Hey everyone.
It is editor Hallease here.
Before we get into this video, I just wanted to say thank you so much.
This channel is about to hit 50,000 subscribers in a bit, and I kinda can't believe it.
I just really wanted to get on and say thank you for liking, sharing, subscribing.
I really appreciate it.
None of this happens without your engagement.
You are the reason why I can do what I do.
Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you as this channel approaches that huge, huge milestone.
Thank you.
I'm done with the sappiness now.
Cue the dance music.
[Dance music plays]
Hey everyone.
It's me, Hallease, endeavoring to persevere as always.
If you're new here, I make videos about my chaotic good life.
Subscribe, follow, social media, all the things.
Appreciate ya in advance for that.
Today's video, I wanted to talk a little bit about current failures I'm going through in
my semi-hydroponics, passive hydro life right now.
I would definitely consider myself a beginner when it comes to LECA or semi-hydroponics.
I kind of discovered this through the PlantTube community.
Have been just a bit obsessed for most of 2020 now [laughs].
We all got time to kill am I right?
I'm right.
I have definitely failed a couple times.
In this video, I'm just gonna talk about a few failures I've had and what I've learned
from them.
Hopefully, that'll help some of y'all out who are interested in trying semi-hydroponics.
Also, I've seen a few of y'all talk about, "I don't have a green thumb," this , that,
and the third.
I understand that.
There are definitely weeks, months go by where I'm like, "Wow, I killed so many plants today,"
[laughs].
My first mistake, I can't even cut to real time footage of it because it has left us.
It is no longer in this apartment at all.
Moment of silence for my Dumb Cane.
Just a moment of silence for that plant.
Moment of silence.
If you're new to this channel, a few plant videos back, I talked about a Dumb Cane that
I was trying to resurrect from the grave.
I gave an update in another plant video about how it was doing.
And.
Yeah, it's gone.
Had to say goodbye to the Dumb Cane [laughs].
My biggest lesson from that was that root rot is nothing to be trifled with.
You need to take root rot seriously.
'Cause it is a thing.
I think the big thing that I struggled with, with the Dumb Cane was placement within LECA.
I had placed it in LECA after I had tried to revive it in just water.
And then, I think I just filled it up a little too much with water.
So much so that the bottom of the Dumb Cane plant was still kind of tapping the water
a little bit.
And I really should not have done that.
I've learned with LECA in general, you really wanna make sure that the highest amount of
water you're gonna put doesn't actually touch where the plant's roots begin.
You want the plant to grow into the water.
Not to have the plant just be in water once it's in LECA.
Because it is really prone to possibly getting mold, root rot, all of that kind of stuff.
RIP.
Rest in Power to that Dumb Cane.
Lesson learned.
The second lesson is a continuation of that.
Again.
In my last updated video where I talked about all the different plants I had in LECA, I
was so excited about my little Pilea plant here.
I then recently looked at it.
I gave it a quick side eye, and was like, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Why is this main stalk looking funny?
What's happenin', what's happenin'?"
And sure enough.
I'll do a close up so you can see, but the stalk itself: root rot, once again, hit it
hard.
This also just might be an indicator that maybe these smaller Pileas, the little baby
propagation Pileas, just don't do well in LECA.
You need to just to this with a more established plant.
But this stalk used to actually be quite long.
I had switched my Pilea, his name's Gottfried, I had switched him to LECA, and he's doing
great.
He's over just there having a ball.
But in the process of switching him to LECA, I noticed he had pushed off a new stalk and
it had fell off while I was switching him.
I thought, "Oh!
This new stalk's here.
Let me just throw it in some LECA, and see how it does.
We'll just go from there."
It was doing really well.
As you can see, it was starting to sprout off little things and what not.
And then same mistake.
This used to be a lot longer.
I've already trimmed it back.
I put it way too far down into the jar that it was in, and it was doing great for a little
while.
