I feel like it's 6.8 right now and I am a Virgo and I can't handle that.
Who can really say?
Scientists.
Scientists can probably really say.
Or, the rest of PlantTube will correct me, I am sure.
[lo-fi hip hop 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.
Subscribe, follow, social media, all of that.
I am going to show you how I'm going to take my propagated Monstera that I have been propagating
for some time now and transfer it to the LECA system or what is also known as semi-hydroponics.
So, this is a way to grow plants without using dirt.
And I first learned about this when I was scouring YouTube looking for tips in the YouTube
plant community on how to get rid of gnats.
I really think this is a great system if you are someone who lives in an apartment.
You don't have access to a yard and a hose so you can easily, you know, transfer your
dirt and do other things and play around with dirt and mixtures.
You know, if you don't have a garage.
I live in an apartment.
I live on the fourth floor.
So, whenever it is time to re-fertilize my plants via dirt, it's a real hassle.
It really is difficult.
So, yeah.
This is why I've been leaning towards this system.
And I currently have, I want to eventually do all of my plants in LECA, but right now,
I've just converted to just sort of get my feet wet on the process.
One of them is this Hoya Krimson Crown name: Bertolli, as you can see.
And I put this in LECA from dirt, um, a little over a month ago, and it's doing really well.
As you can see it's called a Hoya Krimson Crown because they end up getting these pretty,
pretty red leaves if they're happy.
So, this leaf actually came up about a week or two after I had transferred it to LECA,
and I was like, "... That means it's happy.
Yay!"
The other plant that I have put to LECA is Marble Nuggets.
That's his name.
But, um, it is a pHilodendron.
And this was a propagation that I had going just in a jar with some water for about a
month or so.
And then after I saw it really starting to take root in the jar of water, I switched
it to LECA.
And it hasn't put out any new leaves yet, but I'll do a close up of the roots.
Oh my goodness.
It has taken off in LECA.
It seems to really like it.
And so, I'm just giving him some space, you know, letting him really get a great root
system going.
And then hopefully, you know, in another couple weeks, months, I'll get a nice new leaf.
So, these are the two plants I've already put into LECA.
And again today we're going to put my Monstera into LECA.
And I have been propagating this Monstera just in this little Folgers cup.
You know, try to use your plastic as much as you can.
Try to keep it out the landfill when you can.
And also keeping your plastic and glass jars is really great if you're gonna try LECA out.
So, just keep 'em around.
It'll be helpful.
Trust me.
But I have been propagating this Monstera for almost two months.
It's been a while.
I got it right hone we wall started having to stay home and social distance.
And you can see it is very ready [laughs].
Very, very ready to be potted into something [laughs].
It has completely taken off.
The roots have roots, which is awesome.
You love to see that.
This is just a simple flower vase that my husband actually usually uses during, whenever
he brings me fresh flowers he puts them in this vase.
And I politely asked him, "Hey, can I have that?"
And I have created a reservoir system for it.
So, by drilling a hole into this glass.
It'll be ready to go for LECA.
If you're not going to have your LECA done in nursery pots, like different-sized nursery
pots ... That's something that a lot of people do.
They'll keep the LECA and the plant in a nursery pot and then have just a filler pot, like
this Folgers cup for example.
If you can't do that 'cause you don't have a lot of nursery pots, 'cause I don't.
I don't.
Then the other way you can do it, is to just drill a hole in whatever vessel you're gonna
use, about a third of the way up.
To drill this hole, I used a diamond-bit.
I'll put the link I the description box for you.
So, if you wanna buy it you can.
And I just drilled it here at home in my apartment just having a little bit of cold water nearby,
'cause I have a little hand drill.
Here's our LECA.
I have it soaking in water right now.
It's been soaking for maybe an hour.
I have seen other people say you should soak it for 24 hours, you should try to, you know,
have it soaking for days, and things like that.
I didn't do that with either of these and they seem to be fine.
I just kinda soaked it for an hour or two.
Basically this has been soaking while I set up my camera and lights to start filming.
And I also made sure to rinse the LECA off to get all of the sort of clay debris that
isn't necessarily the balls themselves.
Try to rinse them out until the water runs clean, and then you're good to go.
The thing that I really like about this, too, is that once you buy LECA, you just use it.
So, once you have it, you have it.
You don't have to keep buying and throwing it out and things like that, like you would
with dirt.
So, that's another reason why I really like LECA a lot.
The last thing I'm gonna show you on how to do with this video, and then we'll get started,
I promise, how to create your nutrient water to help sustain your plants an help them grow.
So, with this Monstera, since it is a new plant that I am putting into LECA, to help
with that transition, I'm going to use SUPERthrive in water.
And this is how your plants grow.
Combining that with aeration, it's getting good oxygen.
Plants need oxygen just like we do.
And then the water, it's a very controlled environment for them.
So, I'll use SUPERthrive on this Monstera to help it ease into the LECA system, and
help it have a better time of doing that.
Although, it should be fine because, again, I've noticed that propagating in water and
then switching to LECA, they seem to like that 'cause it's a pretty seamless transition.
So, I'll use SUPERthrive water and I will show you how to pH balance your water.
Plants actually like their pH with water to be, I wanna say between 5 and 6 ... 5.5 and
6.5.
I was close.
Let's get into it.
I'm gonna go ahead and head off camera and drain the water out of our LECA balls and
then I'll be back.
Okay, so I went ahead and emptied out the water, most of the water, from our LECA.
It is here it is ready to go.
And I have our bowl, and then I have our plant.
So, the first thing we're gonna do is fill this up about, about halfway.
Oop.
See that's the beautiful thing about LECA, though, you drop some and it's not a big deal.
Just go pick it up.
