Hi plant people it's Nora the Leca Queen. Thank you for joining me. Today we're going
to be talking about ferns. I've got a Blue Star, Blue Star yeah I've got a Blue Star fern here
and I've got a Green Flame fern. Today's question is, what is the best way of transitioning
a fern from soil to leca? What is the best way that's going to mean there's minimal leaf loss and
the plant continues to thrive? So today I'm going to be, I've got two of these Blue Star flames and
I've got two of these ones and we're going to be trying the straight from soil to leca or the long
method. So I'll have one of the Blue Star ferns in each of these and I'll have another one of the
other fern in the two methods as well so and then we'll follow these plants along and see
how they're going and maybe we can sort of come to some sort of conclusion as to what's the best
method of transitioning ferns from soil to leca. And it might just be that it might just be these
particular two ferns and not the other ferns I don't know but this is a place to start. What are
we going to need in order to do this? So obviously we need the plants we're going to need some leca
we're going to need some of my special sauce. Now my special sauce comprises of clonex clone
solution which is a solution that actually feeds cuttings, it aids the rooting process and it helps
with uh transfer shock so that's really, really good to have and then in my special sauce as well
is root zone. This is an organic product that helps roots stay healthy. So it's healthy roots it's
all about the roots because that's really what transitioning a plant from soil to leca is, it's
about getting that plant, getting those roots used to receiving nutrition in a semi-hydroponic setup
as opposed to a soil environment. So the first thing we're going to do is get these plants out
of the soil and get them ready to go into their various methods and to do that of course I will
need my gloves because we are dealing with soil and you do want to protect yourself so I'll get my
gloves and we will take that soil off. Got my plant here, gentle squeeze to get that out of the pot.
Oh my goodness! Would you look at that! Now I was definitely not expecting that. Just look at how
root-bound that is. That is just something else, so you're just trying to tease off
as much of that organic matter as you can off, I might actually just leave that one and
use my hose to just deal with that there's just so much material and let me try the next one.
Oh dear, that comes straight off again! that's another very very root-bound plant so
try and get those off leave that there. Let me try the Green Flames.
That again.
So so root bound.
Last one
no prizes for guessing that this is root-bound as well
and there you go, root-bound. So I'm going to take these plants outside
hose them down get all that organic material and soil off and get the roots as clean as I can. I'll
see you in a bit. Well I'm back and gosh that was pretty hard to do it took me a really long time
to get all that organic material off but this is my fern that's one of them
and those are the roots that I now have. So they're pretty, pretty small roots and I try
to take off as much material as I can and I did remove quite a number of roots as well.
Just because that mass was actually quite big and I suspect if I put all that in the leca
things might not go so well. Look, I've still got organic matter in there it's just really really
hard sometimes to make sure that you get all the organic matter out but it doesn't really matter.
I mean it's about getting as much as you can off.So now that I've got my plants
I'm now going to get my propagation jars. So these are my propagation jars I will put one of those
ferns in that and the Blue Star in that and I will put in those jars my special sauce solution.
So that is my special sauce solution there and that's that Blue Star
and that's the way that will stay and I will fill up the other one as well. I've got that one there
and that's that so that's my ferns experiment number one. So these plants are now living in my
special sauce and going through what I like to call the long method of soil to like a transition.
And if you're not sure what I mean by that just click on the link above and that'll take you
through to a video where explain all that in greater detail. So I'll have this plant sit in
this solution I will change this solution over every few days and put fresh nutrient solution
in there. I'll put those in a nice warm spot and cross my fingers and hope that things go well
and they transition well. So I've got these two plants left. I will put these directly into leca.
Let's do that now for the Blue Star which is a smaller fern I will
use my 10 centimeter pot and for the larger one I will use my 14 centimeter
ventilated growers pot. I make these pots myself and just click on the link above that'll take you
through to a video where I demonstrate how I make these so I'll bring you down. Put my
potting tarp there, I've got my leca and I'm going to fill this pot a third up with leca.
So that's about good and I'm going to take this little Blue Star fern and
put that right in the middle
and put leca in there fill, this little pot up with leca
so just giving the pot a little gentle squeeze just to reset all the leca
and there we go that is that little Blue Star fern
well seated in leca. I'll now get my 14 centimeter pot put leca a third of the way up
that is just about what I need.
I will now grab my bigger plant put that in there and fill that up with leca.
Gentle squeeze to reset all the leca
and that is that fern in that pot. I've now got my plants living in their pots
I've got my reservoirs here and that's where I'm going to put
my special sauce, that's my clonex clone and root zone solution. I'll put those res i'll put this
nutrient solution in those reservoirs to a level where I know that the roots are not going to be
in contact with the nutrient solution. So this is my little blue star that is now living in leca
and is living in its reservoir and if you're finding value from this video
please don't forget to like and subscribe it really helps my channel. And that is that Flame
fern living in its reservoir. Now these plants, I actually bought these plants probably a month
even more ago and they haven't been watered in a very, very long time this is why it's looking a
bit limp like this and I really hope that within the next few hours it's going to perk up a bit
because that nutrient solution will start getting through to those roots and cross my fingers this
works. So I will keep you updated I will let you know what's going on and we will see we will find
out what's the best method to use to transition ferns like these from soil to leca. Thank you so
much for watching don't forget to like share and subscribe and I will see you in my next video bye