I've been using pon now for a year and will not use anything else. I just want to say that when it comes to transferring a plant from soil to self-watering I rinse the pon through with warm water, wash the roots of the plant and transfer it into the self watering pot with the damp pon and leave it for 2 to 3 weeks before adding water to the self watering pot. I have had less transitioning problems this way. Pon has been a saviour for me for regarding a Calathea Warscewiczii. I received it as a large , mature specimen and within a week the stems started to collapse so I chopped it right back and put it into a self watering pot in pon and within 3 months it grew 8 new leaves and is better acclimated to my room conditions now. I also have quite a few succulents and cacti and they are all in normal nursery pots filled with pon which are bottom watered every 3-4 weeks and are absolutely loving it. My only gripe with pon is that they don't keep the slow release fertiliser seperate so it can be added if needed. For plants that don't require a lot of fertilising I pick out the fertiliser balls and put them in a small seperate bag. Thanks for another informative video Memo.
yeah i am fast getting there too tbh. ahh cool thanks for sharing your story with your Calathea. Yeah it would be good if they kept the fertiliser separate for sure.
That's so interesting about the Warscewiczii! I also bought mine as a mature plant and it actually did really well UNTIL I tried to re-pot it😬 it was REALLY root bound and needing water every other day, so I mixed up a soil mix that I usually use for calathea ( basically my around mix but with more soil and a bit of moss) and I may have tried loosening the rootball a bit🤦 anyway, it instantly started freaking out, but I left it like that for about a month because I I wanted to make sure it wasnt just adjusting to the new soil and pot. I have since checked on the roots to make sure they weren't rotting ( they're fine), and it HAS stabilized, but most new leaves that come out are coming out with these brown kind of crispy spots! Anyway, all this to say that Ive been thinking about at least trying a self-watering pot🤔🤷
I’ve been using pon for a while with great results on philodendrons but with alocasias i have found that if u leave the root ball in tact… soil and all and just plant it in pon and back fill … they seem to take much better and thrive this way… i know they say not to do this but i saw someone one UA-cam doing it with pumice without disturbing the roots and it has been working for me… i even did an experiment with my two pink dragons and the one that i cleaned the roots of soil and potted in pon went through shock and just generally doesn’t thrive as much as the one i left the soil on and potted in pon
I have all of my prayer plants (Marantacae) except one,in pon and they are doing quite well. I have been using pon for over 3 years. I started with a Calathea warceswirtzi and a Stromanthe triostar. They were in 4 inch pots. They are now in 10inch Lechuza self watering pots. It is imperative to follow the instructions when transferring to pon. My latest transfer to pon has been my Maranta silver band. I bought it online from a company who warns to not repot the plant for at least 20 days after receiving it. I washed the roots, removed the soil and transferred it to pon on the day I received it. Fast forward 3 months and the plant has grown beautifully and is now in a 7inch self watering pot. Most of my plants are in Lechuza pon. I love it!
My quality of life has improved drastically since I switched to pon. For me, the biggest thing is that I don't have to play the "Do you need water? Do you need a feed?" guessing game with 50+ plants. It's also so much easier to deal with pests because I can just hose down the plants in my shower without worrying about the soil getting too wet. My only cons are mold growing on the top (doesn't hurt the plant) and the weight. None of my hanging plants are in pon because they would be too heavy and anything above like 20 cm is pretty difficult to move.
Completely agree on your “quality of life” point. Like, do you have enough water?… k, great! Couldn’t be easier. My husband accuses me of spending too much time on my plants, and I argue that I’m not actually spending a bunch of time working on them….. I’m probably just staring at them and enjoying them! 😆
In Germany the company Vulkatec make the exact same mix but without the fertilizer (which I definitely prefer) and it is called cactus substrate premium (kakteensubstrat premium). Unfortunately they dont ship outside of Germany which is a bummer.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I would like to add a few of my thoughts. As it was mentioned in one of previous comments, it is great to have more than one size of particles in the mix. I am usually buying THREE sizes of Pumice for different purposes and using two sizes in each mix. Why pumice? I completely switched from Perlite to Pumice about 3 years ago. 1) It will not float up like Perlite does. 2) with two different sizes they will not dry at the same time - therefore less watering. 3) Lava rock is VERY prone to grow green algae on its surface if exposed to the light. I understand the pleasure to see your roots progress in a clear plastic pot. Now imagine the look, the smell, etc when algae will develop multiple colonies. Two choices then - to have a cover pot or to significantly increase amount of Pumice in comparison to Lava. You are right about the weight. It will not stop me from moving more plants to PON. Thanks again. It is a great video, 27 minutes fled so briefly!
