r/SemiHydro

Hi there, i just moved my baby dragon scale into semi hydro but i wasn´t able to remove most of the soil it came in. According to the instructions on my pon and lecaqueen on youtube i shouldn´t worry to much but since it´s my first time trying out semi-hydro i was wondering what to watch out for after the transfer and if this can cause any issues

I wanted to share the latest leaf on my Monstera Esqueleto because the size jump has been pretty serious for a plant growing in normal living room conditions.

This is Leaf No. 26, currently measuring 77 cm long × 47 cm wide. It is still hardening and still a little floppy, so the final structure is not fully set yet, but it has already passed the previous leaf quite clearly.

Leaf No. 25 hardened at around 64 cm long, so this new one is about 13 cm longer, roughly a 20% increase in length from the previous leaf.

Specimen info
Plant: Monstera Esqueleto
Age: 2 years, 17 days
Leaf: No. 26, in my care
Humidity: around 50% RH
Temperature: 19 to 24 °C
Substrate: Soil Ninja Semi Hydro Coarse
Support: Moss pole
Feed: Aroid Iron Enhanced Feed V2

The plant is grown in ambient room conditions rather than a cabinet or grow tent. Humidity sits around 50% most of the time, temperatures range from 19 to 24 °C, and the plant is climbing on a moss pole in a coarse semi-hydroponic mineral substrate.

The feed is a custom aroid formula mixed for RODI water, with the pH targeted around 5.7 to 5.8 and EC around 1.4 mS/cm. The main focus is balanced nitrogen and potassium for active growth, extra iron for strong green tissue, and enough calcium and magnesium to support proper leaf expansion and structure.

It also includes a small amount of silicon and root support, mainly to keep growth steady rather than forcing the plant too hard. The goal has been consistent uptake, clean semi-hydro growth, and stable sizing-up over time.

I am hoping to eventually get this plant towards 1 metre leaves, so Leaf 26 feels like a promising step in that direction.

Curious how this compares with other people’s Esqueleto growth in normal home conditions, especially outside cabinets or tents.

Recently I got a few new plants. A White Monster Monstera, 2 syngoniums, and a Hoya.
How long after bringing them home do I need to wait before transferring to semi hydro?
Also any suggestions on specific plants such as wick /submersed and pon/leca would be super appreciated.

What am I doing wrong? I’m relatively new to SH but I’ve had some plants take off and look great, while I can’t keep more than 1-2 leaves at a time on this frydek. How can I grow a stronger root system so it can support more leaves?? I feel like I may be missing some fundamental knowledge about how to semi hydro lol

Had these two for 2 months - they were on clearance at my local nursery ($2 each) because of the obvious damage you can see here. They've acclimated and are finally pushing out new growth but now I have some algae starting to bloom at the very bottom of the pon because I bought clear pots & reservoirs.

So I cut up some socks and made them some sweaters 😍

I used a SemiHydro setup for the First time and I am so happy with the outcome😊
About 2 months progress between repotting and the new leave.

So i decided to build a automated leca pole for a pothos and this is how far i am at the moment.

I've cut 2 vines and put that on the starting piece of the pole so they can develop roots, it is standing un an old pickle jar😅 filled with tap water(its good in my area)and an airpump.

Regarding the pole: i bought some cheap full plastic mosspole sets( not the one to fold, just full hard plastic) and i have put some 6mm mesh inside so the leca which is 8 to 16mm wont fall out.

Into the pot i put a small 12V pump with 3m max pump-height to later water the pole and a mesh filter on the input end of the pump. Because i have let the pump run dry for 15min for a test, it is now audible and i will replace it. Furthermore i am going to put a mesh container into the pot so i can place a waterlevel sensor into it ( just a swimming one to prevent the pump from running dry). Then i will make a little circuit so the sensor can directly cut off the pump (obly 2 to 3 parts neccesary) and everything goes on a smart plug so it can be automatically controlled with the smart home system.

Im planning on even put a tds sensor in there.

So the pot will have:

Water pump + safety sensor

Airstone

Tds sensor

Temp sensor

And for the max level of water i will still use the cheap indicators (those white tubes).

Am i missing something or do you guys have any ideas to make the system even better?🤔

P.S: the different compartments are 25cm long and the mesh goes unter the leca so it wont fall out on the bottom. Maybe i will add water distributer in the bottom hole so the water gets evenly distributed throughout the pole

Philodendron dean mcdowell was growing very upright, so I put it in this long container and laid it on its side, but it seems like a lot of leca compared to the rootball which is just on the far end of the container.

Are these thrips? Or springtails? How do I treat them if they are thrips. Should I just spray the leafs and petioles with the spray in the photo?

Put my first plant in leca a week ago and the roots are looking really rough what's the best thing to do after trimming back the rot it's a monstera ginny

I posted this water propped top cut when I put it in leca two weeks ago. You couldn’t see any of the roots and they weren’t touching the reservoir. It was making new leaves while in the water but now it’s just been going crazy making roots and no new leaf growth. Should I just leave it alone?

I currently have 3 tissue culture monsteras that I'm looking to transition to semi hydro. I've seen that a lot of people seen to have success with having their monsteras in Leca but was wondering if it would be better to start them in Pon or something similar before moving them into leca once they're a little bigger. They're currently in a 50/50 mix of perlite and fluval.

I picked this up on marketplace. It's 9" across and 11" high, very thick glass.

hey party people. i got a monstera bulbasaur today and the roots are growing out the bottom like crazy! i know in regular plants that means to repot but what about semi hydro? very new to semi hydro but has tried it a little in the past thanks 😊

I bought it fully hydro and it's been living in a glass ball (you can see it in the 2nd pic) with a cork cap holding the stems in place. It just put out two **HUGE** new leaves and has a ton of roots, so it's clearly happy right now - but I have some concerns about keeping it fully hydro long-term:

1. Size: It's outgrowing both its container and my little greenhouse. I'm not sure how to "size up" with a fully hydro setup - semi hydro feels way more straightforward for that.
2. Weight: Fully hydro is going to get really heavy as this plant gets bigger.
3. The cork situation: A leaf got stuck under the cork lid and was growing in the water. I had to take everything out to free it, and getting the cork back on was near impossible. This setup just isn't practical long-term.
4. The Growth History: Before these two new leaves, I had no new growth for 4+ months and a few leaves were dying off. I was already considering semi hydro at that point.
5. The catch: Now that it IS pushing out new growth, I'm worried about disrupting a happy plant by switching 🫠

So my questions:

- Should I move to semi hydro, or keep it fully hydro?
- If semi hydro - what substrate would you use? My go-to is usually stratum and perlite, but not sure if that's the move here.
- If fully hydro - any recs for larger containers? I need something bigger but similar to what it's in now (glass with some kind of lid to hold the stems in place). Not sure where to find that.