But it is, as you say, very pleasant. It's kind of a miracle soil, the way it holds on to water and it's softness and porosity. It's also very, very easy to pot with, so maybe it's an effiency thing, too?

The soil in the mix is not gritty at all. It's what it came in. But you just cleared up something for me : remember I said there are roots on the top? That must be the fibers! When you mentioned fibers, I thought about that. So that means it's definitely coco peat:).

There are so many options for potting mix. It's like you said before, keep your options open. I never even knew that stuff existed until the hydroponics guy told me about it yesterday. I only went to get horticultural perlite, and he said, buy this instead, I'll give it to you for the same price. He said, I believe you will really like it. It's always good to take the advice of others and keep your mind open.

Should I just leave the plant be and keep a watchful eye on it ? It's been gently showered and talked to....

Yes, I would leave it be and see how it goes. It looks more perky now that it's had the shower, I think you'll find it's happy. Give us a shout if anything happens though.

Personally I would prefer to have at least some perlite mixed with coir as a potting mix, and maybe some ground pine bark. I tend to think of coir as a substitute for peat moss, and you wouldn't pot a plant in pure peat. Well, I've bought plants (even succulents!) at BB stores in pure peat, but I repot as soon as I get them home.

I haven't seen coir for sale anywhere here in my area, and I have so many plants that I couldn't afford to buy small amounts for big bucks from specialty stores. I need to buy stuff by the cubic foot, preferably at least 4 to 6 cf. I can buy from a wholesale nursery supply company in Apopka, they just require I pay the regular tax and I usually fill my truck bed. I'll see what they charge for coir.

Russ

i've read articles saying that wholesale nurseries in south Fl (homestead) are converting to using coir peat. i only discovered it a couple years back myself.

see my post in succulents forum

russ, you asked what are coco-chips when we were talking about ags - it's chunks of coconut shell, there's a pic of what they look like in the above post.

i got mine by mail in compressed bricks since i can't buy in bulk, but only in small quantities as i am in the apt in a hi-rise :)...no drive-way, no yard, no curb, no basement, no garage for plant playing activities :)...

also i found an interesting article from Tuscon AZ cactus growers experimenting with coir - but it's very dry and hot there, so you need to take that in consideration.

it's also in succulents

link to tuscon article in another thread

but i'll quote here the results for convenience:

Succulents that have performed superbly in media consisting of from 30% to 100% coir include: Adenium, Pachypodium, Plumeria, Aloe, Agave, Sansevieria, Trichocereus, Mammillaria, Stapeliads, Caralluma, Bursera, Boswellia, Fouquieria, Haworthia, terrestrial and epiphytic bromeliads, terrestrial orchids, and some Euphorbia (I have only a few). Nonsucculents have done excellently too, such as citrus, figs, peaches, blackberries, melons, tomatoes, corn, Asclepias, Hibiscus, and many bulbs including Gladiolus, Lachanalia, Scadoxus, Hippeastrum, and Boophone. I have been using 2/3 to pure coir for tropicals, including tropical succulents such as adeniums. For more xerophytic species I use 25-30% coir, with the rest being perlite and/ or pumice. The only plants that have not done well are some extreme xerophytes such as Mohave Desert cacti, Ariocarpus, many mesembs, and Caralluma socotrana.

end quote

oh, Lauren, i think those fibers look like twigs of some sort, not coir fibers. coir fibers are like hair, very stringy. and the cross-section of cocochips looks like bone, porous and with with holes. your mix looks very black - coir is med brown. but if it's in the mix, you can rub it with your fingers - coir is grainy, there's nothing like it. once you know the feel, you can ID it in the mix, even if it's a relatively small proportion.

and yes, i would move your philo close to the east window where it can get some real dapples. a few feet from reg sized window south won't get much light at all - with each feet away the light intensity drops precipitously.

Thank you, Petrushka, for the lighting advice. I moved her, so we'll see:). I will report back to you soon.

Those are definitely not twigs. At first I thought roots. Now, I don't know. I think I'm gonna have to investigate under the hood, though I really want to leave it be:(.