Was going to mention this but you beat me to it! It's why it's used in aquariums. I am still trying to see if it also helps with the pH issues caused by fertilizer. I have just been using the Ozmocote slow release fertilizer because I so far have been unsure about what kind of fertilizer to use in the US.
great vid, super helpful. I've just ordered some self-watering pots and pon & am looking forward to giving my alocasias an upgrade. I haven't really seen people talking about peace lilies in pon, but I have one that has been having root rot issues & am going to try the pon for her as well.
Just an FYI for anyone thinking of DIY Pon, I bought the ingredients (for lack of a better term) from Amazon in 5-10 lb bags, which are relatively manageable! (Just wanted to let folks know in case you are interested and also strapped for space.) I have bought a lot of these components for bonsai before, which I basically immediately failed. So, I knew they were available.
This was really helpful for me as I've just ordered lava rock and pumice to begin assembling pon conversions in the spring. I plan to water root as much as possible before transition. I'm very nervous but thankful for your channel. Your suggestions and pros/cons were quite clear - Thanks so much
we have been gardening in the Philippines since 1060s using ordinary soil and they grow well . We have never heard about Pon , Lecca, Perlite , coco peat etc etc and our plants grow well with out those expensive stuff .
Being in a tropical climate is definitely going to help tropical plants grow well, but no one will be surprised plants can grow in soil. Most people don't switch to pon for growth though - Memo even said his plants grow slower in pon than soil. Its just that when you have a lot of plants self watering & pon makes them easier to care for because you can just fill a reservoir every few weeks and don't have to be as careful about overwatering as you are with soil.
I‘m on big bag No. 3. and there was the 12 Liter one that I bought first to test. Started with a baby Ponytail Palm, of all plants. ^^ Meanwhile, 70% of my Hoya are in Pon. Some of my Philodendron (especially crawlers), and some Alocasia. I’m not totally convinced yet. In my latest repotting spree I got mold on a pot of Hoya and with a Black Velvet Alocasia. Both were transitions from Leca, so they got a reservoir from the get go.Keeping an eye on them. I won’t buy anymore Lechuza going forward. I watched a video (in German) by CrazyPlantBoy where he very convincingly talked about how the components are way too small. He mixes his own with really big chunks of the same materials (think marble-sized). His results are plant p*rn! And he also explained why Leca is prone to fail after the first 9-12 months in many cases. So yeah, I’ll be using a DIY mineral substrate mix. Oh, another vote for LGL. Just have to make sure it’s stored properly. One of my batches had a really bad case of mold (luckily I had used 3/4 of it already). Good stuff, Memo. Appreciate it. And Happy New Year!! 😘
I haven't really had good luck with bigger chunks and always went back to lechuza pon for that reason, but I think I've managed to master the mold problem. For me the problem is lechuza's self-watering pots. All my diy self-watering pots with wicks are fine as the top 1-2 cms are dry. But these that sit in the reservoir of water are constantly drenched all the way through and when the top layer of pon is constantly wet it can cause the base of the plant to rot and mold to accumulate. So I have been reworking my lechuza and other store bought self-watering pots to work with nylon wicks instead.
@@aniliname Interesting. I use mainly the T4U pots available on Amazon (Kevin from Hakuna La Planta has them as well). But I have to admit, I sometimes fill the reservoir higher than the bottom of the inner pot, so my Pon not only gets water from the wick, but also sits in the reservoir occasionally. Perhaps that was my bad.
@@tanya.quintieri I've found those pots don't work for me at all. What I did to rig my purchased self-watering pots was to cover the plastic parts that dip down into the water with thing sheets of plastic and to drill little holes in the base big enough to just loop a thin nylon rope through to have contact with the water. That way there's the rope/wick lying along the base of the inner pot and it then hangs down to the base of the outer pot and pulls up much less water. It's a bit of work but it seems to create a better balance of moisture for me in my environment and my plants have been responding quite well. Good luck!
