Pon vs Fluval Stratum for Alocasia Growth! 🌱
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.พ. 2025
- Hello Planty Friends!
Join me as I test the best substrate for Alocasia growth! If you struggle to keep your plant looking healthy, this video is for you. Let's see which substrate works best for your Alocasia! Will it be pon or fluval stratum? 🌱 #alocasia #plantgrowth #plantcare #rareplants
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💚 Erin
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A little suggestion if you’d like it, fluval can get pretty heavy & not let the roots spread & breathe as well. Mixing it with perlite & a little vermiculite helps a ton! It’s never failed me yet! And it also stretches the expensive fluval but still gives the exact same effect.☺️
Thank you for this great tip Heather! Sometimes I mix perlite in with my pon & have been pretty happy with the results but I’ll give this a try next time I do a fluval transfer 🤗💚
@@EnchantedPlantQueenof course! I always worry about sharing suggestions cause I don’t want anyone to take it the wrong way. But I also love to share any info I find out that may help other planty parents.💜
I absolutely love your hair! Youre beautiful! I switched ALL of my plants to fluval (no more gnats). I fertilize every time i water. So far all plants are doing great! From philos, to alocasias, to monsteras etc…
Thank you SO much! I really appreciate that ☺️💚😘 Yes!!! Fluval has been such an amazing “reset” button for my plants😆😂
I just purchased some Pon so I’m definitely a newbie using it. I’m excited to see how the plants I potted up do with it
Hi Krista! Yesssss, thats awesome! Good luck- hope your plants love it🪴 It's been a gamechanger for my alocasia i can tell you that💚 Keep my posted as to how your pon transfers do- i'm always interested in which plants do well for people in pon.
Luv this video Erin!!! But I ❤ all your videos.
Thank you for showing the entire timeline ❤. How they looked when you got them and all the way after a couple months. I luv being able to see the progress beginning to end. Stratum is expensive as crap but the plants can’t get enough of it. 😂
Tell your assistant…AWESOME JOB! Pouring pon is a skill.
Thank you so much! 🤗Definitely plan on more of these types of videos in the future. And I will tell him- he will love that 💚
I loooove a good experiment 💜💙 Good job queen 👏🪴
Thank you! Variety is the spice of life- especially with these plants 😂😅💚
I just found you! I love this and agree with you about alocasia and soil. Great video
Thank you! ☺️ I’ve been having a lot of fun finding different ways to grow alocasia 💚
@@EnchantedPlantQueenthey're all so beautiful
Just a couple questions: And I know this is semi-hydro and all, so maybe I'm dumb and missed this part (lol), but after potting each of the plants in their respective substrates, did you give them additional nutrients when watering, or add any to the substrate? I know Lechuza is made with some light pellet ferts. Also, did you keep them with a reservoir of water/nutrients underneath, or a wick? Or were they just watered when they seemed dry?
Maybe these are like random or self-explanatory questions, haha, but still, I know that not everyone keeps their reservoirs full at all times. Like, I don't keep all mine full depending on the species, or even the season, microclimate, temperatures, etc. Plus, some people use wicks or have the pot elevated above the reservoir. Just curious!
Hi Erik! These are all really great questions. So I ALWAYS add nutrients to my water. I never thought that the slow release fertilizer in the lechuza was enough to really give the plants what they need for rapid & healthy growth. Melissa from Plants by Melissa said the same thing in one of her pon video’s & she doesn’t recommend waiting any length of time to start supplementing either. I have several different semi hydro set ups and some are sitting in a reservoir with the plant in a net type orchid pot that will occasionally go dry for a short period of time and a few of them some have a wick. For leca, i always have a reservoir that the plant is sitting in and for pon i sometimes use a wick, sometimes a
reservoir. The roots always
seem to creep through & create their own wick soon after their transfer. All systems seem to work well so i don’t have one strict setup at i like, other than that i adjust the levity of the substrate depending on how fine the root system is: small roots i mix in perlite, pumice, vermiculite & sometimes a little stratum to the pon to help with breathability on small roots. I have a video coming out soon on transplanting a plant to a pon mixture and follow it for several months. I should do a video soon & go through these different systems & the types of
plants they’ve been successfully grown in. Hope that helps! 💚
thank you! Love your channel, i always learn a ton and have a few more Anthuriums now :) i do have trouble here and there with Fluval getting moldy especially if its a corm that is covered for humidity would you have any ideas or suggestions? rite now i super helicopter and make sure to flush weekly. where the rest of my PON plants i flush every two weeks with no problems. i love Fluval for corms, babies and recovering plants.
