I’ve tried planting in soil, water, and LECA. One thing I haven’t tried much is planting in Pon. From what I understand, Pon (Passive Hydroponics) is similar to LECA in the way that one doesn’t use soil, but instead of using the clay balls, one uses a mixture of various substrates, such as lava rocks, pumice, etc. Some brand has nutrients included for the plants’ first few months. At the bottom of the Pon substrate is water, which will climb up the Pon substrate via capillary action. Therefore self-watering planter is often used.

The nice thing about soil-less growth medium is eliminating various pests and disease that can pose a problem to the plant.

Enter our self-watering octopus mason jar planter that I’ve set aside for this experiment. I got myself some Pon substrate. It’s not cheap, so this planter that’s perfect for small plants or cuttings, is great for this experiment.

One thing I notice is that the holes size in the octopus planter is perfect to let water in but keep substrated from oozing out the planter. We’re off to a great start! I washed the Pon substrate first with water as it may have some residue / sand.

Then I picked some water-rooted Pothos cuttings that I have. This makes the transition easier for the roots (instead of if the roots are soil-roots). I arranged them like so before filling the rest of the planter with the Pon substrate, making sure all the roots are inside the planter.

After that, I just put the rest of the Pon substrate to the top of the planter, rinse through the planter with water one more time, and then once the water that drains from the planter looks clear, I refilled the water from the water channel.

I put the planter in a place that gets some sun. Hoping to write a future post as an update on those plants.

Updates

This is update after using the pon system for a couple months. I think this is working really well!