I'm loving PON and have about 95% of my plants in it. The biggest benefit is having virtually no fungus gnats. So over having those buggers land in my coffee ☕️
I find using water to help wash away the dirt from the roots limits root breakage. Also I use a chop stick to help gently break up clumps of soil from the root ball.
Don’t get anything down the disposal or clogging up the drains though. Lol. Whenever possible, do it outside, or else soak the whole rootball for an hour (or more); then it will be easier to shake off the dirt underwater. Then, if you have to rinse it in a sink, less particulates will be going down the drain. Unless you have a very fine mesh sink strainer, which even that allows small particles through. Even though perlite is technically “soft”, lightweight rock, compared to pumice or lava rock (and can easily be popped between your fingers), it’s still sharp on the edges and can damage pipes, disposal blades, and even the stainless steel of sinks… it definitely can scratch ceramic, old school apartment sinks. But I’d be more concerned about the drains and disposal system, if there is one.
For that 2nd Alo with all those fine secondary roots. Those are for nutrient uptake and they are for soil. That said, the way I proceed is that I usually water my plants-to-be-transferred two days before, with a good feed. Then I unpot and cut all the secondary roots, leaving only the tap roots. Those I wash clean using a super soft toothbrush. The tap root takes up water (think about propagating in water - you wait for secondary roots so the plant can take up nutrients and you don’t add any feed to the prop water until you see secondary roots, as well). Then the plant goes in Pon, exactly like you did it. I get rid of the secondary roots because they will die back anyway, making it a pain to clean the Pon when you reuse it. And it can cause issues because of the decaying matter.
I did this on my first and only baby alocasia and it loves it - it grows bigger leaves and four babies are sprounting as well. The plant is happy so I´m happy too 🙂
I am a Pon-newb. I put my first plant (a lightly rooted philodendron white knight) in Pon in a Lechuza pot about a month ago. There's a lot of confusing instructions in the wild. Some people say the plant should have a dry period, some say you need a water reservoir at all times. My philo looks a bit dehydrated. But maybe it just needs some time to acclimate. Just hoping I don't go past the acclimation period into rescue mode.
Hey Emma sooowww glad with this video even it's been over a year. Just a moment a go I took my alocasia Frydek out of soil and i'm going to put into semi-hydro from soil Ninja (saw this also at one of your video's this soil brand). Didn't quit know where to begin, but now i do. Even got 20 Corms, didn't know what these 'things' were 🤣. Going to search in one of your video's how to take care of them. Keep making this enthousiastic and informative videos. Take care !! Love from Belgium 🥰
Why does this seem so scary going straight from soil to pon? I've seen some people do this and then water as though its still in soil for a bit, letting it drain out, rather than keeping the reservoir full of water right away. I wonder if that would be an easier transition?
I'm A 100% novis. And I bolt the quotation devices that you use and you're watching to see your water level. I just bought the flotation devices and use them in my own system in plastic clear or even non clayer pots as long as you can see it. It will work in any pot. I hope you like and look into this
Hi Emma. Funnily enough I repotted 5 Alocasias today and 3 had nets on them 🙁 Not quite built up the courage to try pon yet I’m working on it though keep going to Soil Ninja and sites with Lechuza looking at it just can’t do it lol maybe next year in the spring. Thanks for the video at least will know how to when the time comes 😊
yeah it can defo seem daunting at first, and it's not for everyone, but I honestly really love it and I defo think it's worth giving it a go come spring
This was made a year ago, so my question is how has the pon worked out in this time? Do you still use it? Anything you would do differently? Thanks in advance
Can I move my mini monstera and my Adansonii to pon. They are only small and in 2" pots right now. Can I go up to a larger pot with pon than I normally would if I were planting them in soil? I have some 16 ounce and 24 ounce deli cups I'd like to use after putting some holes in them but I'm worried they might be too large for these small plants?
Really enjoyed this video as I’m keen to try Pon on my plants. Years ago I use to keep bonsai trees and I always mixed my own inorganic potting mix, which was basically like Pon and made it very difficult to actually over water the trees. I know Houseplants are different, but it looks like the principle is the same. Are there any houseplants that don’t like Pon?
