LECA Houseplant Update + Tissue Culture Repotting & Plant Chores

[00:00:00]Hey, so today I'm going to go ahead and give you guys a lea update and my tissue cultured plants that I bought online that I have hardened off update as well.

[00:00:12]So, I'm really excited because everything's doing pretty good. So good that I'm debating on propagating another monstera, which is going to be this one.

[00:00:23]This is a birdie marks flame. This is a top cutting of the plants that I have outside and it was just doing so so good. And I was like, I want to go ahead and take a cutting of it cuz look at this leaf.

[00:00:41]Oh my god, it's so pretty.

[00:00:45]This is only possible it being outside.

[00:00:47]Honestly, for me, I do have some really good grow lights, so I'm hoping that that's going to help out as well. But I've been having it in water. We're going to put her in lea. I'm going to use the same glass container. I think it will fit perfectly fine just temporarily and so I can go ahead and get a better vase because even then I'm going to have to pull everything else out and rent it because what made me find out that LEA honestly does really really good well in some plants. I was experimenting and this was like the cheap LEA that I got from IKEA and it's pretty good. They look like cocoa pebbles. But I heard the only issue about Lea is that you got to rinse it and it's like a whole mess. Um I I don't know. But here is what made me fall in love with it. I also have another container which I will get in a bit. Um that I'm propagating.

[00:01:37]But this is my alocacia and I believe it's called a pink stem. It has a new leaf developing. Super duper. I literally chopped it and it's doing really, really good. I'm also dealing with gnats, but I traded my entire collection with mosquito bits. Um, I have to do another session because these gnats have gotten really, really annoying. They have been thriving in these warm, humid temperatures. Um, obviously we're inside, but I try to set the home to a comfortable temperature.

[00:02:07]Not I just I've been having I've been trying to keep it like at 72 or 73 Fahrenheit cuz it's to save power and also the plants will be happy and I'll be comfortable but it's so humid you guys.

[00:02:24]It's rained a lot which is extremely amazing. It's it's amazing that has rained a lot um here in San Antonio. I think we got like a lot of inches of rain. Some other parts in Texas got a lot a lot of rain, which is great cuz we're like in a drought. So, it's it's great. And I believe one of the lakes has like recharged. It's been like empty for like 7 years or something like that.

[00:02:43]And now it's 100% full capacity, which is beautiful.

[00:02:47]But inside, you guys, if I set it any higher the temperature, if I don't run the AC central, this house will get 70% humidity. Like, not that dramatic, but it will get 65% 67% humidity. and there's no mold. Um, I try to be extremely cautious with that because we already live in a very semi- tropical zone. Um, it's really, really humid here and warm. The airflow, the AC was helping everything. But I'm also running the dehumidifier. I'm not sure you guys can hear it. It's a big dehumidifier.

[00:03:20]Sorry, dehumidifier, not a humidifier.

[00:03:22]It's the opposite. It removes moisture from the air. I've been running it daily and I have to empty it. It's a big capacity one. I don't know how many quarts it is, but it's a big one. Um, probably like six quarts. I have to empty it out like three times a day. It didn't didn't came with an attachment that kind of just like simultaneously drain. It's whatever. I kind of find it really fun and satisfying to pour it out. But it's just the fact that it's really really humid and running that big machine does help the indoor air. I think that's another reason why my alocacas and calias do really really good inside cuz it's like pretty nice and humid. It's supposed to be 50% humidity. I don't know if people are like really big on humidity and temperature, but I'm a big like if I see someone's plant collection, the first thing that I'm going to ask other than other questions is like what's the your indoor humidity? Cuz I feel like it does a big big difference on like how your collection does and your plants do. Um I know some creators that they have they live by themselves which they have full control over. Like they don't have to worry about other people, right? and they have their home warm and humid like and it's just like their plants are thriving and doing so beautiful but I can't do that one cuz I really hate humid air and two I need it to be like 68 fah inside I need it to be nice and cold but these have been doing amazing this alocaca and it does have little babies in there these have I they didn't spread it from here I actually placed them in there when I pulled it out from soil cuz this alicia wasn't soil I botched it completely and and I'm letting it start over. I do see mellies which y'all know I've been dealing with for the very longest time. I've also been dealing with thris but I've been using this systemic granules and it's done it does a pretty good job. So I'm like am I going to yawn or not? You guys can see how nasty it looks. I have to basically pour all of this out. It's already time. I believe it's been like already two weeks or 3 weeks. I don't know how often you got to do it, but I got to pour it all out and I heard it's it's a pain in the butt to do that, but which is why I don't want to have like 50 plants in Lea cuz I cannot imagine the chore that is. But my myacasia does really really good and I'm really shocked that it's thriving. Some birds are even out and it's done perfectly fine. It's just so shocking.

