Preparing your LECA/Expanded clay pellets/Hydroton before using it as a growing media

[Guy Cavallero]

Re: Preparing your LECA/Expanded clay pellets/Hydroton before using it as a growing m

To be honest, I never really thought about it in my first grow. I guess I'm just lucky that the clay Pebbles must have come from a reliable source and potentially even have been washed by that source.

 

[ondercuver]

Re: Preparing your LECA/Expanded clay pellets/Hydroton before using it as a growing m

when you'll have nutes in the water it will spike much less , you worry too much .

other ppl don't complain about it because ... they don't check ph , they give up growing , they don't know the ways of the interwebs...

 

[Skullman420]

oK. Same thing happened with the other batch even if I cleaned that one even better. They seem to stabilize between 6.5-7.0. But it takes much longer now, I don't have to adjust the pH two times per day as I used to have to do. So there are improvements. Let's see when next harvest is done if we can bring them down a little more

 

[Skullman420]

I notice that the strain I've had most trouble with due to pH fluctuations, Jack Herer, is thriving in this washed and pH'ed leca. They look perfect this time so whatever I did, the plants like it

 

[Skullman420]

Re: Preparing your LECA/Expanded clay pellets/Hydroton before using it as a growing m

Get you some Porch screen and make yourself a large sieve. Do 1/4 batch at a time. I have the luxury of being able to work it in my yard but a bath tub or sink sized one would work.

That is what I would do if it was summer indeed. It is however almost 20 minus degrees outside so that would really suck to work outside now. But yeah - bathtub has been in my mind. There are two of them on the property being used to grow useless plants in

 

[DukeO]

That is what I would do if it was summer indeed. It is however almost 20 minus degrees outside so that would really suck to work outside now. But yeah - bathtub has been in my mind. There are two of them on the property being used to grow useless plants in

Be carefull about not putting to much clay dust down your drain. It is a good way to clog them up.

That stuff is nasty...

I have been growing DWC with hydroton now for many years. I have not any issue with it.

I washed it in a trash can outside with tap water stir it around and then scoop it out and that was it.

I have been reusing it over and over again for years without any issues or rewashing.

At the end of a grow I just dump in a 5gal bucket until I reload for the next plant.

I use z7 water treatment in all of my water and when I reload a basket I will pump some nute water with z7 in it over the hydroton. That is the only time it gets wet the whole grow and it all looks like the day I bought it.

Every now and then I will add some new with the old. But that is rare.

Last bag I got was from England and it was grey and it floated.

That made it easier to clean.

Are you doing plain DWC or Drip DWC ?

In plain DWC the hydroton is just for support and blocking out the light and does not play much of a roll if any in the ph of the rez/bucket.

That would be my guess to why we don't see many threads about hydroton issues.

 

[Skullman420]

i'm doing drippers

 

[ondercuver]

i'm doing drippers

that's just wrong...

I'm done with dwc .. only coco for me from now on

 

[Skullman420]

I like DWC, but I like the added security of a reservoir and a dripper system even more. I run both dripper and dwc. With dwc you have very little room for error. Why coco? I see people grow in it but why? The reason I got away from soil was that I don't want to have to buy and transport tons of soil every time I start a new grow. The leca I just wash and reuse. You can't do that with coco - Can you? What's the advantage?

 

[Nonpoint]

Damn that sucks. It's been in the sixties here the last couple days and I'm happy for it too. Winter blues were starting to get to me.

That is what I would do if it was summer indeed. It is however almost 20 minus degrees outside so that would really suck to work outside now. But yeah - bathtub has been in my mind. There are two of them on the property being used to grow useless plants in

 

[ondercuver]

The leca I just wash and reuse. You can't do that with coco - Can you? What's the advantage?

Yes you can !

coco gets more or less the same results as hydro , more ph stable than Leca , yes it's a bit of work , but more forgiving than hydro and you can drip it also ... it's just less headache than hydro ... a gravity fed drip system with blumat carrots and bam easy living ... no stupid water-pumps no stupid air-pumps ... (for my system) less nutes and less water wasted, less chance of root rot . there are some downsides also but minimal ...
I think for a small comercial it's just better ... after setup it's just mixing nutes from time to time ...

I would definitely give it a try .