@@aniliname Thanks! So far I've only had mold on two pots of over 40 that I've converted so far, so I guess they technically work okay for my environment. Will keep an eye on all of it for sure.
A wonderful story! But in the case of semihroponics - VERY IMPORTANT! - it is important to say about the temperature in winter ... Especially for the central and northern part of the world's inhabitants :) If in winter the temperature in the rooms drops below 19/18 degrees (C)- lecca, PON with us is also seramis - it does not work well 😅
Yes I have heard this too, I have noticed a slight slowing in growth now it is winter and the conservatory goes down to 15C. but other than that no real distress at the moment.
I've just bought my first bag of lechuza pon, so perfect timing! I'm going to just start out with a few propagations. I've had a couple cuttings of my lime green maranta rooting in perlite for a few weeks, so I'm going to go ahead and transfer those into pon!🤞 I would like to experiment with hoyas and MAYBE anthurium in the future🤔 we'll see how it goes😅
Memo, a great vid all round. My experience with pon is mainly with Alocasia and from the minute I transferred them all from soil to PON, they have ALL gone gangbusters!!!!!!! Unbelievable healthy growth. I'm slowly transitioning all my calathea and maranta to it as well for less 'maintenance' for me eps when we are away. My philos & monstera are all in LECA and they are absolutely thriving (thanks to optimal Sydney climate at the moment ( natural high humidity and warm temps). And am about to move my Anthurium Red Flamingo into PON and a deeper Lechuza planter that I recently bought (on sale 😬). So i've only got 3 or 4 plants still in soil but thats only because they are larger plants and am procrastinating the transition. I have to get onto it though cos winter is coming 🙄
I know this is a old video but i could really appreciate your advice I just put a alocasia frydek variegated straight from soil into pon I did clean the roots throughly first, but I did not let it sit in water and grow water roots, it being such a sensitive plant to root rot should I pull it out and put it in water????
Hi there, if it’s an established plant I would acclimatise it to water first. This is what I did with all of my Alocasia. However the Pon people reckon that you don’t need to do that. I wouldn’t disturb it again but if you see it struggling down the track I would at least salvage a corm or 2 (or the plant itself if no corms) and put it in water. All the best with it! 💪🏻
@ConnieP92 thank you very much, it's still a very young plant but yes it has a established root system when I re potted it there were no corms and it hasn't shown any signs of stress besides leaves that were already messed up and droopy turning yellow
Thanks so much for a very helpful video. Do you have any advise on what the moult stuff is that grows on my pon- particularly the ones that are in self watering pots. Would you suggest I revert to non self watering instead?
Just discovered your channel, great content ! I'm currently binge watching all your videos and am so jealous of your gorgeous greenhouse jungle 😍. I only use pon for all my plants now, one pro I have found is that I hardly get any of those nasty soil gnats that used to drive me round the bend! Also like said below no need to really up or down water ph because the zeolite takes care of balancing it.
You touched on water propagating calathea. Can you tell me how much water you have it in for that? I just tried to transition an orbifolia from soil to water roots so I could move it to Leca but the plant has deteriorated so quickly. It's down to 0 leafs from the 7 I got it with. Thankfully most of the roots aren't mushy yet so I moved it to perlite in a last ditch effort to help get water roots going. If it dies at this point so be it but I'd like it to live- especially since this is my second (almost) failed attempt to transition an orbifolia now.
Question… So I just started my first few plants (philodendrons) in pon. Question… For pots that are standard nursery pots with bottom drainage but no “feet” for elevation like the lechuza pots have… do they just sit in the water in the reservoir (after a few weeks of adjusting to the pon)? Thank you! Loved the video!
When i use pon in self watering pots Aftet short time the roots grow fast and reach the water directly. What do u do then. How does those water roots eclimates when u transition this plant to another bigger pot with pon. Thanks for ur wonderful content
Great questions, I have not had to up pot any of my plants in Pon yet, so cant really answer, but maybe someone else in the comments who has had some experience can share their thoughts 😊
I've had it be ok for a few months but I usually go ahead and up-pot at that time because I found out it's not just a couple roots reaching down, it's usually a sign the pots is totally full of roots.
