LECA (Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate)
Information
LECA stand for Lightweight expanded clay aggregate. It is a growing medium, like soil, in which you can grow your plants.
The most important part of growing your plants in Leca is that the roots are not allowed to sit in (standing) water. When you use Leca, you can create a raised or false bottom and raise your plant's roots from the bottom of the pot. Then you can add your water until it's sitting just below the roots of the plant. The clay balls will start to soak up the water at the bottom of the pot while keeping the roots away from the water.
If you're growing thirsty plants in Leca, they will start to grow their roots towards the water that's at the bottom of the pot and absorb moisture directly from there. This makes Leca perfect for a large variety of plants, from drought-loving cacti to moisture-loving Alocasias.
Since Leca doesn't provide nutrients, you'll need to add nutrients to the water yourself. These nutrients are slightly different from the fertilizer you would give to plants growing in soil but still just as easy. Hydroponics nutrients (or fertilizer) contain special ingredients that your normal plant fertilizer doesn't have. Normal plant fertilizers don't need these ingredients, because the soil provides your plant with these nutrients. Since Leca doesn't contain any nutrients, the hydroponics fertilizer needs to add these missing ingredients to keep your plant healthy. This is why you can't use normal fertilizer for your plants in Leca: it's missing key ingredients.
When you're ready to water your plant that's growing in Leca, you'll need to prepare the water first. You'll need to add the hydroponic fertilizer to the water you use to water your plant and mix it well. This will help to dilute the fertilizer with the water and turn your plain old water into a hydroponic nutrient solution. I use SUPERthrive for the initial watering and once a month along with FloraGro 2-1-6.
You can water any of your Leca-growing plants with this nutrient solution and you're done! It's a little bit of preparation before you water your plant, but that's all you'll need to do to take care of a plant that's growing in Leca.
The benefits of LECA are:
- It's easier to water your plants
- Less risk of root rot
- The risks of getting pests are reduced
- You can easily "check in" on your plants