Best available alternative to PrimeAgra leca

[estación seca]

I have tried several brands from a local hydroponics shop. They all seem to work OK. My main problem is lower humidity and not so great wicking. I can't really go a week between watering, even in a growing room with an evaporative cooler and 60%-80% humidity.

All the brands I tried have over 50% pieces that float. They are more prone to jump out of the pot when I fill it to the rim.

They are fairly irregular in size, as well. That is less than ideal, since you get less air space with a mixture of particle sizes. But my plants still seem to be doing fine. Maybe the irregular particle size would be a problem in an extremely high humidity area, but maybe not.

I am paying around $35 for a 30-50 liter bag of the stuff.

[nogreenthumbs]

Originally Posted by estación seca

I have tried several brands from a local hydroponics shop. They all seem to work OK. My main problem is lower humidity and not so great wicking. I can't really go a week between watering, even in a growing room with an evaporative cooler and 60%-80% humidity.

All the brands I tried have over 50% pieces that float. They are more prone to jump out of the pot when I fill it to the rim.

They are fairly irregular in size, as well. That is less than ideal, since you get less air space with a mixture of particle sizes. But my plants still seem to be doing fine. Maybe the irregular particle size would be a problem in an extremely high humidity area, but maybe not.

I am paying around $35 for a 30-50 liter bag of the stuff.

I bought some Ikea LECA because I was there and it was cheap. It's all pretty regular in shape, and it floats like mad. I've had it soaking in water with a lid on for days, and the vast majority is still floating. It may be worth it in my relatively dry, air conditioned home to try to track down some of the Atami stuff that Ray used to sell.

[estación seca]

Originally Posted by Ray

...Tom at the orchidhouse.org....

I went looking... it's theorchidhouse.org , with no space between "the" and "orchidhouse".

[Ray]

Originally Posted by estación seca

I went looking... it's theorchidhouse.org , with no space between "the" and "orchidhouse".

Sorry. Autocorrect got me, and I didn't catch it.

[Ellen H]

I also use Hydroton, purchased from RepotMe but I'm not sure they have the best price on that product. I've been using it almost 2 years now, and my wide variety of plants are thriving in it.

Thank to Ray for the info on the ATAMI PrimeAgra. I checked Tom's site just now, but it's under construction. Will check back in a few weeks. Hopefully he still carries it, I'd like to compare it to the Hydroton.

[estación seca]

Originally Posted by Ellen H

...I checked Tom's site just now, but it's under construction....

Ray had a typo in his original message. The site is up and the LECA is available to be added to the cart.

theorchidhouse.org

[Ray]

I corrected it, so there won't be any further confusion or consternation.

[Ellen H]

Wonderful, thanks!

[pforrester1]

But just wondering why you all are convinced that Semi Hydro is better than semi water culture. I have been researching both and trying to decide which way to go....

[Ray]

I may be a bit biased, since I originated semi-hydro culture for orchids, but...orchids in nature typically grow in some sort of solid medium, not water.

The guy who originated water culture found that the water fouls after a short while, and that many orchids required that the temperature be kept elevated for best growth. At least with S/H culture, the water is refreshed at every watering, if you do it right.