[00:05:45]It's so shocking. And I also heard that plant and lea grow really really fast which is why I got the burly marks flame a mature one from outside a top cutting. Um it has a pretty good amount of nodes. We're going to submerge it in lea. And let me get my filidendrron that I have propagating in lea. At first I thought it wasn't going to make it but it seems like it's doing okay. I already lost some other plants.

[00:06:11]So it's a good thing that I'm propagating it. So it's doing pretty good. Usually whenever I touch the leaves, they always fall off. But I have been seeing this new shoe. You guys can barely see it, but it's right there. And yeah, it's pretty fun. It doesn't look really really dirty. I have not fertilized my um lea plants. I heard you have to do that cuz there's no nutrients in there. So, I would give it a small small amount. Um obviously, I'll water it down a lot. Uh fertilizer. I use miracle grow fertilizer and actually haven't fertilized my collection for like a couple months so I it's due. Um but yeah, I'm really excited to see how it does. I actually saw someone's foot on Facebook. It was so big and she had it like in bamboo sticks or something cuz like they naturally want to um they want to climb but if not they would just like go all everywhere. It looked so cool. It was the most prettiest like palm looking tree. It was really, really impressive. This one has a long, long time, and that's if it survives for me, and it does pretty good to get to that phase. But I'm I'm patient. But first, before I redo the LEA stuff, which we have to rinse and drain, drain, and rinse, and then setting up the new Lea in here. I did skip the step on Lea, which I I'll just before I forget, you're supposed to submerge your Leica in water. I don't do that. I did rinse my le out really really good because I heard like you have to do that like it's just it just it gets nasty. It helps for it not to get too nasty. So I did rinse it really really good outside when I have I have it over here. My cocoa pebbles. It was a bag and I still got a little bit left in there. Um it's a lot.

[00:07:53]It's a lot. So not that expensive. It's the same cost as soil. So I'm pretty excited about that. I have the Phil the tissue cultured plants in here and I'm kind of excited. Uh, it's my bulbasaur monstera, a variegated moonlight filadendrin, dark scandopsis clark cloud scandapsis.

[00:08:25]Really pretty. They were all tissue cultured and I have been having them in spagnumos. I am also propagating this little guy which we got it. Wow, it actually rooted. Sorry, let me just show you.

[00:08:38]Look at that. That is the cutest thing.

[00:08:40]So, you can see this is the little baby musta bubbasaur and then the cutest little leaf. I look at that. That is no look. Yeah, don't look at my hands. But look at that. It looks It almost has the variegation of aricolor aglanma. But that is the cutest thing ever. This is pretty fun, too. It has rooted really nicely in here. We can probably repot her. I don't know. And then I might just chop it, right? I'mma do that. Actually, I'mma chop it and still let it root so I have multiple spots. I can make a little cute 4in pot of it. This is a dark cloud. Crap. It's something like that.

[00:09:19]It honestly looks like a should have it with me. The scandopsis, which is the burgus satin, I believe.

[00:09:27]It's beautiful. I miss my baby so much.

[00:09:30]Um, it died on me and I bought it again, but it was never the same. So, down the line. Down the line.

[00:09:40]Not right now. And then here is the variegated.

[00:09:45]You can barely see any variegation, but it's supposed to be that. I don't know if that this that leaf I have no clue.

[00:09:52]But yeah. So, and this one didn't have any roots when I got it. So, I'm really excited. And I'm still gonna put this in the Bina grow tent because I I have, you know, I poked the holes because with tissue culture, you guys, when you transfer them from like that little gel to like your next medium, I use spike them as the next phase for me to let it develop roots and to let it harden off, they're really fragile and sensitive.

[00:10:17]They need high humidity. They they they if not, they would have melt. I've heard stories where like it's just disintegrates. Like it just melts. So this is how I harden off my tissue culture plants. I will put them in some soil and then I will put them in a humid environment for like a week or two and then I will slowly start and even then like throughout the days I open the grow tent and I let like dry air get inside.

[00:10:40]So it naturally hardens off. The harden off basically means um you're not babying the plant no more. That's the basic way I can say. like you you're going to toughen it up to more harsher conditions, which is drier air, colder temperatures, you know, that kind of stuff compared to like really warm and humid, very like nice environments for these plants. So, I'm going to lift this cuz I'm actually really cur I have not checked the roots, but I'm pretty sure yep, now it's rooted. Um, people don't like spagnum because it it gets messy with the spagnumos.