I've only had issues with scindapsus in pon, where they get stressed going from propagation to pon but other than that, I've had lots of luck with everything. philos love it, mosteras love it, marantas and alocasia love it
Thanks for making this video… just what I wanted. Just got to be brave and try it now. Are there any no-no’s for plants that shouldn’t be in pon (assuming succulents won’t like it! 😊)
no problem! Always love sharing info & my experiences. I'd defo say take the plunge, it's scary but worth it for me. As for plants that don't like it, I've had scindapsus react poorly (but some were also totally fine so I think they're hit or miss), apparently succulents & cacti can work but you'd have to water them far less and probably not have a water resevoir. I've not tried that myself though
may I ask why you switched back to soil? My plants LOVE semi hydro (I use seramis, planning on starting PON also) I have never had such growth in soil - now they are giving me HUGE leaves and great colour
Hey Emma, great video. Quick question what was the first Alocasia you repotted? The one with the mesh wrapped around it. I could figure out which one it was.
Hello, I'm new to Pon, I transferred all my plants to pon but not using self watering pot. So, I'm just wondering how often I should water my plants? can you please let me know or give me some advices? Thanks everyone!
I keep all my plants in pon in either self watering or with a reservoir. That’s what the substrate is made for, as it doesn’t hold much moisture more wicks it up & lets the roots have access to it while still having air. The only exception is cacti & succulents where I don’t keep them in water, but water them once a month
@@GoodGrowing thank you for the reply. Your videos are the best and I love your delivery and personality makes for easy to watch yet informative content!
Man, I tried to xfer a Polly into pon and it HATED IT. Just straight up detached all it's roots. They didn't rot, they just ..... Came off the rhizome. I tried transferring a baby imperialis too and the roots just rotted away even with a tiny 3 oz cup and lots of drainage holes and no reservoir. Idk what's up with it but so far my alocasias have HATED pon :(
Great intro to Pon, Emma thank you! I have 10 starter plants from etsy, alocasias and philodenrons etc that are in 1" soil plugs. They've been sitting in a tray with moistened perlite for a little over a month. Would you recommend starting these young plants in Pon and if so should I def remove all the soil from that plug?
yeah I defo think they could be good candidates for pon but be super careful when removing the soil as their small roots will be fragile. And yes, do remove all of the soil possible because having organic matter in there could lead to rot
I put my alocasia dragon scale into pon from soil, and the roots melted. When transitioning to pon, I know your supposed to water it from the top for a few weeks and don't give it a reservoir right? I have more alocasias to transition but now I'm scared! Any advise post pon transition? @goodgrowing
tbh I don't really use leca anymore and I only used it on a couple of plants before that so I don't think I can give a good enough comparison between them. But if it helps, I've kept going with pon and not at all with leca
I’m gutted - I’ve literally found some kind of sponge around my peperomia’s roots. Not a mesh, a bloody sponge! 12cm pot and not a single root could get through 3cm prison - why the hell to they do it?
Hi. I was just gifted a very large Hoya Carnosa. I have been researching how to transfer soil to semi hydroponics such as LECCA and PON. This beauty is so large that I have no idea where to even start. Could you help me? I also want to propagate the long stems. I have multiple flowers on it as well. Is there a way that I could send you a picture of her? Thanks, Teri
I'd be so keen to hear how your alocasia react to pon transfer? Like an update in a couple of weeks? I think I mentioned here how my silver dragon got transferred and it started with I think 5 leaves and immediately lost 3, then another one fell off a week or so later. I'm fairly certain I also lost the roots which is why I had so much leaf drop. I watered with hydrogen peroxide and it seems to have helped and the one leaf that remained has stayed and it's now put out another leaf and I can see some new root growth in the pot. I saw a video by unplantparenthood and I think her friend Alice also mentioned that when they transfer alocasia to pon it almost always happens that they have severe leaf drop and often all the roots go as well, they were considering an interim stage of water or perlite in between a transfer to pon so will be following to see how that works for them. If I had seen their video before I transferred I probably wouldn't have haha. I have had more luck transferring to leca honestly. But yea keen to see definitely how these two alocasia do on the medium term for sure.
interesting! I've not really had many issues transferring to pon with alocasias. I think it depends how rough you are with the roots, but so far these ones that I've swapped in this video have been doing quite well, no signs of rot or shock
I transferred my baby Alocasia Silver Dragon into Lechuza pon about 2 months ago, put the water reservoir directly in but left there only little bit of water and watered her from the top as I usually would. The roots smelled the water and went after it and grew considerably since then, so now I use the water reservoir a bit (the water level doesn´t touch the top pot and water still mostly from the top but I´m slowly switching to the water reservoir only watering from the bottom). Roots are white, long and many and it dropped only one leaf, but put on 2 new leaves and 4 babies are now sprouting from it.
