G'day, guys! In today's video I move two of my favourite Alocasias from soil to leca in order to hopefully prevent myself from killing them in the future. Instagram - / petevsplants #alocasia #leca #semihydroponics
My aunt has a GIANT polly...she almost killed it until she found these terracotta stakes online that you put a water bottle on and put the stake in the pot and it allows the water to soak into the soil as needed and gives a good visual when the water is running low. Her polly is GIANT now and bloomed like 5 times this summer.
I’m in California, the San Joaquin Valley. (Zone 9 a/b).. So far we found that our Alocasias do well, when they don’t, it’s generally because I have accidentally overwatered them, or there is some type of pest on them. we literally are in the middle of farmland and often times we have the fields being sprayed….one farmer doing preventive maintenance on his alfalfa fields, then our neighbor beside us is doing something different the next week with his sweet potatoes, or the other farmer on the other side of us doing something different with his corn…. So, it is quite a challenge having a collection of plants that are outside and inside. Previously, when I’ve purchased Alocasias in the past, it was discovered, after the fact that many were already suffering from a bad soil, pass, transportation, shock, and/ or root rot before I took possession of them. And literally, it scared me from purchasing them again for a long time. But we’ve recently began to pick up a few and have begun having greater success with a Plant that is already healthy. Sometimes I don’t think it’s anything that you do, sometimes I think they come to us and we don’t realize that they’re already sick. It’s so frustrating when that happens to anyone because you start playing the What If game and so many times there’s nothing you could’ve done. So don’t beat yourself up if you bring home this gorgeous plant and it just will son you and you have to start all over again. We have decided to add some Alocasias to our stock of mother plants. We have approximately 1300 indoor plants and 1500 outdoor plants (trees, cacti, succulents, plants, propagations, seedlings & shrubs) for the nursery we are starting . So an infestation of pests would straight up. Kill us recently beginning to work with Bonide systemic granules for house plants to see if we can somehow limit the pests that happen. With additional (spraying for spider mites) maintenance. We have our fingers crossed because I just love them, and I feel so guilty when they have to start all over again. They’re so gorgeous. Sorry, I got to rambling. But the allocations are just so gorgeous and a favorite of mine and I am trying really hard to be successful in growing them. And I really do appreciate your videos and also the comments that are on your site between viewers and yourself. Very helpful. Thank you.
I use to struggle with alocasia as well until I moved them to self watering pots(with soil). I can now keep multiple leaves on them where as they use to lose a leaf with every new leaf they would grow. I recently discovered your channel and have been really enjoying your content. I look forward to seeing more 😊
Hope the Leca works out for you. I was planning to go the Leca route until The Leca Queen said she is unable to keep Alocasia alive for long in Leca. I have 7 varieties of Alocasia: Stingray, Black Velvet, African Mask Polly, Pink Princess, Low Rider, Dragon Scale and Ninja. Finding corms is like Christmas 🎄
I prefer pon leca for alocasia because I find leca pieces too big and the roots don't fill out as nicely. Just my experience so far though. I use leca for some anthurium and monstera and it's great!