[00:11:17]I don't I actually don't mind spagnum at all. Maybe if I like do it like this, you guys can see.

[00:11:28]So, today is going to be plant chores and then well then the following day I'm planning to go to Home Depot tonight.

[00:11:35]Um, it's just so hot. I have an iPhone 15 Pro Max. They're releasing a new phone.

[00:11:41]I don't know if you guys know, but I say that because a lot of people have been saying the same phone that I have, it's been heating up bad. Like my phone, you guys, I can't even touch it. Like, it's so hot. I can barely touch the phone as soon as I step outside. So, I try to go in the mornings or in the nights. Look at that. It still has some spagnum. Some people freak out about that. It doesn't I had to cut my nails. I'm sorry about that. Some people It doesn't bother me at all. I I It doesn't cause any issues for me. I just if anything try to keep the plant moist and even then when I do transplants from like cutings to like soil, this kind of phase, I have to make sure the soil is nice and moist because it helps the roots develop um they will just outgrow that spagnum that's there. But look at those roots. I don't know if you guys remember, but it was it had no roots at all. And it has some really nice thick white roots. And he's a little baby.

[00:12:43]It's the cutest thing ever.

[00:12:46]You guys, I've been wanting to do some Halloween shopping so bad, but we I'll be down for that. Is it too soon? I don't know. Okay, the Monetta. Let me do the next one. The Skindapsis. Cuz the musta is really in there.

[00:13:01]Yeah, this one didn't really I mean it has it's had roots when I placed it in there. It's been having roots, but yeah, I love Scandapsis. I do. Proven Winners was selling a scandaps that was really really pretty. I haven't seen it no more. So, let's see. Let's hope they still have it. It's one of those things that you got to get it before they stop producing it.

[00:13:25]So cute. I love tiny little plants.

[00:13:29]They're just the cutest thing ever and they don't take too much space. You don't It's not too much work and they acclimate to your environment really nicely. Okay, I'm going to pull out this next one. This is going to be a little bit hard because Monettas have a habit of developing insane.

[00:13:48]They grow really, really fast. They grow really, really fast, really thick roots, which is nice. But in this case, I'm probably going to lose a root here and there. I'm not even kidding. Like, see, that's Oh, it's beautiful. I'm going have to show you.

[00:14:06]You can tell how much new roots it has pushed out. I was going to put it on a 4 in, but I think it would do better in a 6 in. You're probably going to put on a 6 in.

[00:14:16]You guys are going to remember my white monstera. I had it outside. it even though it was getting a lot of light, it actually was like not looking so barricaded. So, I ended up throwing it away. It got burnt um outside and it is what it is, you guys. I'm sorry. I also I found a black widow. Um it's my fault, but I found a black widow where I had all of my beautiful house plants outside. It's like cold and humid in there, right? And it's shaded. That's like the perfect environment for a black widow. I was we were cutting the yard and there was a pot and I flipped. I always I always I I won't I don't willingly just like go in there and like touch anything. Like I always try to like inspect cuz there's spiders.

[00:15:03]There's big spiders. There's different kinds of spiders. We cut the grass last week and there we found like seven different varieties of spiders. Some are really pretty. Some are like so green and gorgeous, which is my favorite color. My favorite color is green. I think a lot of our colors is green. I love green. Any shade of green I love.

[00:15:19]But I like a more earthy green. But yes, um, look at that. And I always check cuz we also have scorpions, but scorpions are not active in the day. They're more active in the night as well as spiders, but in the day, you know, we're doing yard work and stuff like that or I'm just out there. They like to be where we like to be at, like in the shade where it's nice and cold. But yeah, I flipped the pot and there was a black weather like that. Not that crazy. Obviously, I'm fine. I told my mom and she was like, "What?" And I was like, "Yeah, girl." Like, it's crazy. It's I've never in my life seen a black widow in person other than the zoo. So, when I saw that, I was like, "Oh." So, but yeah. Um um it was pretty. It's It's pretty. It's pretty cuz like the contrast of the black and the red.

[00:16:14]Honestly, anything with black looks pretty. like black and gold is pretty.

[00:16:17]Um, silver and black is pretty, but black and red is just really really pretty, but also like really scary cuz like it's venomous, right? So, I saw that and I kept yelling um, boo cuz I call my husband boo. He didn't hurt me, but it's okay. Um, cuz I was scared it was going to run away. But we ended up taking care of it. And when I saw that, I was like, "Yeah, I got to start downsizing some plants that I have outside cuz if I I there's too much my you remember my burly marks flame. It was a little baby. It has grown. It's big. I also ended up throwing it away.