For you and Russ, here is the coco peat I bought : Coco peat

russ, I'm not sure if they sell it where you are, but I found mine in a hydroponics store. I don't know how big it is, but I am 5'4" and 105 lbs and when I picked it up you could only see me from the knees down. I know this is not the best measurement system, but perhaps it will give you an idea of how big the bag is:). So far, my test cutting is doing great.

This morning, I replanted a troubled avacodo in the coco peat and it looks way less sulky. It is going to stay in there until the roots start regrowing.

So all in all, it's going well.

I will let you both know how the plant progresses. Thank you so much for your help !

Petrushka, thanks for all that info on coir and the links. Very interesting that it's been tested successfully on all those succulents and even some cacti.

So the ''gritty'' crowd is advocating growing tropicals in a mix better suited to succulents and cacti, now a huge number of succulent species are being grown successfully in coir mixes and even pure coir.

Being a traditionalist and conservative horticulturist for over 40 years and one who values history and those who have paved the long horticultural path to my door, I read this and shake my head. It ain't for me. Coir is probably worthy of replacing peat moss since it's a renewable source, but I don't buy growing succulents in pure coir however well they trialed. Maybe amended with perlite and perhaps pine bark. Regarding ''gritty'' and tropicals, they simply don't belong in a succulent mix, period.

Lauren, thanks for that image of the coco peat you bought, I'll see if I can find it and will buy some if it's not too expensive. I wonder how prices compare to peat moss? I would advise mixing some perlite with coir rather than using it pure to plant in, but that's just me.

Keep the posting going, this is pretty interesting.

Russ

Hi Russ,

I almost shook my head at the succulent thing too, but then I remembered this is Tucson (where I am), and it is dry as all get out. I have succulents planted in plain potting soil that where like that when I bought them, and they still dry out frequently! My aloe, my pencil cactus, and some others I don't know the name of are in plain old soil. If they sit in this intense heat, they have to be treated almost like regular houseplants around these parts. It took me sometime to realize that. But in Florida, I suspect that you don't have that problem. When I lived in Savannah, I rarely watered anything because the humidity was otherworldly.

The price of the coir on the site I linked to is way higher than what I paid. He sold it to me for thirteen dollars, the price of the horticultural perlite I had intended to purchase. I am, however, still having a hard time seeing it as a replacement for peat; it's just so unfamiliar. But it is working very nicely so far.

The one upside to having Tropicals in gritty mix:. Those few that I have in gritty mix get watered and fertilized more frequently, and I think they like that. They seem to flourish with the every other day watering. Maybe this is because they are getting oxygen and not accumulating salts? And the roots are downright beautiful.

That having been said, I still would like to find a really good potting mix that meets me halfway between gritty and soil. I recently potted a cutting in gritty and used coir as the soil component. That plant was happy from the first moment and is still looking really good.

But you said it, Russ:. Keep your mind open to other options.

Will you tell me:. What makes a good mix for Tropicals for you? I would love to know what you advise.

Lauren, I've been using a bark mix for most plants for a very long time, probably a decade or more. But I grow exclusively outdoors so I don't know if it'd make a good medium for indoors. I suspect it would be as good as anything else out there. Walmart sells 'pine bark mulch', 2 cubic feet for under $4.00, very cheap. I mix this with some peat moss or Miracle-Gro or other peat-based commercial mix, and some perlite or styrofoam balls (I got pickup truck loads of this for free years ago). Sometimes I mix in some fine or coarse vermiculite. No sifting! Most of the mix is bark, other ingredients are smaller proportions. 4 or 5 or 6 bark, 1 each of the other stuff but I don't usually measure. I grab hands full and toss it in a bucket to mix. I've experimented and modified it over the years with many other ingredients... sand, small river rock, Black Kow, compost, big styrofoam pieces and orchid bark (for anthuriums), chicken grit, lots of other aggregates and materials. Also Turface, which didn't work and I've discontinued.

I'm still a fan of the old soilless mixes of the early 70s composed of peat moss, perlite and vermiculite and use it for seeds, propagating cuttings, small plants in 4 inch or smaller pots, and gesneriads.

