Viewing post #2659477 by Amelie1414

Gina1960 said:The short answer is...you keep getting root rot because alocasia are terrestrial plants meant to grow in a soil based media. After growing them for 40 years, this is my earth shattering conclusion. I cannot think of a single Alocasia that wants to be an emmersed aquatic. PON, lava rock, mineral substrate and Aliflor )aka LECA) can all alter pH in a manner that some plants will not tolerate, making it harder for them to uptake nutrients and grow roots.

If you are having problems growing alocasia in soil, it is most likely NOT because of the soil. Its because of your other conditions. They do not really like to live inside the house. They like to live outdoors, with good airflow, lots of nice light, and humidity. They don;t really make good long term houseplants

Thanks for your answer! I have over 50 alocasias and they really are my favorites. It's very difficult to recreate natural conditions here, so I tried different methods with the baby plants to make them grow better. I've found that my alocasias grow best in perlite by far. I didn't have a single problem, they grew fast and extremely large with significantly more leaves than those in soil. The problem with perlite is that it doesn't stabilize the plants enough. I then researched about Pon and Leca and also left water in both media for a long time to measure the values. Leca can strongly influence the water values, Pon rather not. I then chose a coarse pon so that there is more air and larger gaps between the stones. My problem is that some alocasia still get root rot in the substrate even though they were even wetter in perlite.