[00:16:54]Sorry. I might piss a lot of people off, but I'm sorry, girl. You know, I'm blunt. You know, I'm going to say it how it is. I'm going to tell you, you know exactly what happened. But it is okay.

[00:17:03]It is. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I I want it is what it is. I put plants outside to let them get nice and big and then when I'm satisfied I will rinse it all through um and then bring it inside.

[00:17:18]I have to repot it, right? Or I just take cutings of it. Um this was also outside. This is this allocation was outside like last month, two months ago and it was big. It it makes these big leaves. It's like so freaking pretty.

[00:17:32]But I botched it, which is why you only see this little leaf. But that's why I found these little babies cuz like all occasions there are these acorns corns and yeah. So um but it's nice now. And like I said, I I always inspect the roots cuz things do like to hide in the roots. Um so you have it's it's a process because I also was finding scale. Um I remember my monstera my alba monstera.

[00:18:01]Well, the mother, she got nice and big, but I propagated her and then I had a lot of alba monsteras.

[00:18:09]Mind you, you can now get an albamos at Lowe's. I've been seeing so many people finding them, which is really, really cool. We're living in a really plant-wise in a great time right now.

[00:18:18]But, um, I inspected the plant, but I guess not through. and it had scale like there was one little piece of scale. I took it off and then I quickly added this and it seems like we're good but it's in the kitchen. It work good but I still keep a very close eye. I stare at it almost every single day and I make sure like it's not there cuz you know scale is not fun. I people like some people prefer scale than anything. I prefer melebugs than anything cuz I can just walk around and spray. Even though me bugs are more invasive, they're like more annoying, but they're pretty easy to kill like with the water holes, with the shower head, with rubbing alcohol. Um, so, but scale just so nasty. It's so nasty. So, there's some plants that I propagate from outside and I bring it inside. Um, it's a little cheat code. Um, when I want to downsize instead of like I throw them away or like give them away, I would just do that instead, you know?

[00:19:21]I'll place it outside and let it get nice and big. And then when I want it inside again, or when I miss the plant, I'll take cutings of it.

[00:19:30]So, I just inhaled dirt.

[00:19:46]So much dust.

[00:19:49]The soy is nice and dry. dry, which is nice because fungusnats or I don't know, I hate saying fungus nuts. Natshn gnats have like moist soil.

[00:20:08]So, that's not nice. That's not good.

[00:20:13]Going to put the skin in here. Like I said, we're going to put these back in the grow tent. So they can acclimate a little bit more and grow nice with their new medium, which is their final stage, which is soil.

[00:20:33]And yeah, and they're going to grow a lot faster in the grow tents. That's just what they do cuz it's nice and warm and humid in there. I also got to fertilize. I really got to fertilize.

[00:20:40]But my biggest thing right now was my money tree got so big. The one that I got for clearance is getting big. I'm going to have to show you cuz it's really pretty. But yeah, um no, I do have face masks, but I'm only doing three plants and I'm doing the last one.

[00:21:06]My my priority was the nats first with the mosquito bits and the water, but then I'm going to go do the fertilizer.

[00:21:16]She doesn't look that cute. my uh this is a Bulbasaur. I uh proven winners. I'm pretty sure they have it, girl. I'm pretty sure a lot of people have been finding the white monsters. Um so kind of excited to find my white monster, which is where I'm going to go tonight.

[00:21:29]So Home Depot and yeah, see what kind of plants they have cuz Proven Winners, from what I know, only sell at the Home Depot. Look at that.

[00:21:38]It's big, but most like to get big. So it is what it is. Everybody's different.

[00:21:43]Let me show you my money tree.

[00:21:48]She has gotten so big, you guys.

[00:21:53]Look, she gave me these three leaves and they're huge.

[00:22:04]They're huge.

[00:22:07]Look how big.

[00:22:10]IT'S THE CUTEST THING. I'm so excited.

[00:22:15]I'm so in love with it. I Every time I walk in the PL, it's the first thing I look at. I don't like picking favorites, but she is like lowkey my favorite cuz she's just so pretty. So, let's go put these girlies back. All righty, they're already placed in here.

[00:22:30]It's always a little bit tricky whenever I'm holding the phone and then the other hand that's holding water and there's electrical stuff nearby. I get a little bit scared, but we're good.

[00:22:44]So cute. Also, here's my monstera pero.

[00:22:48]I love her. She's doing so good. As well as my orchids. But look, she's so cute.

[00:22:54]Okay, so nothing too crazy, girl. We're just going to go ahead and do this.

[00:23:01]I'm excited to see how crazy it's going to be.

