With the pot in a pot method you either leave enough space between the inner and outer pots to be able to peer down and see water levels, you make the outer container transparent so you can see the water level or you make/buy a float which serves as a water level indicator.

Another method that is only practical if you have a catch tray is to drill a hole in the outer pot at the max level you want the water. Then you don't worry about the water level, you just water frequently knowing that any excess will drain out the hole.

To prevent particles from leaking out cover the holes with plastic insect screening. It will last forever.

justaguy2,

Thanks for the reply. It sounds like the water-monitoring approaches are similar to those with LECA, and it sounds like the substrate-retaining approach is similar to that with soil! The single-pot methods seem like they might be a bit more troublesome to flush out (as recommended in the Waterroots site; it sounds more like remove plant, rinse out materials, repot) with Turface than with LECA. Do you have any problems with this?

The biggest practical issue I've had with the two-pot methods is finding pairs of pots that work well together (i.e., smaller pot fits properly in larger undrilled pot).

With the LECA, I've played around with a modified single-pot method in which I just stick a stopper in the single drainage hole, which I remove when I want to flush out the LECA. I've worried about leaks, but so far at least haven't had any. In any case, I haven't figured out how to use this approach with Turface, though!

The method I use is transparent glass containers (no drain hole). Seemed the simplest method at the time. As for flushing the containers I just run water into the top and let it overflow, then put my hand over the top and dump it.

The downside I have had with this approach is that in some containers I do get an algae film since the sunlight passes through. There is also a mineral build up that takes place at the water level. Both are visible since the containers are transparent. No way to fix this with the plant in the pot.

I do not see any difference between the leca and turface other than particle size. The advantage to the smaller particle size is roots will 'lock in' faster and the downside is there is less open space volume between particles to hold water so adding water is necessary more frequently given the same water level.

I can't think of any method where I wouldn't want to take everything apart and clean once per year or so. It is kind of a pain, but that's life.

That's great, you almost anticipated my next question, which was, when (as in, I think, what kind of plants) does it make especially good sense to use turface over leca, and vice versa? For example, it seems logical to me that more fibrous-rooted plants might prefer the smaller particled Turface over LECA, but that plants suspectible to root rot (succulents, etc.) might favor the LECA. But this is just a hypothesis, and the next few plants I need to convert (ant plant, metallic palms) I'm reluctant or unable to use as experimental subjects.

When I first learned of hydroculture and was reading up etc. the wisdom I received was what you stated. The thinner the roots typically are, the smaller the particle size to use. In practice I haven't found this necessary, but do not disagree with the hypothesis. It just takes longer for the thin rooted plants to lock into the LECA, it still happens.

With succulents I have had better results than I expected. I thought things would be fine in summer while they were actively growing, but what about winter when most of them detest being moist? What I did was I used tall vases so the water would have further to wick up and the overall moisture level at the roots would be reduced. This has worked really well and I will say I was a bit surprised how well.

It isn't practical for a large, heavy plant as it would be too top heavy, but for the smaller succulents it has worked better than I thought possible. No root rot at all and one of the plants is one that root rotted a couple times on me in potting mix in the winter. It is in LECA(hydroton), BTW.

I don't blame you for not wanting to convert plants you have had for a long time and really want to keep. It can be risky and there were a couple I didn't convert too. With new plants though they never see anything but hydroculture one they come home with me. Well, that's not true, I do have some hanging baskets that I haven't yet devised a satisfactory way to do hydroculture in.

It was a combination of severe soil allergies in me and severe fungus gnats in the pots in our house that got me interested in soilless gardening. I didn't know about hydroculture for a while, and I started by potting up most of my plants in a perlite/super absorbent crystal mix. It hasn't turned out to be the best long-term solution, but I will say that I experienced NONE of the short-term water-stress issues people discuss with the hydroton (if anything, I had to be careful with too much water for plants like Sansieveria, ZZ, Orange Flash, and others that don't like too much water). When I, months later, moved them to the LECA, not really trying to remove too much perlite or crystals, not a one showed any signs of stress. However, at the same time I moved a few other plants straight from soil to LECA, and several of them (African Violet, Strawberry Begonia, and Christia leap to mind) have definitely shown signs of water stress.

So I'm tempted to take from this that for some plants, at least, a transitional step between soil and LECA might be a good idea, and the reason may not so much be the development of "water roots" (I'm not even convinced there is such a thing), but rather something more like what you're describing as roots "locking on" to the new substrate. This is easier with the perlite/crystals, turface and other small particles, so that there's no sudden drop in root surface area contacting water-releasing particles.

I don't know, but I'd guess that moving from perlite/crystal to LECA doesn't entail that kind of stress because 1) you haven't just beat the heck out of the roots blasting off all the old soil substrate, and 2) lots of perlite/crystal can cling to the roots if you let it. Does that make sense? I wonder if this would work with a turface/axis intermediate?

That is an interesting thought, I never considered that. You might be onto something with the intermediate step.