Hi Pete just like to say I absolutely love your vidios your great fun and full of advice in this crazy plant world please keep the content coming your fabulous a breath of fresh air love your humour can't wait to watch all your content 😀👍🎉
I'm in the US, Maryland....have all 20 of my big Alocasias in Leca and semi hydro. My Frydek is a heavy drinker, roots coming out the bottom within a week of putting in Leca. Doing well in semi hydro, I do flush weekly and use 1/4 strength nutrition. I also found algae to be a problem with glass containers. All of mine are in clear plastic pots with drainage holes, then inside a dark catch pot with the bottom third filled with nutrition. I start my small Alocasias in a pon and perlite mix with the same treatment. The only one I have in soil, is my Jacklyn, which was grown in a pod. I was afraid to disrupt this one since it was very $$$. It is in chunky orchid mix with a good mix of Leca and perlite and I plan to move it to all pon as soon as it has some substantial roots. Just found you channel and really enjoyed this video, good luck with your plants, keep us posted 🤗
@@petevsplants7516 warmth and decent humidity, don’t put them near the a/c / cold window or it might cause them to go dormant, and always check to see if they’ve gotten spider mites (they’re spider mite magnets as I’m sure you know)… 😇🤣
I found your channel yesterday and have been binging through the episodes. Love them. The funny thing is you remind me so much of my brother. His name is Pete, you look a little like him, but the thing that cracks me up is you have some of the same mannerisms. Listening to you talk about plants is like bro talking about cars, mechanics, and building stuff. Even the phrase "shits and giggles." I've never heard anyone but him say that. Anyway... loving all the plant content! I'm currently also fighting fungus gnats and am winning the fight with Mosquito Bits and the yellow sticky things you have. I make "tea" with the Mosquito bits and then water my plants. I'm on the second round and am seeing barely any gnats.
Hahaha amazing! Tell your brother I said "G'day!" :) He sounds like a great guy hehe must have a good sister too. And that's great news re: Mosquito Bits as I ordered some recently and am waiting on its arrival. I tried H202 (hydrogen peroxide) but it didn't seem to do much in the long term, just killed off the numbers for a week or so. Maybe I need multiple treatments but I'm also worried I'll kill any of the other good stuff in the soil like the beneficial fungi. Anyway! Glad you're enjoying the videos, mate :D Thanks for the kind words!
Hiya from the US. I just found your channel and think your a riot 😂. I planted corms the first time 2/3 months ago. I used shot glasses. I had the same issue you did with the roots growing the wrong way but I “flexed” the roots into the shot glass so the looked like little springs lol and then surrounded them with perlite. If they weren’t rooted yet I started them with the shallow puddle method. I had everyone of them leaf for me! Maybe this will help next time 😊.
Hey mate! Thanks for watching. Yeah, I did an update video on the corms 3 weeks later and they went nuts... They'd already pushed out 2 leaves! Craziness.
Cheers, RIchard! It's been going pretty well so far :) Check out my video on my Sept Favouritess to see my Zebrina which has bounced back well in semi hydro :D
My alocasia have been doing great since I moved them to leca. Without knowing what I was doing, so I did not do a geat job, but they figured it all out by themselves The bulbs that I put in a prop box rotted though
I have all mine in self watering pots with a chunky soil amd they do great. I’ve just started playing around with the corms and it’s so much fun 😂 I put them in a bottle cap with water and get them going then switch them to spagnum moss, they’re going great! I hope yours do great! Not sure if you did an update that I’ve missed??? Also, so many people say they go dormant in the winter and they actually do not. Mine never have anyways. Best of luck Pete
Hey Mary! Cheers, mate. I'll do an update soon. They've done well in passive hydro. I have noticed them slow down loads in winter here at least, though, it gets down to like 5C.
I find humidity is everything for alocasias. If they get at least 60% they are happier and the higher the better. But to achieve these level indoors, especially during winter, is hard and not good for the rest of the house/ furniture . I live in Canada and put them all together on the same shelf with a humidifier right next to them and they just love it but as soon as I lower the humidity they get crispy and drop leaves. They are truly a tropical plant!
Hmmm, I might need to try to bump it up a little more then as mine sits around 50-65% most days. I get a few that have yellow spots on their leaves and wonder if that's mould/fungus which is why I worry about humidity.
Love your passion. I have a black velvet and it does well in very bright light,airy soil and watering when moderately dry. Have got it to make it through last winter on sill(USA) in north state(IL). BTW, have you tried a Calathea Warsewiczii(Spelling?)...it is a simply Gorgeous, green ,velvet plant/striking markings, with fast growing habit....needs moderate light,water every three days in light soil mix...prefers high humidity but will acclimate to 50% with time. A Most rewarding plant!!
