I get a CHC mix from repotme.com and use it on all of my plants. They say it is pre-rinsed so I have never rinsed it again. I've put it on everything from masd. to epid. and have never had a problem. I figured if salt was an issues the masd. and milts. would have suffered.

Hi, Calvin. Sounds like an interesting lecture, tho as you say, a bit dry. Ahem. :)

I am using CHC, and love it. I buy the pre-rinsed, too. I did the soak, rinse, soak, rinse for the first batch. Backbreaking. And all that gunk gets down your sink. You get tired of that really quickly, and are ready to take some risks.

Then I got a hint here from someone who said she just left hers outside and let the rain leach it. So that's what I do now. With all the rain we've had here recently, it's been perfectly soaked each time I needed it :)

I have also used it barely soaked, but that stays too dry for weeks, so I quickly stopped doing that.

The 'stuff' seems to be CHC bits and brown CHC *powder*. Last winter I found out it stains concrete floors, and the powder dries like a glue to the floor and is difficult to scrape or even bleach off. It's like gluing a brown paper bag to the floor.

The basket vs clay pot thing is interesting. I knew wood baskets absorbed water from my days growing encyclia in small wood baskets. The roots took hold of the wood and you could tell they were sucking water out of it because they clung so tenaciously and looked so beautiful.

As for boiling-- I will remember that hint, but afraid it fits into the too much trouble category for a lot of plants. :)

I don't use CHC at all anymore. I tried a few years ago and the plants I had in it didn't do so well. Despite the multiple soakings I gave it prior to use it would always turn the water brown after I watered the orchids. Currently trying to gradually switch most things over to LECA in S/H.

As for the sphag in the basket vs. the clay pot, I'm not so sure that the absorption explanation is correct. Both the clay and the basket will absorb water with enough soaking, but because of the porosity (sp?) of the clay pot it likely has much more surface area from which the water can evaporate. There is likely more capillary/wicking action through the clay.

Tyler

I've used the CHC mix for over two years now and love it for many of my plants. I used to do the three rinse thing but have scaled that back to one 24 hour soak. One reason I quit with the multiple soaks is I taste the water after the initial soak. My CHC mix comes from Kelly's Korner. I have no experience with anyone else's CHC product.

It does produce a brown discoloration on the first soak but after the soak and rinse, my phrag saucers do not get discolored.

I like the CHC for phrags, paphs, phals, moisture loving dens, Psychopsis. I'm also experimenting with a few masdies to see how they do in it. I have been amazed with the ability of the CHC to hold up sitting in constant water. After 1 1/2 yrs. of sitting in water, there is really no degrading of the product.

I do find it hard to rewet after it has thoroughly dried before being used. I now sit the pot in a container of water for several hours after a repot and the problem is solved.

Interesting about the sphag/clay/basket theory. I have some of each and will start checking to see which dries out first.

Brooke

I seem to be having problems with letters that stand for things lately. What does CHC stand for? I'm pretty sure it's coconut husk 'something', just can't figure out what the second C stands for. I'm sure it will turn out to be something completely obvious, like everything else I've had to ask about recently : )

That being said, I get those bricks for coco fiber that you can use for reptiles or tree frogs. I don't have to rinse it, exactly, because I have to reconstitute it, which in itself rinses it. It was kind of fun, because they expanded like those dinosaur egg things, but it was a bit of a pain too. Wringing out a large stockpot full of coco fiber before being able to put it away in bags does get old surprisingly fast. I do, however, like how it takes up little space while it is compressed like that, and doesn't take up much space for shipping either. I've been using it for all my potted orchids, and as substrate in my terrariums.

Sorry, quinnfrye. It's Coconut Husk Chips. But shhh! It's an insider's secret :D

Aha! There we go. Like I said, obvious. Actually I haven't tried them yet, but I've wanted to. I'm doing pretty well with the fiber at the moment, but I'm using it in a mix: it's mixed with tree fern fiber and some bark.

Thanks for bringing up this topic, Calvin. Most of my plants are in sphag. A few are in bark mix. Mounties are on cork, mostly, and 3 are on coconut husk.

I've been putting the bark and coconut husk in tepid water and soaking for 24 hours before using. Water in one Phrag's saucer is still getting brownish 5 weeks after repotting.

