Soil Free Houseplants | Basics of Growing Plants in Semi Hydroponics 

I grow all but one of my plants - a large and very rootbound monstera deliciosa, not even trying there - in s/h which now encompasses (a much smaller) monstera deliciosa, ZZ, one succulent, fittonia, Hoya, scindapsus, ficus elastica, Calathea, peperomia, ivy...I’ve not had issues except for when I didn’t completely get soil off transplants 😬 Anyway, great video. Glad Betsy Begonia gave you a shoutout!

Sheebtrash it can be good when the collection is not too big but I find I need more time to water my plants in SH than in regular mix. But I may have a plant hoarding problem, shhhh 🤫

I grow colocasia and root hoyas in leca. btw I don’t fully flush my plants *every* time I water, only once a month or so, and that’s completely fine. Saves on distilled water and the plants are happy and healthy and growing fast! Great video, I found your channel through Betsy Begonia and really enjoying your content :)

I will! I need to repot some hoyas in SH so I hope I can bring that to you soon! :)

Oh, thank you! Haha, yes. We just have to make sure it doesn't become to silly. After all, it is a plant channel, not comedy channel 😅

I agree ☝️

@@BasiePlants I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive. For my favorite (so far) example, witness Nick Alexander’s video about why Monsteras have fenestrations. Knowledgeable and engaging enough that my PhD/tropical ecology cousin wants to be his dissertation committee chair (not that he’s in grad school) and my sister commented, “Now there’s somebody I would like to just hang out with.” I’m enjoying seeing your personality coming through, too. Anyone can read a book or search Wikipedia, but to virtually “hang out” with an experienced and engaging friend who graciously shares their home and lifestyle with us is infinitely better. Go ahead and be silly. I swear sometimes I see your eyes twinkle and I know you’re filtering something funny. You’re cute and charming and so please keep being yourself authentically. Thanks for your content!

That is great to hear! :D I hope I can make you laugh out lode more! Oh yes, I love getting a bit geeky sometimes 🤓 It helps me understand something more.

Oh thank you! I was worried it was too long. I aimed for 10 minutes, but opsie! :D Thank you for watching it 💚

I am happy to hear that! It would be totally useless if no one could understand it haha :D I hope you learned something new!

Yeah, I never seem to shut up 😂 Thank you 💚

I am sorry the video put you off! Maybe try with some cuttings? :) I definitely am putting more and more plants in SH, especially those I don't plant to move outside.

@@BasiePlants not at all. As I said, it was extremely informative and that information informed me that the maintenance of leca, namely the constant flushing of the substrate, just isn't a workable solution for me. Since I use rainwater I would quickly exhaust my supply, having to flush so often. The video did exactly what it was supposed to do, give us enough information to make an informed decision specific to our conditions. Keep 'em coming, and thank you again.

Thank you! This was really just scratching the surface of SH :)

I am glad to hear that! I hope it is a good starting point for more research! Have fun with leca :)

You're welcome! There is more to it, but I feel this is most of the things mentioned, in the simplest way possible :)

@@BasiePlants I love the simple explanation. I always see people talking about leca but no one really explains it so ive been too nervous to even think about trying it. Thank you

You're welcome!

Thank you! I really appreciate that you watch all the time :) Yes, I am not 100% in on SH, but I do like to experiment here and there!

I agree! I had success with less water too! Then again, I sometimes forget to add water. And they live 😂 But maybe I should not reveal this 😂

@@BasiePlants i am in the same situation. I have 300+ plants so sometimes i miss some of them🤫 and they are just fine🙃

When I get lazy, I also flush with just pure water. Or sometimes I will cover the holes and let it soak for several minutes and then empty it completely and add water with nutrients. It doesn't seem to hurt them. Thank you for watching even though you know all of this

Basie Plants yep I soak my paphs now and again because it gets funky in the pot. You’re welcome! You never know what you’ll learn even if you think you know it already. :)

Glad to hear that :)

I will make sure to make more SH videos! I have more and more plants in SH now than back then. :)

@@BasiePlants thank you thank you señor!

You are too nice 😃

Thank you! I will make more for sure. :) Now I even have a pH meter :D

Thank you for such a lovely comment! The brand is Plagron and the product is called Euro Pebbles! :)

I use the standard size that comes in Euro Pebbles made by Plagron. Uniformity is more important I would say :)

Tugba Tas the worm compost is a very good question! I also need to know xD!! And also want to see a houseplant tour!!🙌🏼

I answered your questions! Video will be up on Saturday, I wasn't feeling well past weekend so I couldn't edit it. Thank you for those great questions!