Hey Joseph! I'll have to give that a go with my black velvets which are currently bouncing back hehe. I don't think I have tried a C. warscewiczii yet. I thought I had one for a while then realised it was the C. zebrina haha
If you are transfering alocasias into semi hydro, i recommend to cut off all of the roots. it is quite common for the roots that were growing in the substrate to start rotting in semi-hydroponics and this can kill the whole plant. new roots will begin to appear within two weeks and will be water roots.
There are certain plants I will never buy, Alocasia is one of them..until yesterday. I bought ONE, an Ivory Coast Alocasia cause it was so cute and full. I don’t plan to buy any more. So I’m going to make sure mine doesn’t die. I will put it in lecca if it starts to go down. Hope to see an update on yours soon! Adios! From El Paso, Texas.
I know I´m late to the party, but I had some zebrina corms without roots. I rooted them in water in a tall shot-glass, held upright by some vase-filer-beads and they grew roots out the top just going right into the air. The roots where still relatively short and soft so I very carefully bend them into the water and held them down with some clingfilm, it worked really well.
I have trouble with Alocasia in soil sometimes too. I've switched almost all to pon. I notice they don't produce as many corms in semi hydro. But it's not a big deal for me. I've been trying no drainage as well and it's great. (Learned from Charmaine and Alice). I just found you a couple days ago, I'm enjoying your content🙂
I've only had 2 Alocasia that didnt do well in the transition to pon. My Infernalis, and Azlanii. They're fine now, but all my others never missed a beat!
@@petevsplants7516 your doing a lot better then me. I love alocasia but I didn’t have anything left when I tried to grow them. 😬they rotted quickly. I kept them in what the nursery was using. Hopefully I can try again and maybe this time I will try an inorganic substrate.
I grow some alocasia outside in Florida. Every alocasia I tried inside would die. Some didn't do well outside either. I now transfer them from soil to water culture. When they put out root growth, I transfer them to semi hydro. I happen to use a mix of lava rock, perlite, and leca. They take off and look fantastic.
If nature has them grow down, I think I would just plant them that way. I'm gonna give it a try when I repot my Polly in spring. I have the Polly, which struggled and now has bounced back and a new Stingray, both in soil.
I have all my alocasias in passive hydro and they are happy. They did not thrive in soil for me. In my experience they drop ALL their leaves right after tranferring and start over. But once regrown, they're happy and healthy!
I've started sticking to baby plants, easier to remove all the soil, once I removes as much as possible I stick them in water for a night, let the soil buts soak and ten rinse it in the vessen as best I can, change the water and leave it in there for at least a week, after that I look how shit some roots are and take off the ones that haven't made it and the ones I know won't make it in the future, and then transfer to my pon mix with leca and perlite with a leca.reservoir at the bottom, so far all good, killed every other alocasia pretty quickly before, a little scraping of the rhizome can also help it grow new roots quickly, sometimes you just gotta start over, they are pretty resilient in that matter, pluck all the roots off and reroot
Got 2 corms from my stingray when repotting her, no roots so using shallow puddle method. So far so good, roots are coming on really well. 🤞 cause I manage to totally destroy 2 corms I purchased earlier this year. Alocasia’s are definitely not the easiest to keep happy, give me a philodendron anytime, but I do love an Alocasia 🤣. Go figure huh.
Oh nice work! I've noticed over the last few days that these corms have already sprouted in the prop box so it takes no time at all if they have roots it seems. Haha they're definitely plants on hard mode.
I am currently rooting a bunch of Stingray Corms. All of them are producing roots from the top, despite being upright, I think that's just how the stingray does it.
lately I find myself buying alocasias mainly for replanting them and looking for corms. I call it soil egg harvest obsession😅. After many sleepless nights and pests wars, i decided to transfer all of them in semi hydro. The best decision in my plant parenting life, if I don't count the purchase of philodendron bili.
