It's the first time I own a dryer. When I poured out the water it has collected (a few liters per run) I quickly tested the EC and pH and found out, that it is almost identical to the one made by my reverse osmosis filter!
No wonder, since the dryer is basically just a big distillation machine.

Thats super neat. It will save me a lot of work filtering tap water.

I will collect it from now on and use it for watering my plants.

LECA (hydro clay balls, my media of choice) isn't LECA. There are many different brands and types around on the market.

TL;DR: The best brand is...

Here are the properties that matter tho:

- Size:

• Small balls have a stronger capillary action. They pull up the nutrient solution stronger, which results in a wetter medium, and sometimes more salt buildup at the top.
• There's less space between the balls the smaller they are. This results in less airflow, but more contact area for the roots.
  For bigger plants and epiphytes (Orchids, monstera, etc.) you might prefer bigger clumps, and for stuff like ferns or small pots in general smaller beads are better.

- Shape:

• Irregular shaped beads anchor the roots better
• Rounder ones have more airflow and are easier to sift
• When you spill some, the round balls will roll all over your apartment, while the irregular shaped ones stay more in place. Easier to clean up ;)
• Reusing: speaking of cleaning up, rounder balls will be easier to remove the roots. But, I just throw them into the pressure cooker, and the roots turn into mush and remove themselves.

- Porousity/ Density:

• They are all working fine, doesn't matter much
• Some will float forever, some will sink to the bottom when submerged
• Some types crack in the oven and explode when cleaning for reuse. You'll have to be careful and increase the temperature slowly to burn off plant matter. That step usually isn't needed tho.

How can you tell if a brand is high quality or not?

- Size variation:

A good product has beads that are uniformly sized. If there are a lot of small balls, they fill the gaps and worsen the aeration.

- Amount of "junk" in there:

I've had some bags where I found some wood chips, plastic stuff and unpopped kernels/ pieces of clay in there.
They usually aren't a huge problem, but still kinda annoying.

And that's it!

Overview and pictures

Overview

I live in Germany, so many of the brands probably aren't available to you. That doesn't matter tho, since the "type" matters more than the brand.

A

I got this one from Dehner, a local garden store.

• Expensive
• Good median size distribution, very round shaped and smooth surface.
• Doesn't float

B

• Cheap
• I got this from Action, a local dollarstore
• Very bad size distribution. Lots of very small beads.
• Dense
• Uniformly round

C

Brand: Floragard

• Cheapest, from Amazon
• Irregular shaped, rough surface
• Good size distribution, but some are very big
• Floats, very light
• Explodes in oven
• Still one of my favourites

D

• Also from Dehner
• Very uniform size distribution, but very small
• Very dense

E

These cucumbers seem to love the Kratky setup I put them in. I also started Kratky buckets with Tomatoes and Romaine lettuce.

One thing I love about LECA (those expanded clay balls, you know?) is that you can always reuse it indefinitely and don't have to throw it away after use.

Up until now I always just boiled it after using, which removed most of the dead roots and crap, and then I put it into the oven at full power to bake it, which burnt off all remaining organic stuff.
That wasn't a problem up until now, because I never had to clean very big amounts all at once.

But, I have two issues with it:

• First, it cracks a few of the balls, especially those new ones I bought. They explode and shatter quite a bit, which sucks.
• And, soon, I would have to bake about hundred liters of that stuff because of the new setup I will use this year, which is plain stupid and infeasible at this scale.

So, I had the thought of doing that cleaning chemically at room temperature, over a longer time frame.

I have thought about a few options.

• Chlorine bleach is the cheapest idea, but I have doubts that the sodium content remaining is bad for the plants, and the traces of bleach could kill of beneficial microorganisms. Maybe I could add a neutralizing agent, like thiosulphate or vitamin C?
• Peroxide probably isn't strong enough?
• Enzymes could dissolve proteins and stuff, but a lot of biofilm and other organic matter probably isn't affected by it, or is it?
• ...?

Are there any products or things I could try? Or do you have any ideas? Thanks a lot! :)

I've become a huge fan of semi-hydro over the past year.

I've planted all of my 50 house plants into LECA (expanded clay pellets) or pon (special gravel mix consisting of lava rock, pumice, and zeolithe), and they're doing absolutely great. (Too great if you ask me. They've become a weed in my apartment 😁)

Recently, I got into carnivorous plants.

Literally everyone is growing them in turf/peat or moss based substrates, and nothing else. As we all might know, those substrates not only attract pests (fungus gnats, etc.), but are not that great for the environment.

This is why I came up with the idea of using hydroponics.

As soon as I began researching, I've come to the conclusion, that there's sadly pretty much no overlap between the hydroponics community and carnivorous plants community.

So, I started an experiment.

I've put my just-bought Sarracenia, previous in soil, into pon with a very small grain diameter. This keeps the plants very moist, way moister than LECA would, at least the big marbles.

I soaked the granules with distilled water a few times, and then added a drop of diluted phosphoric acid to a pH of 4,5 and EC of 0,1 mS.

This is how the roots look after not only one week:

And the plant itself:

Pretty good if you ask me!

Sadly, Sarracenias need to hibernate, and this one started going crispy even in the store, which is apparently normal, so I've put it into my cold garage for a month or two.

I also started growing Drosera and Sarracenia from seed, but they didn't germinate yet. I got a lot of different seeds from a hobbyist, but growing CPs from seeds is a huge pain from what I've read.

Here's a picture of my seedling/ cutting station: I will make a post about the station soon!

I also sew a few of them directly into the pot and covered it with foil.

In theory, the combination of fine substrate with high water level should provide the plants with enough moisture, while also letting the roots get exposed to a lot of oxygen, which keeps them very healthy.

But swamp plants are just different maybe, I don't know. Let's see...

And, last but not least, I bought two Nepenthes a few days ago. I already placed one of them into LECA (8-16 mm).

They apparently grow similar to orchids, and not like swamp growing plants like venus fly traps or Drosera. So, they rather need a airy substrate, normal pH (about 6) and even tolerate fertilizer.

They looked like this when I bought them:

I will keep you all updated!

Tags for search engines: LECA, hydroponics, hydro, semi hydro, carnivorous plants, VFT, Sarracenia, Drosera, Dionaea, Nepenthes, fertilizer, experiment, inorganic media, peat alternative, pumice, Seramis, pon