I'm very interested in pon for my alocasias as well. You explained it so well! I'm in 🇦🇺 Australia and unfortunately it's so hard to find the indicator self watering pots even online very little choice. Once I find everything I'm definitely going to give it a go. Thanks for a great video😊
Love that Alocasia. I’m redoing a south facing bathroom (where the majority of my alos live). Once done, I need to see if I can make space for one more… 😂
I wanted to move my begonia rex into leca (I have no pon in my country) but her roots are super fine, and BLACK - I have her in water, and it's growing new leaves, but I expected her to grow new white roots, and to ditch the black mess but no, there's not a single white root in there, and it's still looks like ton of soil dunked into water... not sure how to deal with that - I had no luck with it in soil, it was down to one leaf when I moved her to water, and now it has 4, while her sister died entirely, but still, if anyone has any advice I'm all ears :)
I'm not the best person to ask about begonia tbh as I have always struggled with them until recently. I've got one in pon and I literally ignore it and it seems to be okay with that 🤷♀️
Hi! First of all thanks for your videos :) They are always super nice and I'm learning a lot. I see many other people mentioning you should wash/rinse lechuza pon before use, but it seems you're being successful by just using it as it is out of the box, can you confirm this? Ciao!
Hey so yeah it is suggested that you rinse it beforehand but honestly I'm too lazy to do that. Instead I try to run the plants in pon under the tap and let them drain before putting them in the reservoir properly, but again, sometimes I don't and I've never had any issues because of it
@good growing I have a question, maybe you or one of your subscribers can help me out. This may be a stupid question, I've been an outdoor gardener for years (tomatos, lettuce, currently skyscraper sunflowers, etc) and am only recently looking into more house plants. I've always had afew but I would love to get a really nice houseplants with large leaves....anyways, does pon or leika make the plants ridiculously heavy as opposed to soil? As I said, I would love to get a small cutting of something like a monstera and attempt to grow it large. I know that I should probably start it in the same sort of substrate it will always be in if possible but those plants can already get very very heavy. Also, if this works well I may try a couple of my current plants in something other than soil. I'm a little uncomfortable lol. I am used to OUTDOOR gardening with compost and a LOT of organic matter. I understand the concept of course but it goes against everything in my bones about plants! Lol. Also, this comment may be a duplicate bc after posting it before, it wasn't showing up. So I apologize if both were posted. Just ignore the other.
I haven't used a lot of Leca, just soil and pon. From what I could tell Leca is very lightweight and you'd have to be mindful of the container you use to support the plant and the pole or stake. Pon does have some weight to it but I haven't used it in anything over a 5 inch pot as of yet. If weight is a concern, maybe you could mix Leca in with your pon.
I hate that grower’s mesh! I get it, it’s used to start new baby plants by the manufacturers, but why not use the little peat or coco seed start things? The jiffy cups I think? Those actually will biodegrade and dissolve, and the plant can technically stay… but they act like the MESH is all-safe and it will just “dissolve” by magic somehow, or the roots will grow out of it… I haven’t found them to dissolve and, honestly, some plants that I’ve seen with the mesh seem stunted until I take it off… if I even knew it was there to begin with.
I got the same self watering pots from Amazon - but I didn't use the base inserts as I wouldn't be able to flush them. Did your poly survive? Assume it did. Also, do you use liquid gold leaf if you use lechuza or if there's already slow release fertiliser, or avoid? Thanks great to see these repot transfers to pon, thank you
Yep my plant is happy & healthy still! I’ll probably join it with its babies soon-ish too. If I’m using lechuza I don’t fertilise for the first 6 months because it has the slow release in it already. But at this point I mostly use soil ninja semi hydro as I like it better
Is there any danger to treating the pon transition like a water propogation? So like u pot the plant in pon and then fill the pot with water up to the roots? A couple of my dragon scale leaves are starting to droop after a couple of weeks in pon.
yeah, you're probs looking at dry moss which is INSANELY lightweight. That stuff works just as well, you just need to hydrate it before use. If you message me over on IG I can hopefully get some amazon links your way for what I've used before
I doubt that the root mesh caused damage to the plant. I use these every year for our vegetable garden and roots can easily penetrate through. They also decompose quickly in live soil.
it might not have caused damage yet but I defo think it was stopping this plant living it's full potential.. also even ones that decompose, don't really in houseplants as it's a completely different environment than outside in the elements