[00:23:13]I tried to I tried to clean it last time in the tub. Um, but it's a little bit hard. Look at that.

[00:23:27]Ooh, it seems like some are rotting a little bit. Mind you, this was um these were soil roots. They're decaying as you can see, but it's developing the other roots. I think they're water roots. I don't know what kind of roots plants develop in lea, but this is I think that's normal.

[00:23:49]The plant looks really healthy. It's been growing fast and we see nice nice roots. So, and I don't really if anything I will see. Oh my god, that's the nastiest thing in my life.

[00:24:03]Fudge. Oh, I can't. The texture, it's so squishy. Ew, it's rot. Okay. Well, that's not going down the drain. Oh my god, it looks so nasty.

[00:24:21]That's why it was so nasty in there. Okay, gross. Now, we're going to rinse it.

[00:24:32]Okay, that was a little bit aggressive, but she's nice and rinsed and clean.

[00:24:39]Now, I'm going to go see I don't know why I'm doing this angle if you guys can even see, but I'm going to put her together, you guys. I don't know how I'm going to do that. Should I put the camera down?

[00:24:50]Oh my god. How you do YouTuber stuff?

[00:24:54]Put this on there. Look inside. Maybe put it on the bottom.

[00:24:59]That's better.

[00:25:06]And then we're going to put it inside.

[00:25:09]I'm going to have to probably rinse it again.

[00:25:16]Well, that was really cool. I wasn't expecting to see that many roots that fast. I'm also going to add these in there.

[00:25:25]Just like that.

[00:25:29]Got water on my hair.

[00:25:41]Another issue that I heard about Lea that I haven't encountered yet is algae, but I haven't seen it. And I heard that whenever that does happen, you just go ahead and use um hydrogen peroxide.

[00:26:09]I feel like it'll be so interesting to put a Pia in here like the money tree, the Chinese money plants or the UFO plants. It'll be nice to see how it produces so many babies, you know, like the network.

[00:26:24]Come here, little Cocoa Pebble.

[00:26:30]I need this meal. It's cuz they're so tiny.

[00:26:39]Perfect.

[00:26:45]So cute. Let me put a little bit of water in there.

[00:26:52]Again, I'm new to Lea, you guys.

[00:26:55]All I know that it's doing really good, I fill it up and then I completely ignore it for like a couple of honestly as long as I can ignore it for. Um, and then when it dries out, I go again and add it. Nothing too crazy. That's what I do. So, this is going to be a little bit interesting trying to propagate this, but I think I heard pretty good success with propagating plants on Lea, which is why I'm doing the tordom in there. But now I'm going to do the the this one.

[00:27:38]I'm just doing it like this to catch any pebbles that want to fall down.

[00:28:07]It's just for right now. Get I can get a bigger vase.

[00:28:17]And so this is like dry pebbles. You can see it bubbling like the little air pockets.

[00:28:26]I have to make sure it's fully submerged because the the pebbles are not fully saturated. I don't really care. People say not to do that. That's what I did with the other ones and they're perfectly fine. So, that's it on the Lea. This is my little lea setup now. And a little TMI, which seems a little bit crazy and absurd, but it's what I do. Hubby likes the salt pepper a lot. And literally what I do, I save the bottles, I clean them really good, and then I add my mosquito bits, um, like 3 tablespoons of them, fill up with water, let it soak for like an hour, and then I have a nice mixture of nut killer. It just makes life so much easier. Um, so it's another way to reuse if you can. But that's it. It's been really nice doing some planters with you guys. It's been a hot minute.

[00:29:18]I think that looks so cute right there.

[00:29:20]Also, this entherium is putting out a nice big new leaf and I'm so excited to see how it looks. As well as giving you guys updates on the plants that I'm doing, the experiments. I want to put it here, but it's a little bit too I mean, it fits right now, but at some point that allocation is going to like hit the top of the shelf, which at that point I just put in the bottom. But I actually really do love this amber like brownish glass tent. It's really really cute. Here's a torm that I'm propagating in lea.

[00:29:56]Really excited. So yeah. All righty guys. I hope you guys enjoyed. So this is new plant chores kind of video. It's been a hot minute since I've done one of these and I'm really excited on the LEGO stuff. As well as we're potting the tissue cultured plants and the money tree is just one of the plants that have been doing super duper good this summer.

[00:30:18]Um there are some plants that are not doing that good. But but on the bright side everything's doing great. So I hope you guys enjoyed this new plenty of pen shopping video. That's going to be tonight which you'll probably see in a couple days. But I hope you guys enjoyed sending you lots of positive vibes and I'll see you in the next one.