a light meter because a light meter is what's going to tell you
exactly how much light your plant is getting so even if you don't have a grow light you might have
your plant living in your home you think that it's getting enough light but when you actually
use your grow light to test how much light it's getting you'll find that it is not enough
so I highly recommend you get one I have one I've got one that was made by Darryl of the house
plant Journal I absolutely love it and I use his parameters when I'm trying to figure out how much
light my plant needs and where to place my grow light how far or how how far away from my plant
or how close to my plant I need my grow light to be my grow light my light meter is what helps
me make those decisions so I highly recommend you get one if you don't a fan I know having a
fan is something that a lot of people wouldn't think of but especially like in the summer months
where it's really really hot you have the zero air movement around if you have a lot of plants
having a little bit of air that's moving around is a very helpful thing so I've just got few standup
fans dotted around my house I have them on a few times a day depending on the season and that just
moves around the air around my plants and I think they absolutely love it you could also get a
humidifier as well depending on the humidity levels in your home you might want to ramp up
that humidity a humidifier is an easy quick way of increasing the humidity around my home be
careful about using humidifiers though making sure that you're not growing mold in your home
so be very careful if you are going to go down the root of humidifier some very common growing
plants in Leca pitfalls people checking on their roots there is no need to check on your roots if
your plant is growing well there's nothing wrong with it you don't need to take your plant out of
the pot and check on the roots this is terrible we want to keep our plant in a steady state we
do not want to be disturbing The roots unless absolutely necessary because maybe your plant
has got root or something that's the only time you want to be taking your plant out of the pot
and checking on the roots as it were do not check on your roots another thing that you should not
be doing is randomly repotting your plants just because you see roots coming out of the bottom
of your Reservoir does not mean that you need to repot your plants so for example I've got my
Monera Tha constellation here I've got roots coming out from the bottom of my pot that is not
an indication for repotting I see a lot of people repotting their plants because this no no no no no
no do not do that you are causing damage to your plants these roots here are used to growing in a
hydro environment you can see I'm tugging at it there's absolutely nothing wrong with that root
it's not weak at all it's happy to live in that water lecave it alone the only time you need
to be reporting your plant is if that plant is rootbound there is so many roots completely
taking over the the pot that plant is starting to show signs of struggling so one of the things
I saw in my Calathea orbifolia was I didn't change the conditions everything was okay but my plants
started to get yellowing edges and at that point I thought this plant must be rootbound and indeed it
was that is the only time you need to be repotting your plant when it is rootbound do not report
your plants just because you think there are so many roots that you can see this is a common
common Pitfall do not fall prey to this leave your plants alone let them thrive in their space
the most important thing I'm going to say today people is you need to find your people you need to
find a leca Community you need to find people who doing what you're doing you cannot go and talk
to people who grow their plants in potty mix or in soil and talk to them about growing plants
in leca clay balls and the issues that you're having most of those people will probably tell
you that you are insane and you are doing your plant a disservice do not listen to them you need
to find your people people who are doing exactly what you're doing who understand what you're going
through who understand what your plants are going through and what you need to do to help them
Thrive it's so interesting how a lot of people out there are under the misconception that you
cannot grow plants long-term using leca clay balls this is just so untrue all the plants you see
around me are growing in leca clay balls some of them are really really big and all I did to get them
to get to this point is understand what the plant needs and I found myself a Leca community I have
a group of people that I have surrounded myself with who grow their plants in leca who understand
the media who help me when I need help because I don't know everything I don't have I haven't
experienced everything there is to experience when I'm growing my plants in leca so when I have
a problem I can contact my good friend Nige, I'll say to him what do I do here have you experienced this
and he'll say to me yep I've seen this kind of thing this is what you need to do I can contact
my good friend Alison the long-winded leca lady and she has a ton of experience growing plants in
leca and she will send me in the right direction I can contact Eve the leca addict and they'll
help me out I contact a lot of people who are on my semi Hydroponics Facebook page they contact
me they contact other people on that group and we help each other you can only get help from people
who are doing the same thing that you're doing if you go to other people they are going to tell
you all the reasons why what you're doing is not going to work so find your people find the people
who can support you who can enhance your hobby enhance your growth and help you thrive of course
in everything that we do in life there's a little bit of luck you can do everything that I have said
here I can do everything that is known as best practice I still have trouble with my plants I am
the first person to put my hand up and say I have trouble growing alocasias in leca I'm the first
person to put my hand up and say I have trouble growing some calatheas in leca because sometimes you
just need some luck on your side that is all you need sometimes you've just got a dad plant you
know sometimes there's just no explaining why things don't work out but you know what's really
important then what's really important is to never give up to keep trying resilience is what keeps
the hobby alive resilience is what makes this fun resilience and wanting to try things for yourself
because you know what I can sit here telling you all the things you need to do but my house isn't
your house my conditions aren't your conditions what I'm willing to do for my plants might not
be what you're willing to do so the only person who can find out what's best practice for you
and your plants is yourself happy planting