DIY Lechuza Pon Mix Recipe

I love Lechuza Pon plant substrate and currently exclusively use it for potting all my hoyas. Some of the things I love about it are -

• It is an inorganic substrate so pests don't like it as much.
• In theory, the pieces of rock are sized the same, which makes even air pockets for the roots and prevents it from sifting over time and having the larger pieces move to the top, leaving the roots to suffocate at the bottom.
• It can be reused by simply rinsing and boiling it for ten minutes. This saves me so much money.
• It is ready to go and I don't have to mix it, which saves me a lot of time compared to doing it myself.
• It holds water for a long time.
• It's much harder to overwater your plants because water goes right through it. This means it is best with a self-watering system so it doesn't dry out.
• When used with a self-watering system, the roots get the right amount of water and don't rot as easily as with an organic mix.

However, it is out of stock so often. I use a lot of it because I start several hundred two-inch pots a month. I try to stock up on it when it's in stock, but sometimes it goes out of stock for so long that I run out.

Over the past few years, I have been experimenting with my own recipe and trying to find the best way to make it and the best place to buy high-quality ingredients. Here is what I am currently doing.

How do you make DIY Pon mix?

The trickiest part of making this can be finding the ingredients, especially in the correct sizes. Read the section below this one to find out all my favorite brands (and ones I don't like) and why and where to buy them.

• 4 parts pumice- It helps with drainage and optimal root aeration and holds water for long periods of time. 
• 2 parts lava rock - It has all the tiny holes in it, which allow air to get to the roots and has excellent drainage properties.
• 1 part zeolite - It is a mineral that absorbs excess fertilizer, other impurities, and excess nutrients. Then it releases them back when they are needed.

I leave out the slow-release fertilizer since I already fertilize my hoyas separately.

The trickiest part of replicating pon is the size of the ingredients. When I use my clarifying set to filter the pon, most of it is between 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch with about 10% being less than 1/8-inch and 10% being more than 1/4-inch.

It is important for the sizes of ingredients to be as close to the same size as possible to get the best benefit, especially to allow air pockets to form between the rocks and for it to not settle over time.

What is the best pumice?

The tricky part of pumice is finding the correct size for a good price. I buy mine at my local garden center but he problem with the pumice I buy is that it has several sizes in the bag.

So I use a clarifying set I bought on Amazon to sort it into two sizes. I use the 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch size for my regular pon mix and the greater than 1/4-inch size I use to put in my 3-inch pots just to use it up. I have read that this is considered a 1/4-inch size by many people in the industry.

Here is a table of the different purchasing options for pumice sorted by lowest price by cup -

What is the best lava rock?

Here is a table of the different purchasing options for lava rock sorted by lowest price by cup -

What is the best zeolite?

After doing a lot of investigating and ordering products I couldn't use, I finally found this high-quality zeolite. It works out to 36 cents per cup since it's not made for the gardening industry. It is mostly 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch, with more of it being 1/8-inch. 

The bag is large and will last you a long time - and if you don't use it all for your pon mix, you can always put it on your sidewalk to melt the ice.

How does the cost compare?

Here is the cost breakdown for Lechuza pon -

Here is the cost breakdown for DIY pon with the sources I currently use -

So, with a 5-cent difference, the cost is negligible. However, if you don't buy it in the same quantities and from the same places as I do, your costs could be higher.

Can you help me out?

Have you been able to find 1/8-inch pumice or lava rock for less than I have? If so, I would love to know where you get it, so please comment below and let me know your experiences making your own pon.