This blog is going to be more like a plantcare diary and my adventure book in the world of houseplants than a boring scientific blog. There are loads in that subject already. There must be some science in the background, of course, I'll try to learn that along with my experiment.
So how I came across hydroculture? My houseplants were potted in tiny pots filled with different kinds of soils - good and bad either. They outgrew their containers quickly. Well, cheap plants sold by their dozens are usually badly underpotted, straight from the nurseries. I had to repot them, for what I boldly used a bagged soil. Which turned out to be a very water retentive media with a fungus gnat infestation that quickly spread in the house and soon little black flies were everywhere - around the bins, around our food, in our eyes. They had to go. It took a while to find out how to get rid of them. 'Let the soil dry out' they said. The soil just didn't want to dry out even in several weeks time, gnats were still around. When I finally watered again, the population doubled itself, thriving in that soil. And we moved to another apartment and it was a now or never plan. But this time I did research and came across websites and forums about well-draining soils and their importance. And there it was, the simplest you can imagine: put your plant in a pot filled only with expanded clay pebbles, pour over some water and every now and then add some fertilizer. Repotting is just as easy, no mess, no leftover soil stuffed under the sink swarming with disgusting creepers. Plants can grow freely in this light media that will not clog, will not go hard as a brick.
As far as I know, this way of keeping houseplants is known as semi-hydroculture because there are individual small pots.
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