I know this is a old video but i could really appreciate your advice I just put a alocasia frydek variegated straight from soil into pon I did clean the roots throughly first, but I did not let it sit in water and grow water roots, it being such a sensitive plant to root rot should I pull it out and put it in water????
Thank you so much for your video. I killed my begonia brevirimosa because I transitioned it to pon and left it in a nursery pot full of pon with wholes, and inside another pot with a third of water. It root rot the whole plant. I'd love to hear from you regarding the pots to use with pon, is it possible to use it without self-watering pots?
So do you recommend to wash of the soil before putting it in pon or vulcatec. Saw earlier a Video where the philo Was putted with the soil in pon 🤔😯. I want to use pon now as a beginner im so tired of Bugs and stuff but im a bit worried if it works for my bit expensiv plant like painted Lady and Billy 🙈
Agreed, I find it works great for succulents, sansevieria, etc. that like to dry out. I also find they become more tolerant and aren't as sensitive to getting the watering balance just right like some succulents can be.
I'm looking at trying pon out. Is it possible to pot newly imported anthuriums like regale, warwarocqueanum and veitchii into this media or would it still be best to do a transitional period?
I put in pon for about 1 month most of my alocasias and all of them are losing their leaves. I have one that lost all the leaves. Probably is because i put them in winter but.... what i do now? I wait another 2 months to see wich ones are gonna die or I put it back in a normal substract?
I actually found it too, it is called "BASICPON" and I think it is available in all europe? In Germany there is "Kakteensubstrat Premium" from "Vulcatek" which is basically the same as Pon but without fertilizer but unfortunately they dont shop outside of Germany.
Any experience of monstera in pon? I have a baby Thai Con recovering from root rot in perlite currently, and am wanting to put it in pon in a self-watering pot when it's got some new roots. I just can't seem to get watering right with monstera in aroid potting mix - it's so chunky that I can't tell if it's moist or not, and apparently neither can my water meter. So I end up leaving it too long, THEN overwatering, which I think is what's caused my rot problem.
Hello Please help , i bought the pumice and zeolite and lava rock from amazon to make the mix myself , but the lave rock they send me are huge , like 3 centimeters big , i tried to break them into smaller peaces , couldn't , what can I do ? thank I would appreciate your opinion
I just moved my lynamii barefoot import into pon after letting them sit in water for a week (changing daily). I have discoloration on a leaf so I'm suspecting root rot :( does anyone have any recommendations on what I should do?
@@Houseplantygoodness yeah, they're not super white and healthy but not quite squishy. I think your right, I might just have to be patient with what is essentially a node lol
"there is no 'obviously' if you are just starting off"
What underrated advice!
I've been using pon now for a year and will not use anything else. I just want to say that when it comes to transferring a plant from soil to self-watering I rinse the pon through with warm water, wash the roots of the plant and transfer it into the self watering pot with the damp pon and leave it for 2 to 3 weeks before adding water to the self watering pot. I have had less transitioning problems this way. Pon has been a saviour for me for regarding a Calathea Warscewiczii. I received it as a large , mature specimen and within a week the stems started to collapse so I chopped it right back and put it into a self watering pot in pon and within 3 months it grew 8 new leaves and is better acclimated to my room conditions now. I also have quite a few succulents and cacti and they are all in normal nursery pots filled with pon which are bottom watered every 3-4 weeks and are absolutely loving it. My only gripe with pon is that they don't keep the slow release fertiliser seperate so it can be added if needed. For plants that don't require a lot of fertilising I pick out the fertiliser balls and put them in a small seperate bag. Thanks for another informative video Memo.
yeah i am fast getting there too tbh. ahh cool thanks for sharing your story with your Calathea. Yeah it would be good if they kept the fertiliser separate for sure.
That's so interesting about the Warscewiczii! I also bought mine as a mature plant and it actually did really well UNTIL I tried to re-pot it😬 it was REALLY root bound and needing water every other day, so I mixed up a soil mix that I usually use for calathea ( basically my around mix but with more soil and a bit of moss) and I may have tried loosening the rootball a bit🤦 anyway, it instantly started freaking out, but I left it like that for about a month because I I wanted to make sure it wasnt just adjusting to the new soil and pot. I have since checked on the roots to make sure they weren't rotting ( they're fine), and it HAS stabilized, but most new leaves that come out are coming out with these brown kind of crispy spots! Anyway, all this to say that Ive been thinking about at least trying a self-watering pot🤔🤷
they di have "the perfect leaf" thing tho which seems to be a slow release one. Also they got their own liquid one that is mineral too
Idk if you saw this but lechuza just introduced a version called “basic” that doesn’t have the fertilizer. Hallelujah!
