The humid micro-climate created around the plant is especially beneficial in centrally heated homes

Leca is an acronym and it stands for: Lightweight expanded clay aggregate. It sounds very complicated, but when you break it down, it's a good and descriptive name. Essentially, Leca is a growing medium, like soil, in which you can grow your plants. Leca has a lot of great benefits, but how does it work? Let's look at how you can grow a large variety of plants in Leca and why it works so well.However, when you're growing your plants in Leca, you can look at the roots every single day if you choose to do so. This is not something you should actually do though, because many plants don't like to be handled that often. I clean most of my plants, which grow in Leca, at least once every 6 months. During this process, I also make sure to clean, or at least rinse, the Leca. By cleaning the Leca, I can have a look at how the roots of the plant are doing. The picture at the top of this post is an example of this. I can look at the progress of the roots and adjust the placement of the plant in the pot accordingly. Okay, all of these are great, right? But there’s one more quality that leca brings to the table that most other materials don’t. Hydroponics nutrients (or fertilizer) contain special ingredients that your normal plant fertilizer doesn't have. Normal plant fertilizers don't need these ingredients, because the soil provides your plant with these nutrients. Since Leca doesn't contain any nutrients, the hydroponics fertilizer needs to add these missing ingredients to keep your plant healthy. This is why you can't use normal fertilizer for your plants in Leca: it's missing key ingredients. How do you use the hydroponic fertilizer with Leca?

With an average diameter of 1cm, LECA balls have a million and one functions within the world of houseplants. Most commonly used when water-propagating a cutting, you can even mix them into a potting mix to improve the overall structure and moisture-retaining profile of the soil. This is especially good with houseplants that HATE dry spells or excessively hot climates, as the balls will soak in the moisture for the roots to use at a later date. Leave the newly potted plants on the greenhouse floor, not the aggregate. As the plants grow, space them out so that the leaves of neighbouring plants never touch. This will avoid leggy growth. Keep the Hydroleca moist so that it gradually releases moisture to the plants placed on its surface and improves greenhouse humidityLECA” is actually a sexy acronym for an otherwise un-sexy product. Lightweight Expandable Clay Aggregate, to be precise. When you're ready to water your plant that's growing in Leca, you'll need to prepare the water first. You'll need to add the hydroponic fertilizer to the water you use to water your plant and mix it well. This will help to dilute the fertilizer with the water and turn your plain old water into a hydroponic nutrient solution. You can water any of your Leca-growing plants with this nutrient solution and you're done! It's a little bit of preparation before you water your plant, but that's all you'll need to do to take care of a plant that's growing in Leca. Conclusion Spread a 5cm (2") layer of Hydroleca onto the bench in the greenhouse and keep moist to improve the humidity. The moisture will be gradually released to the plant pots sitting on it. In this plant care guide, we're going to look at everything you might want to know when it comes to Leca and taking care of your plants in Leca. We'll look at these topics together:

Eco-friendly – It’s made exclusively from clay (which isn’t exactly endangered), and it’s completely inert and non-toxic. So it’s safe to use with all manner of plants. Meet Roelof Jan Elsinga, a passionate and knowledgeable plant care enthusiast. With 6 years of personal experience, Roelof Jan has gained a wealth of knowledge on indoor plant care. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced plant owner, Roelof Jan's practical advice and deep understanding of various plants and their needs can help you become a successful plant caretaker. Make a trough or dig a trench to contain the bed of aggregate. The minimum depth is 15cm (6in), but no more than 25cm (10in) is usually used. Covering the entire greenhouse floor with aggregate is also possible. Houseplants benefit greatly if the pots are placed on a moistened layer of Hydroleca in a deep dish or pot cover. J. Arthur Bower's Hydroleca is also an attractive pot topping and watering aid. Now that you know Leca is just a collection of expanding clay balls, you might be wondering how this helps you to keep your plants healthy and thriving.Other hardy succulents similar to sempervivums include Rosularia, Jovibarba and Sedum, good alternatives to more tender succulents such as Echevaria and Aeoniums.

Whether you call them leca beads, hydroton balls, expanded clay balls, hydroleca, or hydroponic pebbles, they’re essentially all the same thing. (Honestly, I just call it “leca” and drop the capitals for convenience). The most important part of growing your plants in Leca is that the roots are not allowed to sit in (standing) water. When you use Leca, you can create a raised or false bottom and raise your plant's roots from the bottom of the pot. Then you can add your water until it's sitting just below the roots of the plant. The clay balls will start to soak up the water at the bottom of the pot while keeping the roots away from the water. In simple terms, Leca is a collection of baked clay balls that expand when you soak them in water. The water that's soaked up in the clay balls can be used to water plants. However, unlike soil, Leca is just a collection of clay balls and doesn't contain any nutrients. All they do is soak up a little water and expand. Your plant will still need nutrients, so you'll need to add these nutrients to the water. When you're using soil, you're watering when the soil feels dry or the plant looks a certain way. Watering is much simpler when you're using Leca because you're watering when the water in the pot is gone. When all the water is gone from the bottom of the pot, your plant has absorbed it all or the clay balls have soaked it up. Adding extra water, even if the clay balls are still full of water, won't cause the plant to be overwatered. Your plant won't be overwatered, because the plant absorbs the moisture as it needs it. If you were growing your plant in soil and you were to add more water when the soil is still soaked, you might kill the plant by overwatering it. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, you water your plants in Leca where there is no more water in the bottom of the pot. The Leca lets the plant absorb moisture when it needs it and this helps to avoid overwatering. Because it's very difficult to overwater plants in this case, the chances of getting root rot are low.Add Hydroleca to potting compost in a ratio of one part Hydroleca to three parts compost for lighter weight containers to grow a wide range of plants, including small trees and shrubs All prices shown below are per parcel with a maximum weight of 30 kg per parcel. Items over 30 kg are split into multiple boxes and charged per box. Keep the aggregate moist and water the pots two or three times a week adding liquid fertiliser if growth is pale or insufficient. The tomatoes are then grown in the usual way.