[laughs] I wanna do like a little bit more because you wanna make sure that you're letting
the plant be able to grow down, right?
So, givin' it space to grow down.
That is probably good.
Don't wanna do too much more than that.
I just really wanna make sure these roots seem like they really are gonna want to drill
deep.
So, I'm tryna make sure I'm giving the Monstera space to do that, but I think this is pretty
good.
Now we're just gonna place our Monstera in.
I mean, basically as if it were dirt.
You know?
And just kinda like place it nicely.
Don't worry about making sure things are going down and stuff.
It'll figure it out.
You know?
And then we're just gonna fill it all the way up to the top.
And as we're filling, we're gonna make sure we're kinda shaking to get the LECA to really
set the plant in place.
But you're not trying to like push it down.
You're just shaking so the balls kinda fall into the nooks and crannies and really set,
so.
Give it like a little shake right now actually.
Actually two of the roots are already like ... went down.
So, that's cool.
And we're gonna just fill it up the rest of the way.
Folgers for the win.
#notspon
[lo-fi hip hop music]
That looks so good.
Wow, I'm really loving this.
That's the other thing I really like about LECA.
I really enjoy having the vessels be clear because it, it's like, it adds a depth, a
texture just seeing the balls.
I think so.
And again, one good final shake to really make sure everything's kinda in place, and
that ... that looks great.
I think this looks really good.
Isn't this gorgeous, look at this thing.
Oh!
And I can already see our roots are peaking out a little bit.
Which is cute, saying hello.
Little peak-a-boo roots.
So, that's nice.
So, we're gonna set this aside.
Sorry, I just had a moment 'cause I'm so happy I found this little guy.
Just on the river walk.
Crazy.
So, we're going to now prep our water.
Our nutrient water.
So, since this is a propagated plant, we're gonna start off with SUPERthrive to make sure
it can transition very easily to the LECA.
This container is a, just a half-gallon jug that was originally used for vinegar, I think
white rice vinegar, and I just saved it after we finished using it.
Deemed it the nutrient water vessel if you will.
And, so let's get right into it.
I have filled hit up.
This is about a half-gallon.
I have filled it with water.
And for SUPERthrive, you want to use ... You're only supposed to use a fourth of a teaspoon
of SUPERthrive in a gallon of water, but as you can see this is a half-gallon container.
So, I'm gonna eyeball half of a fourth of a teaspoon and hope for the best.
You know.
I just live my life recklessly sometimes.
And, you know, just gotta do it.
Gonna dump that in.
And then put the top on and give it a good shake to kind of get the solution all the
way through the water.
And, so now, here comes the fun part.
[laughs] Using science to figure out what our pH balance is.
I feel like ten-year old me would think this was the coolest thing ever.
I mean, I'm almost 30 and I think this is the coolest thing ever now.
So, I love it.
Alright, so we're gonna use our eyedropper here and we're gonna take a little bit of
the water out.
And then this pH balance system comes with this little cap for you to use.
And we're gonna put it in our little cap.
K, and then we're gonna take our test indicator liquid, 3 to 5 drops in our little sample
of water from the jug.
Give it a good shake.
And, here is the color.
And on this pH indicator, it lets you know where you want, based on the color, what the
pH of the sample of water is.
And so, again, for healthy, happy plants with water, you want the pH to be around 5.5 and
6.5.
And, looking at this color and based on the color spectrum, we're closer to 5.
I would like to see it be a smidge more green than this.
So, I'm going to go and add a little bit, just a tiny bit of pH up to this.
Just a little bit of pH up into this.
You really don't need too much.
It just a smidge of pH up will do.
I kinda just wanna get it closer to 6.
Like have a little bit more of a green, kinda orange-y green look to it.
[lo-fi hip hop music]
I think this is about as close as I'll be able to get.
It feels like I am in between 6 and 6.5 right now.
Took a while, but we got there.
Okay?
Little late, just be happy that I'm here, alright?
[laughs] What I am gonna do is I am going to go to the sink really quick and let the
water fill up quite a bit and then empty it out.
Essentially flush the whole thing out just to help the LECA really make sure that it
gets nice and settled in, the water kinda helps with that.
And then, I'm gonna come back on and fill it with the nutrient water up into the reservoir.
So, I'll be right back.
So, I went and just gave it one more good flush to make sure that all the LECA is nice
and wet and also that a good amount of water kind of covered the roots, and kind of covered
the plant itself.
And now I'm going to take our painstaking nutrient water that we have made and just
begin to pour it again kind of trying to pour it evenly across the plant so some of it kind
of lands on it as well.
Ideally, we don't let any water come out because we took so long for us to get it together.
So, you know, pour slowly.
Be careful and kind of keep checking.
Just kind of ... you know, I'm kind of trying to pour all along ... Yeah, kinda hoping I
can get some good water drip-age.
We're almost there.
Okay.
A little bit more.
And that is it.
That is, it's ready.
It's done.
I'm gonna now put this plant over by my ... I have a giant balcony window.
And that's why a lot of my plants kind of live in this corner, 'cause the balcony window.
But I'm gonna put him right on top of my little table over here so he can get nice, good sun.
When you are doing a propagation and putting it into LECA, make sure you have the plant
get a lot of sun, just to help it again with that transition.
Make it feel really good, make him feel really happy.
So, this beautiful Monstera is done!
Thank you so much, again, for stopping by.
If you're new here, consider subscribing.
Big shoutout to my Patreon production team, patreon.com/hallease.
There you get early access to videos as well as private weekly vlogs.
It's an awesome time, and also coming soon, I will be having editing and filming classes
on my patreon as well.
So, it's a good time, check it out if you're interested, patreon.com/hallease.
And I will see you when I see you.
[lo-fi hip hop music]