Thank goodness, now I don't have to sit there trying to pick all the little fertiliser balls out if I don't need them. Yippee!
I’ve been using pon for a while with great results on philodendrons but with alocasias i have found that if u leave the root ball in tact… soil and all and just plant it in pon and back fill … they seem to take much better and thrive this way… i know they say not to do this but i saw someone one UA-cam doing it with pumice without disturbing the roots and it has been working for me… i even did an experiment with my two pink dragons and the one that i cleaned the roots of soil and potted in pon went through shock and just generally doesn’t thrive as much as the one i left the soil on and potted in pon
I have all of my prayer plants (Marantacae) except one,in pon and they are doing quite well. I have been using pon for over 3 years. I started with a Calathea warceswirtzi and a Stromanthe triostar. They were in 4 inch pots. They are now in 10inch Lechuza self watering pots. It is imperative to follow the instructions when transferring to pon. My latest transfer to pon has been my Maranta silver band. I bought it online from a company who warns to not repot the plant for at least 20 days after receiving it. I washed the roots, removed the soil and transferred it to pon on the day I received it. Fast forward 3 months and the plant has grown beautifully and is now in a 7inch self watering pot. Most of my plants are in Lechuza pon. I love it!
.. Thank you so very much for sharing 🤗
My quality of life has improved drastically since I switched to pon. For me, the biggest thing is that I don't have to play the "Do you need water? Do you need a feed?" guessing game with 50+ plants. It's also so much easier to deal with pests because I can just hose down the plants in my shower without worrying about the soil getting too wet. My only cons are mold growing on the top (doesn't hurt the plant) and the weight. None of my hanging plants are in pon because they would be too heavy and anything above like 20 cm is pretty difficult to move.
Completely agree on your “quality of life” point. Like, do you have enough water?… k, great! Couldn’t be easier. My husband accuses me of spending too much time on my plants, and I argue that I’m not actually spending a bunch of time working on them….. I’m probably just staring at them and enjoying them! 😆
In Germany the company Vulkatec make the exact same mix but without the fertilizer (which I definitely prefer) and it is called cactus substrate premium (kakteensubstrat premium). Unfortunately they dont ship outside of Germany which is a bummer.
Thank you for sharing your experience. I would like to add a few of my thoughts.
As it was mentioned in one of previous comments, it is great to have more than one size of particles in the mix. I am usually buying THREE sizes of Pumice for different purposes and using two sizes in each mix.
Why pumice? I completely switched from Perlite to Pumice about 3 years ago.
1) It will not float up like Perlite does.
2) with two different sizes they will not dry at the same time - therefore less watering.
3) Lava rock is VERY prone to grow green algae on its surface if exposed to the light. I understand the pleasure to see your roots progress in a clear plastic pot. Now imagine the look, the smell, etc when algae will develop multiple colonies. Two choices then - to have a cover pot or to significantly increase amount of Pumice in comparison to Lava.
You are right about the weight. It will not stop me from moving more plants to PON.
Thanks again. It is a great video, 27 minutes fled so briefly!
Awww glad you enjoyed 😁 that is a great tip for the different size in Pumice, i will have to try that in the future
The role of zeolite in pon is to balance the ph level so the problems you get with leca and ph balance shouldn’t occur with pon.
Amazing, thanks for sharing, I did not know that 🙌
Was going to mention this but you beat me to it! It's why it's used in aquariums. I am still trying to see if it also helps with the pH issues caused by fertilizer. I have just been using the Ozmocote slow release fertilizer because I so far have been unsure about what kind of fertilizer to use in the US.
Your vids always seem to answer the questions I’ve had but have been afraid to ask - thank you!
Awwww thank you so much for your kind words, they truly mean a lot to me. Glad you found the video useful.
great vid, super helpful. I've just ordered some self-watering pots and pon & am looking forward to giving my alocasias an upgrade. I haven't really seen people talking about peace lilies in pon, but I have one that has been having root rot issues & am going to try the pon for her as well.
