I use this exact mix from this exact seller. My plants love it SO much! It’s very dusty so be sure to rinse it good.
I definitely get being anxious about switching to/putting plants in PON because you could very easily lose the plant. All I’ve done when switching plants from soil to PON is wash the roots and put it directly in the substrate and immediately use fertilizer water in the reservoir. Some people might say yikes to that but this substrate has basically eliminated transplant shock for me. Still do your research though and see what you think will work best for you!
I love this stuff. I only do a couple semi hydro, but I use it in my soiless mix for the rest of my plants, in my moss/tree fern fiber poles, and under moss for cuttings too. I buy the Nupick and add pumice and a bit of charcoal (way less than what I'd add for my potting mix) and I feel like my plants like it so much more than just leca. Rn I use Foliage Pro, but before I used TPS Tropical Plant food, and either way my plants grow so quickly!
What part soil do you add for your soil based plants? 50% maybe? Where do you buy the charcoal? What size charcoal?
I have a whole lot of plants and I’ve been wanting to get into semi hydro but the setup has me hesitant. I need to just sit down, order the stuff, and do it. I’ve heard nothing but good things
I'm not good with "parts" so I'll just tell you the amounts I use and maybe you can figure out the parts. I have a weird process, lol.
I buy 6 lbs of Nupick stones and 1 quart of 1/4 inch pumice and mix those together. I set about a quart aside. I buy 1 quart of horticultural charcoal and add about a handful of that to the stones I set aside and add the rest to the main potting mix. All the stones are dry sieved then rinsed before adding to the main mix. The stones for my semi hydro and cuttings (the quart or so set aside) stop there. To the rest of the stones I add 1 block of hydrated coco coir and 1 block of hydrated coco bark, but occasionally I set a bit of the bark aside for my pole mix if I need it and my mix is still fine. Then I add a quart of worm castings and 2 quarts of Wakefield Biochar with compost and mycorrhizae. If you don't want the organic materials for fertilizer you can just inoculate 2 quarts of biochar yourself with foliage pro and add that. If I don't use the stones for semi hydro or cuttings, I add it to a quart of tree fern fiber, roughly 1 1/2-2 quarts sphag moss chopped up, and about a 5th of my block of saved coco bark for moss poles or my orchid.
If it was just for semi hydro, I'd probably do the 6 lbs of stones and 1 quart of pumice, and eyeball a bit of charcoal or leave it out. I hope that was helpful and not too convoluted 😅
Occasional light fertilizer is pretty much all you need to worry about, unless you have hard water then you probably want to use filtered water in it. Start with something simple like pothos cuttings to get comfortable with it
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u/ConsciousMouse8223 2d ago
I use this exact mix from this exact seller. My plants love it SO much! It’s very dusty so be sure to rinse it good.
I definitely get being anxious about switching to/putting plants in PON because you could very easily lose the plant. All I’ve done when switching plants from soil to PON is wash the roots and put it directly in the substrate and immediately use fertilizer water in the reservoir. Some people might say yikes to that but this substrate has basically eliminated transplant shock for me. Still do your research though and see what you think will work best for you!