It's tempting to take those plants off the coconut husk and try that guy's method. Same for plants in bark.

Good discussion. Whitecat8

Smwboxer - same observations as what I'm seeing - not too many ill effects (despite hasty rinsing) One vendor talked about how they harvest CHC. They essentially get the coconut husks, dig a huge pit in the ground and fill it with water. Then they put the husks in and actually soak them for a really long time..I may have heard wrong but he said a year...and he called it breaking in, or splitting or something like that. The issue is, places that harvest their coconut by the sea apparently fill the pit with seawater, which makes the CHC product quite salty. Places that are more inland use fresh water so their CHC is safe. He said that CHC that gets to most Ontario vendors are of the fresh variety kind

TTkid - I think it works wonderfully for some, and horribly for others, depending on conditions and growing habits. I'm a huge fan of it because it keeps things more moist than bark which dries out way too fast cause I'm a chronic underwaterer, but is chunky enough that there is good drying. I try to just turn a blind eye to the brown water that comes out =)

Brooke - I actually did EXACTLY that the other day and I didn't taste any saltiness. Good to know what plants do well in this stuff...I currently have some dends, catts, coelogynes and even a jumellea in the stuff and they quite enjoy it. I wonder whether angraecums would do well in it.

Mehitabel - I think what he did was instead of soaking with RT water, he used boiling water...not too much of a hassle :) and I hear ya about the cocodust...my potting area is also conveniently the living room floor..despite multiple layers of newspaper, I often find myself being chastised for making a mes.

Q - is that coconut coire, or something else? I have some coir which is the consistancy of peat moss, and I would think that this works better for terrestrials, so I'm interested in what these fibres that you're using are, and how you're mixin them into your mix.

WC - I love sphag but find it difficult to find great quality stuff...we only have a few vendors here that carry it and the stuff at garden centres is rubbish. I'm thinking of trying to get back into phals after my phal-extinction last summer, and it seems I can only succeed with sphag.

Calvin, have you tried CHC with phals? I've used sphag for phals, but CHC has been great for them. Last winter was my very best winter so far-- I actually had such good growth in winter that I repotted up about 1/3 of my phals in Feb.

Try it with one or two. I'll bet you won't be sorry.

You know, I was always confused as to the difference, if any, between coconut husk fiber and coir. I decided to finally look it up. Well, I tried before but the info I got wasn't clear. This time, I found a good article describing it. It turns out that the stuff used for growing and mulching is the coir pith, the stuff on the inside of the husk, and it used to be a waste product, but the stuff takes about 20 years to decompose, so they came up with new uses for it. Hence, being used to grow plants. I have two kinds of coco fiber, coarser stuff, and finer stuff. The coarser stuff looks basically like shredded coconut husk chips, and the finer stuff resembles peat moss somewhat, but stays fluffier and doesn't compact.

I've been using a mix of the coarser coco fiber, the finer coco fiber, tree fern fiber, and a phal bark mix consisting of fir bark, perlite, charcoal and maybe something else. I have two phals, two paphs, and my neofinetia growing in this mix, or something similar (I added some of the lava rock the neo was already in back into the mix when I repotted it). Everything's been doing well, so I have no complaints.

Here's the page where I read all that info about coir:

Here is a link that might be useful: coir info

Anyone else using just plain old coconut husk that looks like the outside of the coconut shell? If so, your experience? WC8

Calvin I also use the CHC mix for Coel, Bulbos and my finer rooted catts but will be changing the catts to just Prime Agra. It isn't I don't like the catts in the CHC I just love them in the Prime Agra :>)

Quinnfyre I've used the coir in place of peat for years to start seeds inside and now use it for the terrestrials I grow. The one thing I like about the coir over the peat is you do not get the fungus gnat eggs which hatch out and fly up your nose.

We did find the coir was salty and needed several rinsings to de-salt it but it was purchased from a hydro store, not a pet store.

Brooke

I'm a little confused about coconut products. Please, help me understand what is the name of the product that I am using?

I purchase the coarse, somewhat dense yet porous liners sold for larger, hanging baskets.

