Leca Floating?

[Tim P.]

Hi Everyone!
Just got my shipment of hydroton today. I washed it and it is soaking now. The thing that is concerning me is that there is a third of it that is floating. Is this ok to pot with? It has not soaked for a full 24 hours yet.

[Silje]

Well, I don't know about the hydroton and if there is a difference between LECA and hydroton, but my Norwegian LECA is floating, at least most of it. Not enough to stay afloat in a S/H pot full of it and with a plant on top, but most of the kernels float when they're in a bucket of water for soaking. (Could be shitty LECA... Now I'm curious as to what the others say).

[Discus]

Hydroton is of course a brand of LECA.

Many LECAs float (because they're full of air); that doesn't make them a "bad" medium, although floating LECA can be quite disruptive (for obvious reasons) in S/H culture. Some people simply discard the floaters, and/or use them for something else.

Some people have reported success in "sinking" LECA through boiling; in theory, heating it up this way and then letting it cool can cause many of the void spaces to "suck" water back into the granule as they cool (in water), filling some of the void spaces, making it then negatively buoyant so they sink. I would suggest you only do this with the "floaters" - and use the cleanest water you can (R/O or distilled). For large volumes, a big pot on a stove would be easiest; for smaller volumes you may get away with microwaving, although if the air trapped inside the LECA heats up too much, you *may* have some explode on you, with obvious potential dangers, so watch out for that. Likewise, I suggest a lid on your pot. Of course, if those filled void spaces dry out, they'll float again, but in the relatively high humidity inside S/H culture this is not terribly likely.

[RosieC]

The stuff I use has some floating when it's soaking. I don't find it much of a problem when potting with it, although I sometimes get the odd piece fall off the top when watering, or if I soak with the water level too high the top layer might slightly float, but it doesn't really cause a problem.

[Ray]

Floating tells you that those particular pellets have predominately "closed" porosity, so are not going to absorb very much.

Drain the water out of the soaking tub, mix the pellets around, and use them. While not ideal, it's not a major issue either.

[seaj]

I separate my hydroton floaters and only put them in the reservoir/bottom of the pot so that they don't shift around when I flush the pots. That works for me, though my "pots" are actually small 10 oz cups.

[HighSeas]

I have a bucket soaking now....and they just went in early this morning. I added a few tsp. of Calcium Nitrite and some MgSo4 to leach out whatever sodium may be in there. I'm getting impatient. THATS what concerns me. I have floaters but I need to rinse these guys and then soak again with some KLN. That means I'm not going to get my plant in the pot until Monday. By the looks of these floaters....that may not happen either. Will someone please hand me a tissue?

[bellini girl]

Haven't had much problems with hydroton floating. Possibly because I soak the media for considerably longer than 24 hours. Because I'm forever changing plants over to SH, I keep a bucket with some media in it... changing the water frequently of course. this works for me

[tellmewhy]

I soak my PA in rain water for a week now. but still has a lots of floating on the top.
How much KLN rooting hormone do I need for another soaking?
Can I save soaking solution (kln + water) for later use?

[yousillygirl]

I used to put the floaters in the bottom of the pot - the theory being that constantly being in the resevoir, over time, causes them to fill up with water. It seemed to work just fine.

These days I boil my LECA in RO for 15 mins. It eliminates the floater issue and speeds up the soaking process