Take a look at the link below

Here is a link that might be useful: GW thread

Hi HDD, thanks for that - very useful thread.

Looks like they didn't see much difference in how long the coconut husk & pinebark last before they break down, with both lasting a good while.

Although they got better results using bark in a soil-type mix for conventional plants (citrus, coleus, etc), I wonder how it would go in a much more open mix for epiphytes, like a lot of orchids and broms.

Also interesting that they found much higher K in the coconut - I wonder if this could have something to do with the massive orchid root growth I saw.

I think I'll set up a little experiment comparing brom growth in coconut and pinebark (can't help myself - have to play around) - I'll let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear any more thoughts or experience about this. Cheers, Paul

The higher K helps alot of things heat/cold resistance. desease resistance, stronger roots

Hi Paul,
I grow everything in Coir chips - I buy a block of compressed 'Mulch and Feed'?? (I just finished a block and for the life of me I can't remember the exact name!)It costs around $10 from Bunnings and goes a looong way. I hack off a chunk, add water, toddle off for a few minutes and then it is ready.
I'm not too sure what the fertiliser ratings are but as i am usually potting pups, I'm not fussed as it is the only fertiliser that they will ever get from me.
I find that it is necessary to flush the coir heavily to remove a brown fluid that comes out - it may be tannins - i dont know. This probably flushes out some of the fertiliser too. I don't know...........i do know that i get very good root growth, the mix is light, drains perfectly and re-wets very well. I add cactus pebbles on top to keep the mix in the pot so I can dunk the whole pot in a bucket of water when I am feeling inclined to give a good soak.
I understand that the coir will break down in approx 3 years (I havent been growing broms or using the coir chips, for that long) but i'm not fussed as I grow mostly neos and they have an approx adult life of the same period - just in time to repot when they pup.
There is a woman who currently has a couple of broms for sale on Aussie ebay - she just wraps coconut fibre around the root area of her broms and shoves the whole lot into a pot - she declares that she gets excellent root growth?!
I also make tubes of gutterguard/coir chips/cable ties and mount my minis on these. I use small cable ties to attach the broms - I havent noticed too much root growth but the ties keep the broms in place forever.

{{gwi:448046}} Mounts ready to go

{{gwi:448047}}
N. Fireball on tube mount

{{gwi:448049}}
O. vagans grown in coir chips

{{gwi:448051}}
mixed broms grown from pups in coir chips

One note on the coir. Many places that supply this product use ocean water to process it, so it is necessary to rinse it with plenty of fresh water before use to remove the salts

I used to use that very same stuff you are talking about in blocks that swell when wet. I used to mix half gravel and half that
But I found my broms didnt grow very fast at all?
another thing is the more of that, the more i lose my broms in the wet season! It holds too much moisture for my wet tropics. I still use some in my mix i make up but only 1/4 of the amount
Everyone else seems to just use stone and gravel and THATS IT...allows for drainage in the wet season

WOW do I love your pre-made mounts....they are awesome...grand...fantastic ideas

I've had great results with lava rock. It's heavy, but not too heavy, cheap and drains really well. The one thing I hate about it is that the rock spills out whenever I tip a plant over to wash it out.

I've been using more and more of shredded eucalyptus mulch; either plain or mixed. It too is cheap, drains well but it is more likely to stay put when I tip over a plant. I've only been using it for 6 months so I can't be certain it will work in the long run.

Hi Bromaloonie,

Of course - you have The Wet season! I nearly wish that we did down here.........it is very very dry and has been bloody hot! We had over a week of 40C+, culminating in the hottest day on record - 46.4C (that's approx 123F for anyone else reading this). I have some scorch marks on a couple of my broms but most of the others were moved before the weather was forecasted to be so hot). All the broms under shade cloth are fine.

In your circumstance, I would do the gravel and stone thing - both for drainage and for pot stability.
Cheers - Von

Hi guys - great to get all that followup - some really useful info.

Ozvon - I've just got to try some of those tubes.

Bromadams and bromaloonie - interesting to see you getting good results with the rocks. I used volcanic scoria (very porous, 10-15mm bits) for quite a few years for growing Australian native orchids (tropical & temperate Dendrobiums, Sarcochilus, etc). It gave brilliant results - until around 1998 when the municipal water authority changed their water treatment practices. Water went from very soft and slightly acid (beautiful for plants!), to a bit hard and pH strongly buffered to around 7.8!

It took me five years to realise what might have happened - five years spent re-formulating fertilisers, reducing or increasing shade, more or less watering, fungicides, insecticides, you name it .... all to try and deal with plants that had always been really strong and healthy, but now stayed pale, floppy and disease-ridden, no matter what I did.

The answer was the pH of the water, in combination with the volcanic scoria. Because the scoria was pretty much neutral and had virtually no affect on the pH of the water, the roots of the plants were in an environment where the pH was the same as the pH of the tap water - and at 7.8, that's a pH where a lot of plants (including my orchids) just can't take up many nutrients - so they just linger and starve no matter what you do.

Eventually I realised what might be the problem, so I did some tests: 2 ways - treated water with acid to get pH around 6.5, plus other plants put in pine bark(keeps pH 6-ish)and given tap water. Both lots grew well - results almost straight away - so I'd found the problem.

But by then I'd pretty much given up on the orchids, and that had left a whole lot of space for ........ bromeliads! Best result I've ever got! Cheers, Paul

That's good to hear about the lava rock. Coincidently I just bought a bag of it yesterday to give it a try. I have been using a pine bark based orchid mix for the more epiphytic broms but I'd rather use something that's going to last longer.

Where do you buy your rock bromadams?

I have trouble with the lava rock when it gets hot here. it cooks the roots and it takes 3 times as much water

I would like to chip in a little on our experience here in Singapore. We have lots of monsoon rain so using 100 coco husks or fibres is avoided, they proves to be too wet and become dense in time to come.

One of our friends discovered we could use fern-bark chips (similar to the fern-bark for mounting orchids). I normally place a layer of coco fibre/sand mix near the base of the stem to induce root growth. We also suspect the coco husks improves the colour of the bromelaids so sometimes I spread a thin layer on top of the fern-bark chips. The fern bark mixture proves idea for our wet weather and allows us to flush the cups every few days to prevent mosquito breeding.
I also use the chips to wedge and hold the plants in place.

I ever tried pinebarks in the past, after a while they become slimy and attract slugs.

{{gwi:448053}}

Hey Paul,
I read with interest all the effort to discover the cause of your ailing orchids, and LMAO when in the end you gave them away for broms - an excellent substitute! I have mostly cymbids and a few dendrobes, all of which grow in coconut husk: the timing to repot fits very well as the slow release fertiliser lasts long enough for the orchids to fill up the pots.

HDD - that's interesting about the scoria rock heating up and cooking the roots - it wouldn't have occurred to me. I presume that established plants that fill the pot would not have that problem??

Cheers - Von