I just love your laugh! And you're very smart 🤓
I just put all my plants (monstera, palms, piece lilies) into pot.
Hoping they'll survive the transition.
Just an FYI for anyone thinking of DIY Pon, I bought the ingredients (for lack of a better term) from Amazon in 5-10 lb bags, which are relatively manageable! (Just wanted to let folks know in case you are interested and also strapped for space.) I have bought a lot of these components for bonsai before, which I basically immediately failed. So, I knew they were available.
This was really helpful for me as I've just ordered lava rock and pumice to begin assembling pon conversions in the spring. I plan to water root as much as possible before transition. I'm very nervous but thankful for your channel. Your suggestions and pros/cons were quite clear - Thanks so much
we have been gardening in the Philippines since 1060s using ordinary soil and they grow well . We have never heard about Pon , Lecca, Perlite , coco peat etc etc and our plants grow well with out those expensive stuff .
The key word is - the Philippines :) you are in Philippine and this guy is in England
Being in a tropical climate is definitely going to help tropical plants grow well, but no one will be surprised plants can grow in soil.
Most people don't switch to pon for growth though - Memo even said his plants grow slower in pon than soil. Its just that when you have a lot of plants self watering & pon makes them easier to care for because you can just fill a reservoir every few weeks and don't have to be as careful about overwatering as you are with soil.
Thank you so much for this informative video. 😊
I‘m on big bag No. 3. and there was the 12 Liter one that I bought first to test. Started with a baby Ponytail Palm, of all plants. ^^ Meanwhile, 70% of my Hoya are in Pon. Some of my Philodendron (especially crawlers), and some Alocasia. I’m not totally convinced yet. In my latest repotting spree I got mold on a pot of Hoya and with a Black Velvet Alocasia. Both were transitions from Leca, so they got a reservoir from the get go.Keeping an eye on them. I won’t buy anymore Lechuza going forward. I watched a video (in German) by CrazyPlantBoy where he very convincingly talked about how the components are way too small. He mixes his own with really big chunks of the same materials (think marble-sized). His results are plant p*rn! And he also explained why Leca is prone to fail after the first 9-12 months in many cases. So yeah, I’ll be using a DIY mineral substrate mix. Oh, another vote for LGL. Just have to make sure it’s stored properly. One of my batches had a really bad case of mold (luckily I had used 3/4 of it already).
Good stuff, Memo. Appreciate it. And Happy New Year!! 😘
Amazing, thanks for the tips Tanya, I think a few people here are fans of the bigger size DIY mixes, I will definately have to give it a try.
I haven't really had good luck with bigger chunks and always went back to lechuza pon for that reason, but I think I've managed to master the mold problem. For me the problem is lechuza's self-watering pots. All my diy self-watering pots with wicks are fine as the top 1-2 cms are dry. But these that sit in the reservoir of water are constantly drenched all the way through and when the top layer of pon is constantly wet it can cause the base of the plant to rot and mold to accumulate. So I have been reworking my lechuza and other store bought self-watering pots to work with nylon wicks instead.
@@aniliname Interesting. I use mainly the T4U pots available on Amazon (Kevin from Hakuna La Planta has them as well). But I have to admit, I sometimes fill the reservoir higher than the bottom of the inner pot, so my Pon not only gets water from the wick, but also sits in the reservoir occasionally. Perhaps that was my bad.
@@tanya.quintieri I've found those pots don't work for me at all. What I did to rig my purchased self-watering pots was to cover the plastic parts that dip down into the water with thing sheets of plastic and to drill little holes in the base big enough to just loop a thin nylon rope through to have contact with the water. That way there's the rope/wick lying along the base of the inner pot and it then hangs down to the base of the outer pot and pulls up much less water. It's a bit of work but it seems to create a better balance of moisture for me in my environment and my plants have been responding quite well. Good luck!
@@aniliname Thanks! So far I've only had mold on two pots of over 40 that I've converted so far, so I guess they technically work okay for my environment. Will keep an eye on all of it for sure.
A wonderful story!