I toss about half of a liner into the back of my pick-up truck. After a minimum of 6 months (usually much more), it has been thoroughly rinsed by precipitation. In Maryland, that amounts to a significant rinsing!

I "tease" out pieces as I need to use it. It's great for use in the bottom of pots and or loosely lining open baskets. Air moves freely.

I also use this teased liner to "prop up" Oncidium flexuosum in a narrow, clay rose pot. This species hates dense potting media, including mixes designed for Cattleya. The fibers of coconut trap tiny droplets of water which help to maintain humidity throughout most of the day. The cycle resumes at night with dew.

A name for this product?

--Stitz--

Stitz - that stuff is called coconut coir fibre. It's the stuff that Q uses before it gets chopped up into a peat-moss like consistancy. You're referring to {{gwi:173051}} stuff right? I've always been curious as to how well this stuff fares with orchids, so it's interesting to read about your applications. The University here just erected a 'green wall' where they have mats of this stuff acting as the mounting material on a drip wall for some epiphytic plants...too early to tell whether it works but it's an interesting idea (especially in the absence of other sustainable mounting mediums like epiweb or treefern)

WC8 - I recently bought some of these coconut chunks from a guy to experiment with...after looking at them, I surmised that they would soak up and hold water better than cork or wood planks, which would make them the PERFECT mounting medium in my conditions (I underwater my mounts). Here's a (badly exposed) photo I tried to take this morning of the Aerangis kotschyana that I mounted on it about 2 months ago. It's newest root growth has hugged the coconut, so I think it likes it

{{gwi:173054}}

It does not soak up as much water as I expected it would. I think it's due to the thickness of the material - it takes A LOT of soaking to get water deep into it. Nonetheless, I think it is quite nice to use and holds water better than cork or wood planks, which allows me to avoid using pads of sphagnum on the mount.

EDIT - tree fern is non-sustainable...woops

coconut coir fibre. It's the stuff that Q uses before it gets chopped up into a peat-moss like consistancy. You're referring to this stuff right?

Calvin, the foto/link looks like a match, close enough. It's slightly rough in texture yet pliable and fibrous. Thanks for the ID. "Q" ? = Kew??

I intend to use it with other plants with thinner roots....slowly..... and, when I have extras!

--Stitz--

Sorry I meant Quinnfyre from above!

Keep us updated on how that works out. Curiously, a small paraphalanaeopsis I received from oakhill was potted in this stuff. Not sure if this was for shipping purposes or not, but the plant was not really established in it. I wonder if they actually grow them in the stuff - it seems to do exactly what you say though - catch lots of little water droplets while maintaining an airiness...might make it a good material to try.

Here is a picture of the coir "string" stuff used as a potting material for a Vandofinitia.

{{gwi:173057}}

This came from Oak Hill in a small vanda basket using the string as the media. It grew typical long vanda roots and I couldn't keep them hydrated enough so up potted it into a bigger basket wrapping the roots in the string. The roots get lots of air but significantly more moisture without the chance of rot.

I made my own string with a basket liner I hadn't used.

Brooke

Actually, according to the article, it is not quite the same stuff. The golden colored fibrous stuff that looks kind of like unraveled rope is coir. The stuff that you grow plants with (coco husk chips, or the stuff that I use) is coir pith. Basically, if it looks like you can make rope out of it (and they do!) it is coir. If it looks like you grow plants in it, it's coir pith. However, most people who talk about coir on these forums are probably going to refer to the coir pith as simply coir, because most of us aren't making ropes : )

Personally, I think things would be easier if we had clear cut names for the stuff, so we could all be on the same page, but I guess we're not quite there yet.

Calvin, where did you get those chunks of coconut husk? I've got some Angs mounted on cork as well and have problems keeping them properly wet. It does look like it could really help.

Tyler

Brooke's foto includes the material that I'm referencing. Thank you, Brooke!

I dare not leave this medium at ground level outside. I'm certain that the local rabbit population would steal it for nesting! Surprisingly, I haven't noticed any loss to birds.

--Stitz--

Tyler - I got it from a vendor called Jan Smidt, who is a new vendor in our area, specializing in importing thai dendrobium species. He had skewers of these husks for sale! I haven't seen anyone else carry them though. I had his contact information but I can't seem to find it anywhere...I'll look around and get back to you.