Plants that Love Leca as a Growing Medium

Ever wondered what types of plants love leca as a growing medium?

If you follow our content or get our newsletter, you know we love using leca in gardening. Leca is a more niche growing medium in the gardening industry, but its been growing in popularity recently – and for good reason!

We’re going to cover what plants love growing in leca in this article, but if you’re interested in how to use leca as a growing medium then be sure to check out this article for more information.

Table of Contents

What is Leca?

The name leca is actually an acronym, which stands for Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate.

Leca is a growing medium made up of small to medium sized clay balls. The clay absorbs moisture as you water your plant, and then allows roots to draw moisture from the clay as needed. This prevents your plants from sitting in standing water, which will help fight off root rot and other various diseases.

Leca is also a reusable growing medium, which makes it more cost efficient in the long term than traditional potting soil. We cover the pro’s and con’s of using leca more in depth in this guide here.

Or, if you’re sold on using leca and want to know what the best brands of leca are, we’ve got a guide for that too! If you need to make a quick purchase though, our top brand is Mother Earth Products on Amazon.

What plant characteristics are good for Leca?

Before we jump into plants that love leca, we’re going to talk about some of the characteristics of plants that will thrive in leca.

Likes to dry out thoroughly before watering

Because leca absorbs the water that drains off of plants, it is great at preventing root rot. Plants that enjoy their roots being pretty dry in between waterings will likely do well in leca.

Remember, your plant’s roots will still be able to draw moisture out of the clay, so they won’t be parched in between waterings. Rather they’ll just avoid staying too moist in sitting water like they might if you were using traditional soil.

Prefers Oxygen Rich Soil

One of the biggest perks of using leca is that it provides both drainage and extra aeration to plants roots when compared to traditional potting soil. With leca, there’s a lot of room for airflow between the clay balls to get to your plants roots.