But in the case of semihroponics - VERY IMPORTANT! - it is important to say about the temperature in winter ... Especially for the central and northern part of the world's inhabitants :)
If in winter the temperature in the rooms drops below 19/18 degrees (C)- lecca, PON with us is also seramis - it does not work well 😅
Yes I have heard this too, I have noticed a slight slowing in growth now it is winter and the conservatory goes down to 15C. but other than that no real distress at the moment.
@@Houseplantygoodness WOW
It's wonderful to hear!
I was afraid because in our home temperature drops below 18 * C in winter
I feel like I'm going through a janky period. I love your channel!
awww, i am always going through a janky period. thanks glad you are enjoying!
Love your programs! Do roots need to be pruned to transition plants to pon or leca?
Your plants are so beautiful! Thanks for all the informative videos!
Awwww thank you so much 🙏 💚🌿
I've just bought my first bag of lechuza pon, so perfect timing! I'm going to just start out with a few propagations. I've had a couple cuttings of my lime green maranta rooting in perlite for a few weeks, so I'm going to go ahead and transfer those into pon!🤞 I would like to experiment with hoyas and MAYBE anthurium in the future🤔 we'll see how it goes😅
Awesome, good luck and great plan in doing it gradually, do it at the pace you feel comfortable and I am sure things will go great
Memo, a great vid all round. My experience with pon is mainly with Alocasia and from the minute I transferred them all from soil to PON, they have ALL gone gangbusters!!!!!!! Unbelievable healthy growth. I'm slowly transitioning all my calathea and maranta to it as well for less 'maintenance' for me eps when we are away. My philos & monstera are all in LECA and they are absolutely thriving (thanks to optimal Sydney climate at the moment ( natural high humidity and warm temps). And am about to move my Anthurium Red Flamingo into PON and a deeper Lechuza planter that I recently bought (on sale 😬). So i've only got 3 or 4 plants still in soil but thats only because they are larger plants and am procrastinating the transition. I have to get onto it though cos winter is coming 🙄
I know this is a old video but i could really appreciate your advice I just put a alocasia frydek variegated straight from soil into pon I did clean the roots throughly first, but I did not let it sit in water and grow water roots, it being such a sensitive plant to root rot should I pull it out and put it in water????
Hi there, if it’s an established plant I would acclimatise it to water first. This is what I did with all of my Alocasia. However the Pon people reckon that you don’t need to do that. I wouldn’t disturb it again but if you see it struggling down the track I would at least salvage a corm or 2 (or the plant itself if no corms) and put it in water. All the best with it! 💪🏻
@ConnieP92 thank you very much, it's still a very young plant but yes it has a established root system when I re potted it there were no corms and it hasn't shown any signs of stress besides leaves that were already messed up and droopy turning yellow
Thanks so much for a very helpful video. Do you have any advise on what the moult stuff is that grows on my pon- particularly the ones that are in self watering pots. Would you suggest I revert to non self watering instead?
Just discovered your channel, great content ! I'm currently binge watching all your videos and am so jealous of your gorgeous greenhouse jungle 😍. I only use pon for all my plants now, one pro I have found is that I hardly get any of those nasty soil gnats that used to drive me round the bend! Also like said below no need to really up or down water ph because the zeolite takes care of balancing it.
Pine bark. Coco chips . Charcoal . A little miracle grow. Pumice . Perlite. A little shredded spag moss. Bat guano powder with worm castings.
You touched on water propagating calathea. Can you tell me how much water you have it in for that? I just tried to transition an orbifolia from soil to water roots so I could move it to Leca but the plant has deteriorated so quickly. It's down to 0 leafs from the 7 I got it with. Thankfully most of the roots aren't mushy yet so I moved it to perlite in a last ditch effort to help get water roots going. If it dies at this point so be it but I'd like it to live- especially since this is my second (almost) failed attempt to transition an orbifolia now.
Question…
So I just started my first few plants (philodendrons) in pon. Question…
For pots that are standard nursery pots with bottom drainage but no “feet” for elevation like the lechuza pots have… do they just sit in the water in the reservoir (after a few weeks of adjusting to the pon)?
Thank you! Loved the video!
When i use pon in self watering pots
Aftet short time the roots grow fast and reach the water directly. What do u do then. How does those water roots eclimates when u transition this plant to another bigger pot with pon. Thanks for ur wonderful content
Great questions, I have not had to up pot any of my plants in Pon yet, so cant really answer, but maybe someone else in the comments who has had some experience can share their thoughts 😊
I've had it be ok for a few months but I usually go ahead and up-pot at that time because I found out it's not just a couple roots reaching down, it's usually a sign the pots is totally full of roots.
