Anyone Sanitizes their LECA for reuse with a Pressure Cooker

[WaterWitchin]

Imma get all non-scientific here. I reuse LECA. Often. Regardless of whether it's six months old where I've planted something, or more than a year. I have a couple different 5 gallon buckets for it. If it's less than a year, it goes into one bucket. If there's a bunch of yucky algae or debris from rotted roots in it, it goes into the other. The "good" stuff gets rinsed, maybe a bit of clorox, etc., then decloroxed and back into a bucket of LECA ready to use. (with RO water and Kelpmax in it soaking). The "bad" stuff gets rinsed, boiled, cloroxed, then same procedure.

I use RO water for the most part. I supposedly fertilize weekly weakly. That ends up happening about two times a month. Sometimes once a month. I try to completely flush each time I water, once a week. If I'm busy, I might top it up and keep moving, so it's 10 days or so before I get around to flushing.

If I have a plant that appears to have a fungal or bacterial issue, I usually put the LECA from its pot into the outside garden beds. I rarely have plants that stay in the same LECA for more than a year or so. If it's LECA that just doesn't look "fresh" same thing.

For me, it reaches a point where regardless of what it is, it either makes it or it doesn't. I'm not performing major surgery... I'm growing orchids as a hobby for my enjoyment.

Mine isn't necessarily the best opinion to follow. It's a year old thread that popped up regarding pressure cooking LECA. Which is Waaaay overkill for me. But I decided I should join in.

[DirtyCoconuts]

Preach sister witchin!!

I was keeping my mouth shut but I reuse almost everything.

I also sift my lava rock and hydroton in homemade sieves of various size to have buckets of various sizes available.

When I say I reuse it is not necessarily for other orchids...

Old sphagnum from plants i buy gets dried in the sun and then used for vermicomposting

Old bark and crushed perlite go into the bog

Old charcoal and a lot of used lava rock and hydroton go into planting mix for my hanging bags of tomato and strawberry ( if you use light stuff like that it makes it a lot easier to hang the bags)

Really bad looking material gets sewn into the soil when I am planting other stuff to enhance the sand

My personal solution to avoiding this concern is to only have healthy plants lol

[Orchid Whisperer]

Originally Posted by Subrosa

You want small leca? You got small leca!
RK2 Systems - Clay Pellet Media

Interesting, but I had to laugh when I read that RK2 calls their clay pellet media "organic".

Clay, by it's very nature, is inorganic. Yeah, I get that the company is using (misusing) organic in a different sense here. I've always felt that using "organic" in this sense represents a poor word choice.

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by Orchid Whisperer

Interesting, but I had to laugh when I read that RK2 calls their clay pellet media "organic".

Clay, by it's very nature, is inorganic. Yeah, I get that the company is using (misusing) organic in a different sense here. I've always felt that using "organic" in this sense represents a poor word choice.

I'm still waiting to see some Artisanal Organic LECA.

[hypostatic]

Originally Posted by WaterWitchin

I'm still waiting to see some Artisanal Organic LECA.

Umm, I only take my LECA free-range and without all those GMOs, thank you very much

[Ray]

I used to sell that, along with some ultra-pure, dehydrated water tablets.

[hypostatic]

As long as they're free of all that nasty DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE that corporations are sneaking into everything!!

Please protect yourselves
Facts About Dihydrogen Monoxide

[DirtyCoconuts]

Originally Posted by hypostatic

As long as they're free of all that nasty DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE that corporations are sneaking into everything!!

Please protect yourselves
Facts About Dihydrogen Monoxide

joking aside...you breathe that stuff you will die

[hypostatic]

UMMMM I"m pretty sure it's what they're putting in the chemtrails!!