Thanks Kim! Appreciate you💚🤗Makes me so happy to hear that your anthurium collection is growing-they are my favorites 🖤 Whenever I get mold on the corms I just brush the mold off and give them a bit more air/more time uncovered- seems to work pretty well.
"the best" is going to be highly subjective but the one thing almost everyone can agree on is that "potting soil" is not a good option. I see a lot of growers having success with pon, I personally do better with coconut husk chips.
I haven’t tried straight coconut chips for my alocasia- but so many of my anthurium thrive in a coco chip/husk/perlite mix so I’ll give it a try 🌱
@@EnchantedPlantQueen oh yes, my Anthurium rock it in coco husk. I also mix mine with perlite and charcoal and I sprinkle in mycos. I've honestly been moving all of my house plants (African Violets, Ficus, Schlumbergera, Spathiphyllum, etc.) to CHC. The added air to the roots even on "soil" plants makes a huge difference.
Love your videos. My alocasia will only give me one leaf at a time. Black velvet and my frydek varigated.
Thank you 🤗Both are such beautiful plants😍 switching my alocasia over to these other substrates or just starting them over and letting them grow water roots before putting them in other substrates has been such a game changer for me. Good luck with your plant babies 💚
Hi, one question: based on what is not a long term solution?
Hi! The stratum? It tends to break down and compress/turn really mud-like after some time when used alone.
I put mine in leca with a self watering method of having water 1/4 of the pot.
Hi Lucas! I'm going to try this with a longiloba i just got- people seem to be really happy with their leca results. My friend Nick swears by it💚
@@EnchantedPlantQueen mine are still adjusting, loosing some leafs and stuff. But once they established they will be fine.
Wow you are gorgeous in this video. Those colors are perfect on you.
Thanks so much! 🤗🖤🥹💚
@@EnchantedPlantQueen All that background green with your colors make your video so soothing.
@@hennesseyme9112 That makes me so happy, thank you! 💚💚💚
What is the boot leg pond called? I have been trying to find it on Amazon.
Here's the link- i realized i left it out of my Amazon storefront so I just added it. It's called "Horticultural Lava Rock Pebbles Pumice Potting Soil Amendment" Comes in several sizes💚 amzn.to/3Utmcng
Didn't find any long term success with any of these alternate substrates. Coco coir, leca, with chunky perlite and wick watering works wonders for me.
Thanks! I’m endlessly curious about what others are using 💚🌱
@EnchantedPlantQueen same! I'm growing in cold Yorkshire UK, probably why the roots don't like to be in a reservoir
When Fuval Stratum is used in an aquarium it is used long term. Other fertilizers are used also but I don't understand why it can't be used long term for houseplants?
Hey Kristie! That’s a really good question! I’ve heard some people complain that it gets really compressed early on for them and they don’t like the mess. I keep waiting for it to happen to me, but it keeps holding up and I’m really liking the results. In the aquarium world, it should still last a few years, but maybe not as long as pon would. I’d say people’s long term results vary with stratum, but I’m still planning on letting it ride (my longest stratum plant is at around the 6 month mark)💚
I’m now upto 35 species of alocasia, I start them in fluval then I plant them in fluval and pon they grow great!
Your plants will come around! Fluval does dry very quickly so adding pon makes it stay a bit more moist! ❤🪴yes give them more light than you think :)
I believe it is not a long-term substrate because of the lack of airflow. It keeps the roots extremely moist until it is not. If you forget to water the stratum will draw moisture from the roots leading to root rot in my experience. Stratum is amazing for corms, but ultimately, I love pon for alocasias! :)
Crazy the same plant took a 💩 in soil so I moved to pon where it did a little better. I moved a 2nd plant to chunky perlite in semi hydro with weak liquid fertilizer and it took off! I'm just tired of these boutique substrates when these plants have been on the planet forever! Cheap wins with me so I can invest in more plants 😅
Your first line made me 😂😂😂. Heck yeah with your chunky perlite & nutrients- glad your plant is thriving🙌🏻The center of the Venn diagram for us is always more plants 👍🏻💚
@@EnchantedPlantQueen mines almost getting rid of some but passions the same😆
There is another soil that's basically the same as stratum, but the nutrients in it are on steroids. It's called "Amazonia". It's super expensive, though. I haven't tried it yet because I rarely use stratum, but one day I will. This was very helpful. Thanks!!
Ooooh thanks Marie!! I’ll look into it immediately🤩💚
Abs for days 😂❤
🤣🤣
But your hair 😍
Thank you 🤗💚
I vote for bootleg pon. I think it’s prettier. 😍
I do the DIY/bootleg pon for my Anthuriums but LECA all the way for Alocasias. mine love it. 🤘🏽
I agree Lori! Cheaper and prettier- that mint color really adds something 💚