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[electronic music]
Hey everyone.
It's me, Hallease.
Endeavoring to persevere, as always.
If you're new here, I make videos about my chaotic good life.
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Today's video is a much requested one.
To hole, or not to hole when it comes to growing plants in semi-hydro, or semi-hydroponics,
or passive hydro, or LECA, or whatever ... word [laughs] you use where you're talkin' bout
growing plants not in soil.
You'll see different people who do semi-hydro stuff.
Some of them will do this, or some variation of this, I guess.
They'll have a nursery pot or actual LECA pot which has a lot of different slits in
it so the water can really work through.
Then they'll have a filler pot underneath to catch the water and hold it in there for
the plant.
Or they'll do this, some variation of this, where they have some kind of container and
they drill a hole in it.
And that's what they do.
There are a lot of different ways to grow plants in LECA.
In this video, I'm gonna talk about why some people maybe do the hole, why some people
don't.
You can kind of figure it out for yourself.
But before we get into this all the way, a quick sidequest and then I'll be back.
I wanna make sure you're registered to vote.
Have you registered?
Are you doing your due diligence?
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The first link is where you can go to check and make sure you are registered to vote.
Make sure everything is correct, you on your p's and q's.
There's nothing they can say.
Deny you your civil rights as an American citizen, okay?
Be a Virgo for like two minutes and just make sure, make sure.
Planning on voting by mail, or doing absentee ballot, or just voting early.
I'm definitely gonna vote early just to get it over, get it done.
Make sure you're actually registered to do that.
Make sure you're actually registered to vote by mail or do an absentee ballot.
That's different than being registered to vote.
It's a two part thing.
Part one: you need to be registered just to do it, just to practice that civil liberty,
and vote.
Part two: you need to be registered to do an absentee ballot or to vote by mail.
The second link in my description box is to help you do that, if that is something you're
trying to do for this election season.
Also, make sure you're eligible in the state that you're in to do an absentee ballot, or
to vote by mail.
I know for me, personally, here in Texas, I'm actually not eligible to do it.
I know this time is very frustrating.
I know it's hard right now.
I know [laughs]!
But this is one of the few things you can do to have any kind of say in what is happening
in your life.
This is one of the few civil liberties that you can practice as an American citizen.
For better or worse, this is what you can do [laughs].
This is it.
I just wanna make sure that you have checked to make sure you're registered and everything's
correct.
And if you are planning to vote in a different way, to make sure you're registered to do
that, too.
Have a plan in place, so that way you can do it.
I'm done.
I'm done, let's get into this video [laughs].
But go vote, please [laughs]!
Hey, y'all.
Welcome back.
So, the simplest reason why I like to do drill the hole in plants is so that you have an
easy way to drain the water out of the plant.
Whenever you go to water the plant, like so, it's just going to come out the bottom.
This is really great for a few reasons.
One: you don't end up overwatering the plant.
There's no way you can because if you drill the hole where you're supposed to, the water
will only be able to go up but so high.
The other way this is really great, is if you ever wanna drain the plant, it's a lot
easier.
You just literally kinda hold it and.
You very easily have now drained all of the water out of your plant.
That can be really helpful, especially if you have a bigger plant like this one in LECA.
It would be great to have a hole in this so that way you can drain it out really easily
and you're not trying to dump and pour.
Especially if you're not trying to get to the roots or anything like that.
That's the main reason that I like holes [laughs] in my planting containers.
In general, I am an over waterer.
That's just the type of plant person I am.
I'm really bad about overwatering.
I really enjoy having the hole because it really helps.
Another thing I really enjoy with planting plants like this is the clear container.
That helps me to not even mess with the plant that much.
Because I can actually look at it and inspect the roots and not worry at all if I'm overwatering
it or anything like that.
I don't even really need to touch the plants.
I can just kinda glance over and see, "Ah, the water's kinda low.
I'm gonna fill it up."
Then the hole prevents me from overfilling it up.
Some tips around having the hole is that you wanna make sure the hole is about a third
of the way up whatever container you're going to use.
Then, also that you position the plant's roots around halfway up the container.
That way, if the plant is not used to being in a water environment, it gives the plant
time to naturally get used to that and grow into the water.
That also helps to prevent things like root rot as well.
If y'all have been watching a few of my plant videos so far, y'all know I've had a stint
where root rot is the thing that I am struggling with [laughs] right now.
It is not fun, but here we are, trying.
You know?
That will really help to prevent root rot and just help your plant have a more balanced
experience.
Again, I prefer having holes in whatever containers I'm using.
I also prefer clear containers like this, so I can see the roots.
But, you don't have to do that.
In fact, this plant right here, it's in a clear container, but I don't have a hole in
it because I got kinda lazy and didn't feel like drilling the hole in it.
I've just been kinda eyeballing it with this one to make sure that I don't over water it.
Thankfully, it hasn't been an issue at all.
So, that's good.
But you can also just have a plant in a filler pot, like I said, using whatever container.
Maybe you just use a nursery pot.
That's what this is.
I think I poked a couple extra holes in it, but it's a nursery pot.
And then this is Chobani yogurt that I just saved the container, upcycle, and put it inside
of there.
Now it'll catch all the runoff.
So, with this method, when you water it, it's great.
Because you water it, and as you can see, see if I can get it high enough for y'all.
You water it and there you go!