I know this is a old video but i could really appreciate your advice I just put a alocasia frydek variegated straight from soil into pon I did clean the roots throughly first, but I did not let it sit in water and grow water roots, it being such a sensitive plant to root rot should I pull it out and put it in water????
Thank you so much for your video. I killed my begonia brevirimosa because I transitioned it to pon and left it in a nursery pot full of pon with wholes, and inside another pot with a third of water. It root rot the whole plant. I'd love to hear from you regarding the pots to use with pon, is it possible to use it without self-watering pots?
Great video! Thank you
So do you recommend to wash of the soil before putting it in pon or vulcatec. Saw earlier a Video where the philo Was putted with the soil in pon 🤔😯. I want to use pon now as a beginner im so tired of Bugs and stuff but im a bit worried if it works for my bit expensiv plant like painted Lady and Billy 🙈
So informative! Thank u
I appreciated this video - thank you! I take it pon might not be appropriate for plants that need to dry out a bit between waterings?
No problem :) it can be, as long as you do not use the self watering feature and treat it the same as other soil mixes and just water as normal.
@@Houseplantygoodness ah! Got it. Thank you!
Agreed, I find it works great for succulents, sansevieria, etc. that like to dry out. I also find they become more tolerant and aren't as sensitive to getting the watering balance just right like some succulents can be.
Do I have to use self water pot? Can i just put my plant in a regular pot with holes?
Pon substrate...can I transfer the cactus at that stage where Pon is still moist?
I'm looking at trying pon out. Is it possible to pot newly imported anthuriums like regale, warwarocqueanum and veitchii into this media or would it still be best to do a transitional period?
I put in pon for about 1 month most of my alocasias and all of them are losing their leaves. I have one that lost all the leaves. Probably is because i put them in winter but.... what i do now? I wait another 2 months to see wich ones are gonna die or I put it back in a normal substract?
Leave it in PON. Be patient! If you transfer them back to soil they will definetly die.
Did you find Pon without fertiliser ? This version is available here in Poland.
I actually found it too, it is called "BASICPON" and I think it is available in all europe? In Germany there is "Kakteensubstrat Premium" from "Vulcatek" which is basically the same as Pon but without fertilizer but unfortunately they dont shop outside of Germany.
Any experience of monstera in pon? I have a baby Thai Con recovering from root rot in perlite currently, and am wanting to put it in pon in a self-watering pot when it's got some new roots. I just can't seem to get watering right with monstera in aroid potting mix - it's so chunky that I can't tell if it's moist or not, and apparently neither can my water meter. So I end up leaving it too long, THEN overwatering, which I think is what's caused my rot problem.
My Monstera Variegata, Tetrasperma and Adasonii are really loving it!
in 6 months, i just add slow release beads and slightly mix in top layers
@houseplantygoodness. How do you prevent algae from growing in your pon? I am having trouble with this issue.
Hello
Please help , i bought the pumice and zeolite and lava rock from amazon to make the mix myself , but the lave rock they send me are huge , like 3 centimeters big , i tried to break them into smaller peaces , couldn't , what can I do ? thank I would appreciate your opinion
Lechuza says that there should only be a base layer of Pon. The rest should be filled up with soil? Did you try this method as well?
Anyone got the problem that the pon starting to mould?
Other than a higher price and a different color I don't see the advantages of pon over straight pumice
Yeah I have been told that, will be trying pumice soon too
@@Houseplantygoodness I'd like to see a comparison video after you have experience with each
I just moved my lynamii barefoot import into pon after letting them sit in water for a week (changing daily).
I have discoloration on a leaf so I'm suspecting root rot :( does anyone have any recommendations on what I should do?
sometimes with imports you might lose the leaf it shipped with even if you did everything right. Did you check the roots for rot?
@@Houseplantygoodness yeah, they're not super white and healthy but not quite squishy. I think your right, I might just have to be patient with what is essentially a node lol
You can dip it into a solution of hydrogen peroxide and water to help kill off the existing bacteria. Then rinse and pot up. Best of luck💚