Leca - Expanded Hydro Clay Balls
Leca is an acronym and it stands for: Lightweight expanded clay aggregate. It sounds very complicated, but it's quite easy to explain. Essentially, Leca is a growing medium, like soil, in which you can grow your plants. Leca is a collection of baked clay balls that expand when you soak them in water.
Our LECA clay balls:
- have both high porosity and high air content which stimulate the development of strong roots that grip the substrate well
- are inorganic, have a neutral pH value, are fungus free and do not rot
- environmentally friendly and reusable
How to use LECA: Cleaning Leca before you're using it for the first time is very important to keep your plants healthy. Ensure you wash all the clay balls thoroughly in fresh clean water until the leftover water is clean (This might be 4-5 cycles). It's probably best to do all of this outside, as you might not want the clay dust in your sink.
Potting up a plant in LECA is the same as it is in soil. Add a few inches of LECA into the bottom of the pot, then hold the plant at the height you want it and backfill the pot with LECA. To maintain constant absorption and give your roots plenty of water, you’ll want to keep the pot about 1/3 full of water. Read up on the plant’s specific nutrient needs, then apply a hydroponic fertilizer at the recommended rate. Lastly, you’ll need to keep the pH at a healthy level, so be sure to purchase a pH tool and monitor regularly.
Benefits of using LECA: Firstly, the biggest benefit of using Leca is that it allows plenty of airflow and oxygen to reach the plant’s roots. This encourages their growth. LECA is also known to reduce fungus and bacteria growth. Plus, there are little to no wasted nutrients from fertilisers because Leca acts as capillaries. The clay balls soak up the water that has been enriched with nutrients and easily deliver it to your plant’s roots. Proper watering of your plants is made easier and checking in on them is simplified.
Volume: Choose from the following options - 1 Litre, 2 Litre or 3 Litre Bag
Head over to Love That Leaf for more excellent information about how to use LECA LoveThatLeaf
