I've been transitioning MOST of my plants to leca. It's a lot more work initially, but after you get the roots used to it, it's A LOT LESS WORK, and much nicer inside your home. I found a monstrous amount of different shaped and sized glassware at my local GoodWill store, for next to nothing. Some were less than a dollar. And all the different shapes and sizes have different functions and look cool around the house. So I am almost all in with leca, and I'm seeing success thus far.
I have used half water I have milk jugs of water with no Lids setting up and down my entrance hallway so the additives fluoride chlorine evaporate off but I've also been told that spring water is the best choice over distilled I recently read where you can make a tea out of your banana peels and I have been trying this on some of my plans they really perked up I only use the small amount at a time and I think I will continue making banana see which is very simple to make I cut the banana peel into very small pieces in a 4-cup container said about half the container full of water hot from the spicket or I microwave until hot and I let it set a day or two then I strain it and drain it off into a 2L bottle then I add about a cup of warm solution I would have to update you as to how they're doing but they really perked up bananas do contain a lot of potassium and magnesium which is good for the plant
i'm doing coir chips and chunky pumice. as far as i can tell, leca is more hydroponic style, but with a slightly more catchy name than using scoria, which is closest thing to leca.
I have an Antherium Christalianam in LECA and it is doing well. It was suggested on a video that LECA is the way to go specifically for that plant. It's probably a specific work around option for tricky, fussy, expensive plants but most of mine are in well draining, soil/perlite or LECA/cactus mix, anything that will help maintain structure around the roots over time. I also have a few in water with hydroponics fertilizer and are doing well. So many options, so many experiments and some failures. Remember most plants can be propagated in water so you can grow the roots back after root damage if you have patience.
So helpful, just got my first black velvet alocasia and will be trying Leca for the first time. After cleaning the roots, would you recommend keeping it in water for a week before moving to leca?
I have actually placed a bug bomb in my patio enclosure left it there for a few hours been aired out the patio well I also buy the hanging sticky traps they come in some pretty colors they don't really look like a trap and you don't really see the bugs unless you get up close so I have two of those just don't get your hair caught in it will pull it out I also have use number seven powder that is for the garden but I have sprinkled it on top of the dirt in my plants and then after a day I use a right or a chopstick and work it into the top of the soil kill the bugs and lava I also read that the cob from the corn has a chemical in it that will kill the bugs so my husband has bought dried corn to feed outside and I have a corncob laying on the side of my pot in the dirt I'm not really seeing any bugs in the house at this point and the bug bombs didn't seem to affect any of my plants
