Cropking has changed their LECA!

[swamprad]

For the past couple of months, I've been in the process of repotting all my orchids (except the paphs) into semi-hydro. I've bought two of the 50 liter bags of LECA from Cropking, and it was exactly like the old Prime-Agra. This week, I ordered my 3rd bag from them. I just opened the box, and it is totally different, in a bag marked Hydroton.

Crap.

Do any of you s/h growers out there use Hydroton? Dare I use this stuff on the rest of my orchids?

 

[jay]

All I use is Hydroton with great success. I really like it. Make sure you wash it several times, it is very dusty. I had some old primeagra and prefer the Hydroton.

 

[Candace]

No....say it isn't so!!!

Mark I've used hydroton for years since it's available locally. And truth be told you should write Crop King and complain. Because odds are hydroton is available to you within a decent driving distance. Crop King charges like $40 per pag for shipping, so that's just plain unacceptable if you could have picked it up locally! Maybe they screwed up and sent you the wrong product? Please keep my updated.

My catts, epis, dendrobiums etc. do perfectly fine in hydroton. My paphs and phrags hate it :< It simply doesn't wick up enough moisture to the top and the new roots dry out and don't go into the media. So, it ends up that several long roots that go further down in the pot do fine, but new roots are stunted. I would recommend you use hydroton for your less fussy orchids and try another product for your paphs. There are some people who've had succes with it on their slippers, but I'm not one of them!

 

[Candace]

Mark, I just checked their website and the photo of the leca is still the old stuff. I would definately be sending them an e-mail pronto. Maybe see if you can get a full refund of your money and ship it back. Hydroton goes for like $25 a bag at hydroponics stores. I would have to believe there is some shop in Memphis that has it.

 

[rdhed]

Mark.....I have just one paph. in Hydroton and it loves it. It just bloomed last month and is sending up a second bud now. It is a P. Rodney Henry Lawless I got over a year ago as a young unbloomed seedling. It has taken very well to it, but I had a P. Lauren Lad X P. Makuli 'alba' that did not like it. It held it's own for sometime and then started going backwards. Both plants were put in Hydroton at the same time a year ago this past spring. The P. Lauren Lad cross was repotted before winter. I was more disappointed in the blooming of the P. RH Lawless because it took after the henryanum parent. It looks like a henryanum bloom with a P. Rodney Wilcox Jones dorsal. Very uninspiring.:sob: I do agree with Candace on this though. Very poor customer service on their part.

---Allen---

 

[MoreWater]

Mark, can you confirm what the new stuff looks like? Basically spherical? (I think what I have is hydroton but I got it unlabeled so I'm not sure.) We just had an article on growing gesneriads in leca and cropking was listed as a source. I'd like to send out an update in case any of the readers are thinking about trying s/h.

 

[SapphireChild]

Dang, thats inconvenient. I guess I'll just get it locally from now on if everyone's going to be selling basically the same thing.

 

[swamprad]

I spoke to Cropking this morning.

They told me that they are out of their usual LECA, BUT it is on order. Because they import huge quantities of it, they can't say when it will come in, possibly months from now. They acknowledge that it is superior to Hydroton, but interestingly, it is considerably cheaper than Hydroton. Since they are out of stock of their usual LECA, they are substituting Hydroton for the time being.

So, when ordering LECA from Cropking in the future, you are advised to phone your order and ask them if they are shipping their usual LECA as pictured on their website, or if they are currently shipping Hydroton, to avoid unpleasant surprises.

 

[Candace]

Wow. I'm happy to hear they'll still be carrying it. But, I they should put something on their website about it. If it's cheaper than hydroton, I wonder why all the local hydroponics stores aren't selling it too...mumble, mumble.

What's weird is that I don't even see hydroton for sale on their site.

Did you decide to keep it or are they willing to accept a return?

 

[swamprad]

They told me that they import huge quantities in seagoing containers, so maybe that's why it is cheaper for them.

I decided to keep the hydroton. I'll probably put some catts into it eventually, or use it as part of a bark mix for my multifloral paphs.

 

[e-spice]

I got some LECA from CropKing and it is definitely different. I personally prefer the old style PrimeAgra but of course CropKing had to quit carrying it.

The new stuff they sell is called Hydro Rokz. Anybody tried using it?

e-spice

 

[GaryB]

I asked about it a month or two ago and they said the new stuff is from China. I didn't buy any.

 

[swamprad]

I also got some of the hydro-rokz from Cropking a while back and have used it for non-paphs (catts, oncidiums, dendrobiums, etc) and they are doing fine with it so far. I would be very hesitant to use it with paphs, but who knows?