The runoff is there, and you have your filler pot to catch the runoff.
Now the water can just sit and live in there.
Now, that's way too much water to have in this plant.
I need to literally take that back out.
But [laughs] that is something you can do.
I personally don't, in fact, with this one I'm just doing that.
I personally don't like doing this method for a few reasons.
One, I can't see the roots.
I don't like that.
I really want to be able to see the roots as they begin to grow, so I can just quickly
eyeball and see if root rot's setting gin or just something else is setting in.
Maybe algae, or water bugs, whatever.
I just wanna be able to see things quickly.
Control freak!
So [laughs] I don't like having plants in containers where I can't see them.
But at the same time, I did start to notice as I was switching plants to LECA that I had
a lot of filler pots based out of my recycling that I could just use.
That's why I do this now.
The other thing I've noticed from having plants in clear containers, glass containers, with
holes versus having plants in filler pots and containers, makeshift filler pots is that
you also start to run this issue of ...
I don't know if it's more oxygen getting in.
There isn't as much airflow, or if it's just the sun itself, whatever type of indirect
light you have doesn't really get there.
Because it's literally covered.
I'll notice sometimes that I really have to be good about not overwatering, or when I
lift the pot up, out, I can smell it's kind of rotted.
The water's just been stagnant and sitting in there for so long that it just kinda smells
a little bit.
I have to refresh and revamp.
It's a whole thing.
Something that I do now, if I am gonna use a filler pot when I'm taking care of plants
in LECA, is I actually don't let any water sit.
What I'll do is I'll literally water the plant like this over the sink, or with nutrient
water.
I'll water the plant like this, I will let the water runoff as much as possible, like
so.
Then, I'll put it in the filler pot.
There's still probably a little bit of water that will slowly make its way down, but that's
it.
I just let it stay like that.
The thing about this is I have to come over and check and see, "Okay?"
And wait for it to get completely, completely dried out to know that it's good again to
do this process.
This process is a little more time intensive for me and the plants that I have.
I haven't really figured out a good way to have plants in this method and be really,
super hands off, the way I want to be.
With plants like these, where I can literally just eyeball them and see that they need water
and they're fine.
Again, depending on what type of environment you live in, what plants you have, I think
one may work for some over the other.
It's all trial and error.
That's what all of this is, is just a lot of trial and error.
All the time.
Now, how to drill the hole.
I'm gonna do a semi-demonstration because I don't feel like drilling any holes right
now.
Sorry y'all.
Let me not talk and make noise with the thing at the same time.
Let's not do that, right?
In the description box, I include everything I use, when planting, using LECA, using the
system.
Make sure you check it out!
The diamond bit I use, which is in the description box, in kit, is here.
I use this bit to drill holes.
A few tips on drilling a hole into whatever glass or plastic container you're gonna use:
all you need is a hand drill for this, nothing too epic.
You want to start drilling from a diagonal, kinda.
Come at it a little sideways, you know what I'm saying?
A little sideways.
As you finally pretty much get locked into place, start to go more perpendicular with
how you're drilling.
The thing about it is, is glass is moving around and stuff and you just really need
to focus in and try to leverage as much as you can whenever you're drilling.
The other thing I will say, too, is to keep cold water nearby.
The method you wanna use is drill some to kind of get it going.
Then pour some cold water onto whatever section you're drilling.
That way, it stays cool.
Because heat is not your friend when doing this.
If you let the glass or the diamond bit get too hot, you'll just crack it and break it
all the way through and you're screwed.
You wanna keep some cold water nearby so that you can slowly keep pouring it on there to
get rid of the glass debris.
Also, to make sure that your glass or plastic ... well, plastic won't split.
Whatever.
Make sure your glass doesn't crack, and split, and break.
The other thing I would recommend, especially if you're doing glass, just be careful if
you're doing plastic inside; be careful if you're doing glass, and I would recommend
taking it outside to drill.
Again, you are gonna be drilling a hole in glass and you don't want micro glass shards
to end up all over your apartment, your home floor.
I mean, yeah.
You can vacuum it up, but there's still glass.
Protect your toes.
You know I'm saying?
Protect your toes at all costs.
I personally gather a lot of glass containers and then I actually usually go to my parents
house [laughs] because my dad is very mechanically inclined and he has a standing drill press
and I use that usually to do five or six of them in a row.
That way, I don't have to worry about getting glass all over my apartment.
I will also link to a few other great tutorials that I actually watched to learn how to drill
a hole correctly to make sure that I minimized cracking the glass too much or anything like
that.
For example, with this one, as you can see, I did a pretty good job drilling the hole
in this one.
But there was a bit of a ... Yeah, there's still a bit of a crack.
It didn't crack enough to mess it up.
Bertolli, as you can see is thriving, but it did crack a little bit.
This was my first attempt at drilling.
I did this one in my apartment, sitting here on a chair, drilling.
It was a mess.
You know, you live you learn.
Don't do that again.
With all of that, if you are new to LECA, let me know in the comments below.
Were you planning on drilling or not drilling holes.
Let me know in the comments below.
Let me know in the comments of how your semi-hydroponics experience is going.
Again, I am Hallease.
If you are new here, consider subscribing.
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There you get early access to these videos as well as private weekly vlogs from me.
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So, thank you so much, guys.
I really appreciate y'all.
Again, I'm Hallease.
I will see you when I see you.