Sorry to hear that so many have issues with Alocasia. They aren’t supposed to go dormant (die back) in the winter. If you’ve found that your plant is losing leaves when a new one is growing, it’s due to them drinking a lot while producing new leaves. Here’s the trick, do this when you notice a new leaf forming: If you’re used to watering your plant once a week, continue doing so. But you need to give it some extra water 3 days after the initial watering. The plant basically pull all the water out of the oldest leaf in order to sustain the newest one. Keep this in mind when you put them in leca too because you’ll notice that the reservoir will get empty faster. Good luck. It’s so fun to harvest corm. And the colors/patterns/texture from Alocasia are so lovely
The problem with them in soil , for me, is too much water. But without the right amount the stems will hang. That’s the best part of Leca. It lets the plant take what it needs. I don’t flush my pots too often but it should be done to get rid of the salts from the fertilizer. I have drilled holes in the glass for oxygen and also for flushing. I believe what you are doing is close to “Deep water” technique? I thought that the goal was for the roots to gain water roots and travel to the moisture? I plant my rootball away from the reservoir and therefore 1/3 of the cylinder is filled with nutrients. Most importantly is that they live and thrive. I’m experimenting with a propagating subtrate called Fluval and it’s great. It’s Lava pebbles and the minerals are absorbed quickly causing the roots to grow. I have changed most of my plants to Leca in either a Semi Hydro or Hydro setup but the Hydro is less work. Thanks for the video.
Just had to chop off most of the roots of my Black Velvet last night after realizing the drain tray on the pot I bought it in was just decoration 😭 Otherwise I’ve had pretty good luck and my random alocasia (maybe pink dragon?) from Trader Joe’s has been thriving for about 8 months now lol
Oh bugger, hope it regrows alright. I've had horrible luck with the Black Velvets. They constantly seem to die off or have awful looking leaves :( I've got the Pink Dragon and it seems to be doing well funnily enough haha
I hate those pots, don't get the point of them at all lol Alocasias regrow roots pretty fast, I reroot in water and it gies really quick juicy wateroots so i can put them in pon with leca and perlite
My Alocasia Silver Dragon started to loosen from the soil and not stand on its own. Once I removed it from the soil I had no roots! I placed it back into more aerated soil but the leaves started to yellow. It looks terrible. I don't know what to do without roots at this point.
I was under the impression that the roots are to set above the nutrient solution so the capillary response feeds the roots. Do you soak your Leca for 24hrs in water and/or nutrient solution?
Nah, don't soak the leca for 24 hours. It'll soak up the water anyway, you just might need to top it up. And you're right re: have the roots above the solution usually.
Ffs I am not going to get "What's in the Box" theme song out of my head now... I remember one of the characters used to creep me out though haha Ah my childhood
I love alocasias but they are frustrating to me. I work in LECA & have lost so many. I have another I just bought in a 2.4 planter, I am absolutely terrified to do anything with it.
Hello I'm sorry to ask you a question using a translator, but I'm leaving a comment because I I'm growing Alocasia hydroponic, but as I saw in the video, there's a little green algae because of the sun, but the roots are very healthy, so I want to keep growing it, but I'm worried if I can and if I grow it as it is, is there any problem?
@@petevsplants7516 Thank you. There aren't many people who grow alocacia hydroponics in Korea I have a lot of questions, but there's no place to ask If you don't mind, I sent you an email to ask you more questions with the picture Could you please check and answer?
Hey Keith! Yep, they took off... went bananas! They're the first plants in my Oct Favs video - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DF-sZbA6Qy4.html
@@petevsplants7516 LOL yep they went off like a frog in a sock! sorry I forgot I already watched that video lmao. I watch videos out of chronological order and I just forgot. Im getting old. What can ya do. Thanks for the response. Have a good one mate.
THEY DONT ALWAYS DORMANT, KEEP HOUSE WARMER 😆 I’m considering switching a few over to leca tbh after rotted off my Jacklyn roots ..not even sure how but ..anyway watching from uk ✌️
