Leca or Pon? That’s a decision most plant lovers make at some stage in their plants life. This week I’ll show you how Pon fits into my life. It’s the substrate I use the most so expect mostly good things! Are you a Pon lover or are you adamant that you want to stick to soil and bark? I keep all my big aroids in a light bark mix so I’m not full going to either Leda or Pon just yet,.
I have several plants in self-watering in a diy wicking system, but the majority of my plants are in pon in regular pots with drainage and I just water them like I would soil and let the water drain through and dump the excess water. Self-watering is great for thirstier plants and seedlings but the other setup is ideal for plants that like to dry out in between waterings or even large plants that I think would not do well experiencing such a radical transition like large monsteras, for instance. I've found it takes about 10 days in my environment for the plants in pon to dry out completely, so I'm able to keep my plants on a watering schedule, which also simplifies things significantly for me. I don't have to check each reservoir and monitor any plants individually anymore this way. I also find it works great for succulents as well as other somewhat trickier plants where it's hard to get the watering balance just right.
Best video on Pon I’ve seen! All of my cuttings are now in Pon and I only use clear inner pots because watching the roots grow is amazing. Also, Leca in the bottom inch of every pot. So far everything is doing well.
Based on the fact that it does hold on to moisture, how often should you water to avoid overwatering? Since you can’t remove the plant from the pot everytime to check the moisture. Sometimes pon looks dry but it might still have moisture inside/in the middle.
Clear culture pot with Pon or regular soil, you can see the moisture level of the soil game changing. Other thing I lift the pot by the weight you know if need water or not.
Yeah super easy. Just use RHS horticultural Grit and mix in perlite of pumice. Works fine and has no added fertiliser. I only keep a few carnivores but all of them are in grit
I love the kitchen towel idea so I will be using that the same way now❤❤. I started using Lechuza Pon just over a year ago now and had to pretty much experiment with it as there weren't many videos available about it. I had many fails to begin with but now I won't use anything else. I use it in standard pots and self watering pots. Before pon i was using a very chunky bark, pumice & charcoal mix, the biggest of my plants are still in this mix. Not many of my plants are big enough to use leca as I want to put them on boards,but I will be using leca for the bigger plants when the time comes and stick with pon for the smaller plants. Thanks for sharing , you now have a new subscriber. 👍👍
I have everything in pon and my houseplants seem to like it. I’ve used it for seeds and cuttings, when rooting cuttings I use canna Rhizotonic and when my plants are established I use Liquid Gold Leaf to fertilise. It is expensive to start off with but can be reused again and again after sterilisation. Thanks for making the video 😊
That KS for a great video. How does your watering routine work? Do you look in the bottom of each pot every day to see which are dry and need a top up? And with the plant you showed last, the pot was empty of water but you said it didn't need more water yet, so how are you deciding when to water it? Seems like all the watering decisions and remembering when each need a top up would be a lot of work, but I'm sure you have a simple system.
I have the same question! How do you know if it needs ti be watered without one having to dump out all the pon everytime? Does moisture meter work with pon?
Thank you so much for answering all my questions! After acquiring my first baby Alocasia in pon, it made me question my use of sphagnum for semi hydro. Will definitely be switching!
I've always wanted to make the jump to Leca or Pon and you have really convinced me that this is the way to go. Fantastic instruction. Clear and concise.
Thank you so much, this was such a great and very helpful video! I’m experimenting with DIY pon and have been slowly but surely transferring plants to it from soil and LECA. I am so excited to see how my plant babies do! I’m especially excited to get them to a point when I can keep them in self watering pots and not be worried when I go on trips… I’ve lost a few plants due to under watering and hope that will never happen again! Anyway- super helpful and very well produced and edited video, thank you!
I’ve got a few with polyester cord but I find it goes green and slimy over time. I use a grey microfibre cloth cut into strips and it looks the same two years later for some reason. It’s just what I found works well.
Give it a try with a cheap one. I don't jeep calathea but if love to hear if it works. Get a pot with a moisture level indicater so you can really control the watering well. I’d love to hear how you get on.
Hello, I live in France and I have been using the pon for a short time, it worked miracles on certain plants that were going badly, my question is in time will they not need soil? one year after your video, would you add anything else to see, thank you
If you water propagate then move to pon it’s almost a 100% success for me. If I then convert I get rotting issues. If I propagate in perlite and moss then move to Aroid mix again, high rate of success. But, if I go moss/perlite prop to pon I get issues or Water prop to Aroid mix I get some rotting. I need to do more actual test but that’s anecdotally what I’m seeing.
From new, pon is coated with fertiliser that lasts up to 6 months. ------ LECHUZA-PON constituents Zeolite German washed pumice German, light Lava (supplies your plant with iron permanently) Fully coated premium quality fertilizer. The coating is purely organic and degrades residue-free. The fertilizer supplies your plant with nutrients for up to 6 months. Suitable for all plants, like foliage and flowering plants, orchids, citrus plants, herbs, tomatoes, fruit trees and cacti!
Thanks for the awesome video - that's what I needed ! Now, as tu pronounciation of "lechuza" , although it is rather unpopular - the word is pronounced "le-choo-za". Explanation from the Lechuza-PON home site "LECHUZA is Spanish word for "owl". The LECHUZA sub-imigration system watches over your plants like a wise and watchful owl".
Very helpful video. Appreciate you showing us the actual ingredients, their sizes and their quantities used and the slow released fertilizer. This is very helpful to those who are trying to make their own pons. In my country, we have pumice in 1-3mm, 3-6mm, 5-8mm and 8-10 mm sizes. Which size should I use? Thanks in advance for your reply
So when starting with Pom do you wait 6 months before fertilizing? Or do you fertilize from the start? If you need to wait on fertilizing for 6+ months do to the fertilizer it has how do you know exactly when to start fertilizing?
It’s never an exact science. I just start using gold leaf as the season starts on all my pots. I don’t do a lot of potting over winter. I’ve not had an issue yet.
I put all my rinsed clean wet root hoyas into rinsed wet pon and then I watered top down the following week or so. My hoyas all got root rot. Would this be because of the combination of the wet pon and wet roots? I don’t use a reservoir as yet. So I have dried out all the pon cut the rot off and red potted and now concerned as when to water! Any help would be appreciated.
Do you allow the plants with water roots to continue growth? When do you repot and how to manage roots under the reservoir? Sometimes difficult to pull them out. I tried with wick and normal soil seems ok for a while but later on root start to rot
That’s a tough question as some roots that teach down can rot. Over time I’ve tied trimming them back and also pulling them back into the pot and I’ve not really lost any plants yet so I don’t know the best answer. Roots seem to rot more if they are in a substrate and constantly wetransfer rather that stretching into a body of water.