@@BasiePlants I hope you are feeling well again❤❤ sending you all the love

@@tugbatas8330 Thank you so much! I am feeling much better! :)

That is one of the things I didn't manage to cover today. It would be too long. If you transferred from potting mix to SH, it is likely roots will die back anyways. There is a high chance it will happen but it doesn't mean it will for sure. Many say that the best time to transfer is when you have new roots coming from the base of the plant as they are not particulary accostumed to any environment. Old roots are accostumed to less moisture. I am sure your cutting will do fine anyways, but I would add water. Water is only in the reservoir and leca only stays slightly damp (and there is a lot of air there, so it is unlikey anything bad will happen). I never transferred hoya from potting mix to leca - I only rooted cuttings in water and transferred them to leca and that is the best way to do it in my opinion (I understand it is not always possible though). Thank you for watching!

Thank you so much! I supose next time ill remove all the roots ,but ill cross my fingers hoping the transfer works! Will make you know if it does ^^and if removing most of the roots was a good idea or if they rotted anyway ,thanks aggain!!😘

@@MrDanylui I would suggest you also take a look at minimalistcali's videos here on RU-vid, she does SH as well! :) Good luck!

Joen Berg thank you so much! Will do! 🙌🏼

I don't have experience with converting large plants. I actually converted only one plant to SH, my Epipremnum amplissimum. It is doing okay. The rest of the plants I have in SH were all rooted in water and then moved to SH and in that scenario, I had no issues at all. I think it might be more challenging for a large plant - typically roots die back when you transfer to SH and if it is a big plant and it ends up loosing all the roots, the foliage might take a hit. I am sure the plant would survive but I don't know what would happen to the foliage. These are just my opinions though. I personly wouldn't do it with a large plant.

Basie Plants ... Hi. Thank you so much for your generosity with your time in explaining in such detail. Really appreciate your guidance and honest opinion. Have a nice weekend!

Unless you let the reservoir completely dry out and the water is not too cold, there should be no issues really. I have many roots growing into the reservoir and they are fine. :)

I thought the idea was, that with semi hydro all ingredients used are supposed to be inorganic in order to avoid root rot. (I’m not sure if this is correct.) So wouldn’t using fish emulsion (and kelp) add organic matter and set up and contribute to root rot? I don’t know, so if anyone can answer these questions it would be appreciated. 😃 Thanks.

I have been growing some in LECA for almost a year. It is interesting and they can do well, but I made this video so people would have more information in one place :) And then they can do the research.

Thank you Kim! I got it as a fairly large plant, more than a year ago, but less than two years :) I had to snatch it as soon as I saw it. I would say it is at least 4 years old.

I will make sure to cover that in the future :)

I have Hoya australis ssp. tenuipes, Hoya carnosa, Hoya compacta, Hoya bella, Hoya kerrii (green version, splash version, and one with yellow margins), Hoya bella, Hoya globulosa, Hoya pottsii, Hoya lacunosa, Hoya parasitica. All are doing well with the exception of H. caudata but that one was just a stick with no leaves and now it has some. Still not great, but I guess SH is working for it as well. I really check the ppm. I try to stay between 150-200ppm. My starting point is anywhere between 20-40ppm so I add fertilizer little by little until I get closer to my desired range. Sometimes I will mix algamic and focus orchid grow so I don't know the exact measure and e measure will depend on your starting point. I think having a TDS meter is important when doing SH and they are cheap too :)

For semihydroponics yes. You can add fertilizer to it :) Make sure to check the pH too :)

@@BasiePlants brilliant, I’m thinking of converting some of my plants if I can :)

I hope you have LECA haha :D You can just pot the plant, and give it water with nutrients :) I also made another video where I pot them in semihydro and water them. It is this one :) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-FCiLd3A2GG0.html

@@BasiePlants thank you so much, I genuinely appreciate the helps, I do have leca balls, I forget to mention that! Haha. I’m trying to grow a pothos cutting using semi hydro...

Hm, excellent question. I thought about this a lot. So, I checked the TDS and the pH. The pH is a bit high - around 8. So I use pH down. The TDS is about 40ppm which is almost as good as rainwater. I started using it, because I need to use my dehumidifier a lot and this extra water feels like such a waste if I don't use it. My dehumidifier is in my plant room and there is nothing there to contaminate it so I think it is good to use. If you keep your dehumidifier in a room where there is mold, or smoke for some reason, I wouldn't use it. I hope this helps! I will see in couple of months if there are any side effects. Hopefully not!

@@BasiePlants oh! Thank you so much for the ppm & acidity levels 😁 I keep dehumidifier running 24/7 in the basement for mold prevention & have been using that water for over a year now, so I guess it’s okay 🤷🏻‍♀️😅 Very happy to learn that it’s similar to rainwater. I’ve tested its pH before, but couldn’t get a clear read on the strip of paper. It looked fairly neutral at the time.

@@riawhetstone3725 If they look okay, I bet it is fine! Which makes me happy too :D

One crazy plant.

He answered that earlier in the comments.

Yup! Tap here is not great.

Thank you for that sweet comment!