But then, it eventually got water logged.
I looked over at it the other day and realized it was completely root rot all the way up
to the top.
The leaves still seem to be doing good.
I kinda don't know really what to do next with this now.
In the comments below, help a sister out.
What do I do with this now?
I don't even know.
'Cause it's like, it seems like it's still alive.
But ... it's definitely root rotted.
I don't know what to do.
I've just left it in there.
Just like, ehhhh.
I'm just gonna leave you alone and see what happens.
Bye!
Currently struggling through that.
My last failure that I am attempting to redeem myself from, we'll see how it goes, is this
Dracaena.
Tentative name for this Dracaena is Butter Cream.
This Dracaena used to be large.
The stalk used to be this big.
Super tall.
I had switched it to LECA and once again: root rot, y'all.
I'm going through a root rot phase.
I really don't know what's going on.
I think I really do believe it's about placement and I just have gotten a little too lackadaisical
on being very calculated about where I place the plant within the LECA system.
And so, I checked in on this plant and looked and realized, "Oh my God!
Root rot!
Ah!"
And so, I slowly started trimming the roots back to try to save it.
Eventually it was just, "Okay, either I cut my losses now, or lose the plant altogether."
I went ahead and just made that call, and just chopped it off right at the stalk.
Just have been having it in a tub of water.
I was curious.
I had no idea if this would actually propagate again.
I've never planted these before.
But, I left it in water for a little while and it started propagating.
Here he is.
He's propagating now.
We're gonna try again.
See how this goes.
I will say, once again, the roots look really good on this.
Something I have noticed, and I've mentioned this in other videos: when you have a propagated
plant that you're propagating in water, and then you switch it to LECA, they seem to do
a lot better than plants that you take directly from soil and put to LECA.
It seems to be not as jarring for them.
They're just kinda like, "Yes.
Kinda same old, same old.
I'm good."
And they do really well.
I'm hoping that by essentially borderline starting over with this plant, this Dracaena,
it'll do better.
We'll see.
It also might be that these types of Dracaenas, maybe just LECA isn't for them.
If I conclude that from my research, I will let you know.
Did you like that accent I just did?
"If I conclude that from my research."
Anyway (laughs).
Having a little too much fun.
I'm completely alone here.
Having fun by myself.
Something else that happened was that it started getting eaten by something.
Have no idea what was eating this plant, but it seems like it started eating it and then
was like, "I don't like this, actually," and then left.
I don't know.
All that to say, I just wanna let y'all know that, I ain't got it figured out.
You know?
I ain't got it figured out with this whole plant stuff.
It's just experimentation.
That's the fun thing about plants, gardening, LECA, any of these growing systems that you're
trying.
Whether it be mixing different soils to try to create something new, or trying Hydroton,
and all these other different growing mediums.
It's all about experimentation.
It's all about ... a bit of scientific ... what is it?
The scientific theory?
Scientific method!
That's what I was looking for.
It's all about the scientific method.
Try to control as many variables as possible.
Try something new.
See what happens.
Catalogue your results.
Make adjustments.
Try again.
That's where I'm at with it.
I really just wanna get on and let y'all know that, it's a struggle bus over here when it
comes to LECA stuff.
I'm still a beginner.
I still consider myself a noob.
In the comments below, let me know if you have any other tips.
Or if you've got any words of wisdom on some of the issues I'm having with my Pilea over
here and my Dracaena.
Please let me know in the comments below.
Like I said, I'm a beginner.
Don't know nothin'.
Trial and error, amen.
Big shout-out to my Patreon Producers, patreon.com/hallease if you're interested.
There you get early access to videos, as well as private weekly vlogs from me.
Some of y'all have commented on the production value of these videos.
That is directly because of the Patreon.
Thank you so much to my Patreon Producers for being my production partners here on this
channel.
Much appreciated.
Love y'all.
Yeah.
I'll see you when I see you.
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