Hey lovely, thanks for the update 😘 also please stop being so hard on yourself, i love Caitlin's channel, but LECA just doesn't work for me as I live in a totally different climate my plants need different care, and like with soil, leca and your plants will need different things depending on your climate, humidity, heat and light. So please enjoy your new learning journey with LECA but don't compare your success/failures to someone else when your growing conditions are totally different!! You are amazing, smart, beautiful and an amazing plant mom 🪴 lots of love and big hugs from Scotland 🤗💚
Hey! Great video! Wanted to chime in to say if you have hard water definitely don't neglect the PH adjustment! Nutrient Water gets really alkaline over time and can end up causing all kinds of issues! This is less of an issue with PON, because the zeolite acts as a natural PH buffer to stabilize it at a ph plants enjoy (unless you screw up and buy the wrong type of zeolite like me but I digress). Anyways hope this was helpful!
I’m not an expert houseplant gardener, but I do know that philodendrons are secondary hemiepiphytes: they have modified roots that cling onto tree trunks, and once they reach the canopy they transform themselves into true epiphytes, no longer needing soil to survive. Maybe that’s why they don’t do well when their roots are kept constantly wet in leca/water? Just a guess, because I have yet to try using leca myself!
Haven’t tried Leca. I totally agree with My Bonnie Jungle!! Love Caitlin however, I’m not in a tropical location an things that work for her wouldn’t in cold climates. Love the channel for you an your content. 💚😀
i put all of my plants into leca around half a year ago and i have so mixed feelings. some of my plants like monstera adansonii or philodendron burlemarx variegata loves leca and all of my plants grow BUT... i encounter SO much root rot, no matter what i do. i use hydro fertilizer, i ec and ph balance, i have good airflow, i keep temps in check... it gets so annoying to a point i have to trim back dead roots every 2 weeks or so so keepo the plants healthy. especially the roots that grow into the reservoir allways rot away. BUT i think there must be a way to resolve that issue, and i m sure i can find out a way. the main issue however i m having with leca right now is maintenance and how freaking time consuming it is. with a chunky aroid mix, you just store it in a box, want to pot a new plant, grab some, put it in, some water over it done. i cant do that with leca. leca even tho the concept is more simple, requires so many more steps, brainwork, equipment and money that i spend like 2-3 times as much time as i had with soil. i need to prepare leca, rinse it, cook it, soak it ph balance it... so i can pot up a plant in a couple days. you constantly have to measure and mix nutrients and fertilizers and i have so many bottles around the house of stuff to buy, and additives and whatnot, you need so many more pots and so much more expensive pots aswell. with soil, i ll just go to the local gardencenter and buy lets say a 15cm pot from elho for like 99cents, put a saucer below for 30 cents and call it a day. With leca, i need new pots, preferably clear ones, i need to put extra holes into them and prepare the pots, i then need decorative cachepots for... ALL OF THEM as a reservoir and those pots are so expensive and such a limiting factor. combined with how fast i need to repot in leca, i hit a point where i need to repot but i cant because i dont have any cachepots and most of the cachepots i have dont 100% fit in size either. and oh boy... not gonna lie, i hate flushing and watering them so much. since they all sit in decorative cachepots, i have to take out every single plant one by one out of the pot to check the reservoir, the run all plants into the bathroom one by one and emptying it and flushing it and then rewater them and if you have a lot of plants next to each other you have to basicly pull put all plants. comparing this to just put some water over your plants until you see it coming out at the bottom and then forget about for a week or so... its insane how much more work leca workflow is. oh and you need to buy this and this and this. and another bottle. and then in case you use mosspoles and you take a cutting, those cuttings are basicly useless because their roots have moss all over and rot in leca anyways. i dont HATE leca. in fact i still like the idea, but i intitially started with leca because i thought its easier and it will save me time... it does not, it requires way more time and attention than soil does and it gets so technicly and overwhelming and it makes me consider going back to soil again because i genuinely miss those easy times, where you just bought a plant and you dont have to convert it or anything and you just put in some soilmix and be done.
About 75% of my collection is in leca and for the most part, I really do like it. Though, I have noticed that my aglaonema don't seem to grow much and several have had root rot. I am thinking of converting those back to soil, especially my all time favorite, silver bay. Leca really keeps pest control in check and I have noticed, since keeping many of my newly added plants in soil, the return of the dreaded fungus gnats. The only thing I prefer soil for is so that in the summertime I can keep my plants outside on the deck. I don't really think leca would do well as my deck has no roof overhang and I'd be afraid the rain would wash out my nutrient water and fill the cache pots unless I constantly checked. I'd also be afraid of the leca heating too much from the sun and perhaps burning roots
@@HeatherHoyas All of my calathea LOVE leca!! Sometimes they put up a bit of a dramatic protest initially, but they get over that fairly quickly and then thrive
Glad I watched your video. I’ll stick with what I have, what know, and what I’m comfortable with. Good ole dirt!
Caitlin is one of the people that got me hooked on leca. I have a few in soil still but most leca and diy pon. My plants are thriving!
thanks for sharing and alot of great information
Hey lovely, thanks for the update 😘 also please stop being so hard on yourself, i love Caitlin's channel, but LECA just doesn't work for me as I live in a totally different climate my plants need different care, and like with soil, leca and your plants will need different things depending on your climate, humidity, heat and light. So please enjoy your new learning journey with LECA but don't compare your success/failures to someone else when your growing conditions are totally different!! You are amazing, smart, beautiful and an amazing plant mom 🪴 lots of love and big hugs from Scotland 🤗💚
Hey! Great video! Wanted to chime in to say if you have hard water definitely don't neglect the PH adjustment! Nutrient Water gets really alkaline over time and can end up causing all kinds of issues! This is less of an issue with PON, because the zeolite acts as a natural PH buffer to stabilize it at a ph plants enjoy (unless you screw up and buy the wrong type of zeolite like me but I digress). Anyways hope this was helpful!
I’m not an expert houseplant gardener, but I do know that philodendrons are secondary hemiepiphytes: they have modified roots that cling onto tree trunks, and once they reach the canopy they transform themselves into true epiphytes, no longer needing soil to survive. Maybe that’s why they don’t do well when their roots are kept constantly wet in leca/water?
Just a guess, because I have yet to try using leca myself!
Thank you for the info! Totally makes sense to me
I had similar difficulties with leca.now I just mix the pebbles into my soil mix for aeration 😂
Haven’t tried Leca. I totally agree with My Bonnie Jungle!! Love Caitlin however, I’m not in a tropical location an things that work for her wouldn’t in cold climates. Love the channel for you an your content. 💚😀
i put all of my plants into leca around half a year ago and i have so mixed feelings. some of my plants like monstera adansonii or philodendron burlemarx variegata loves leca and all of my plants grow BUT... i encounter SO much root rot, no matter what i do.
i use hydro fertilizer, i ec and ph balance, i have good airflow, i keep temps in check... it gets so annoying to a point i have to trim back dead roots every 2 weeks or so so keepo the plants healthy. especially the roots that grow into the reservoir allways rot away. BUT i think there must be a way to resolve that issue, and i m sure i can find out a way.
the main issue however i m having with leca right now is maintenance and how freaking time consuming it is. with a chunky aroid mix, you just store it in a box, want to pot a new plant, grab some, put it in, some water over it done. i cant do that with leca. leca even tho the concept is more simple, requires so many more steps, brainwork, equipment and money that i spend like 2-3 times as much time as i had with soil.
i need to prepare leca, rinse it, cook it, soak it ph balance it... so i can pot up a plant in a couple days. you constantly have to measure and mix nutrients and fertilizers and i have so many bottles around the house of stuff to buy, and additives and whatnot, you need so many more pots and so much more expensive pots aswell. with soil, i ll just go to the local gardencenter and buy lets say a 15cm pot from elho for like 99cents, put a saucer below for 30 cents and call it a day. With leca, i need new pots, preferably clear ones, i need to put extra holes into them and prepare the pots, i then need decorative cachepots for... ALL OF THEM as a reservoir and those pots are so expensive and such a limiting factor. combined with how fast i need to repot in leca, i hit a point where i need to repot but i cant because i dont have any cachepots and most of the cachepots i have dont 100% fit in size either.
and oh boy... not gonna lie, i hate flushing and watering them so much. since they all sit in decorative cachepots, i have to take out every single plant one by one out of the pot to check the reservoir, the run all plants into the bathroom one by one and emptying it and flushing it and then rewater them and if you have a lot of plants next to each other you have to basicly pull put all plants. comparing this to just put some water over your plants until you see it coming out at the bottom and then forget about for a week or so... its insane how much more work leca workflow is. oh and you need to buy this and this and this. and another bottle. and then in case you use mosspoles and you take a cutting, those cuttings are basicly useless because their roots have moss all over and rot in leca anyways.
i dont HATE leca. in fact i still like the idea, but i intitially started with leca because i thought its easier and it will save me time... it does not, it requires way more time and attention than soil does and it gets so technicly and overwhelming and it makes me consider going back to soil again because i genuinely miss those easy times, where you just bought a plant and you dont have to convert it or anything and you just put in some soilmix and be done.
About 75% of my collection is in leca and for the most part, I really do like it. Though, I have noticed that my aglaonema don't seem to grow much and several have had root rot. I am thinking of converting those back to soil, especially my all time favorite, silver bay. Leca really keeps pest control in check and I have noticed, since keeping many of my newly added plants in soil, the return of the dreaded fungus gnats. The only thing I prefer soil for is so that in the summertime I can keep my plants outside on the deck. I don't really think leca would do well as my deck has no roof overhang and I'd be afraid the rain would wash out my nutrient water and fill the cache pots unless I constantly checked. I'd also be afraid of the leca heating too much from the sun and perhaps burning roots
I’ve noticed that some of my plants like leca and other don’t like it! My velvet Calathea loves leca.
I’ve never tried a calathea in Leca!
@@HeatherHoyas definitely give it a try!
@@HeatherHoyas All of my calathea LOVE leca!! Sometimes they put up a bit of a dramatic protest initially, but they get over that fairly quickly and then thrive
I’ve tried LECA and my plants hated it. And I hated it lol, it was more work IMO
i am trying my hoya sp ut 033 in leca hopefully it will do better
For me I can only use LECA for my Hoyas. I have the same issues with rotting my other plants with leca 😕
I miss the leca 😔