Russ

Lauren, all the ingredients in the 511 are sifted for size, I don't sift at all. I also don't make too big of a deal on the exact amount of bark either, nor the other ingredients for that matter. If Walmart sells the pine bark mulch where you are, you might try it, especially since it's cheap. The bark drains well, which I think is the primary reason plants do well in it. But it could really be any ingredient with the same qualities. It does have an acid pH altho perhaps not as high as peat moss. I grew hot peppers this year in several mixes, including one in all bark mulch and one one in bark amended with peat and perlite. Plants in both pots grew really well, no difference.

Bark absorbs water just like calcined clay products. I'd prefer to nix the calcined clay and add a pure aggregate like perlite since it only holds water around it's surface but doesn't absorb.

Russ

Russ, I didn't know that bark absorbed as much water as that. I just learned something new.

>Bark absorbs water just like calcined clay products

well, provided it's not DRY - then you have to soak it! But in FL humidity is so-o high that you prolly don't have an issue with rewetting it ever. It is also very hard to judge HOW wet it is, especially with large chunks. so an occasional soak becomes a must - which some plants might not like especially in lower temps. That's why cocofiber chips are so-o much easier - they rewet very well, no need to soak. But I do soak them before use with Cal-Mag solution, since untreated cocochips absorb extra Calcium for the first month - so you need to watch for that - either presoak them or give plants extra Cal for the first month.

since bark needs to be presoaked too initially (when dry) - it's no bother to me. and cocochips are so light - i mail-order them compressed which you can't do with bark.

I am using cocopeat and have just encountered my first learning curve: watering. I just didn't realize how incredibly easy it is to rewet it! Because I am used to regular peat, I completely overwatered a plant in cocopeat yesterday. It absorbs water so fast....

i would like to try cocochips as a substitute for bark, but I've not been able to locate them, other than the gigantic size block.

do coco chips take up water as easily as the cocopeat does? If so, that seems like a wonderful and ideal replacement for bark....

Petrushka, I use pine bark mulch wet or dry as it comes from the bag, I've never presoaked it before potting but if it's bone-dry I do wet it down a bit with other ingredients to mix. Most of the time the bark is wet out of the bag, having been stored outside in the weather at Walmart. Pots with the dry mix will need watering sooner, but not a big deal to me.

On coir, shouldn't one water enough that it runs out of the drain holes, as with any other mix? I could be all wrong but Lauren's comment about overwatering because it absorbed so fast sounds like she's thinking of applying less water at each watering. Would that be correct?

Lauren, is this your concept of watering with coir (coco peat) or did I misunderstand? I want us both to understand how to treat coir in watering.

To be honest coir doesn't sound like something I'd switch to. I rescued some Golden Bay aglaonemas that had been planted in 3 gallon pots of pure coir and all had totally rotted stems and roots. Since then I've seen a bunch of aglaonema Stripes enduring the same thing at Lowe's. Obviously, watering staff there haven't adjusted to the absorbent quality of coir either.

Russ

but you surely do not expect correct watering at lowe's :O? they water on schedule and just drown everything....or dry it up crisp, whatever...and THEN drown it to be sure it's DEAD for you ;) ! i buy only if i see that it's a fresh shipment just came in...

ag's indoors for me even in at 75F absorb very little water - they are such slow growers in any case.

well, in fl humidity,,,and south-east in general - when it's very hot and humid there is very little evaporation from mix...so your bark even when large never dries out outside.. not so indoors in dry conditions in winter season, with heat blasting air dry.

yes, in FL and georgia and alabama outdoors i would use cocochips, not coir peat.

but growing indoors up north (not garage, not cool basement, but warm living rooms) is a different thing altogether.

they say coir stays wetter then peat, but more airy - so roots are not smothered.

i had sansevieria and zz's and small jades in pure coir dust for 6months and they were totally fine! but i grow them hard - very dry, especially in winter.

coir dust (peat) rewets instantly and drains instantly, however some pots have poor drainage due to shape and maybe roots clogging the holes....so, they will stay very wet in the bottom, causing rot.

so, yes, i usually water until drip thru. but for some plants in larger pots sometimes i just water lightly to rewet the top layer only, since i know that there is still moisture in the bottom half of the pot (some plants have a lot of roots at the top of the pot and i don't want them to suffer, with time they grow deeper roots, so then i water normally - i propagate quite a bit).

i have to break this up...

..continue..part 2 :)

the coir-chips rewet very fast - but if they are totally dry they just won't be able to absorb all the water they can instantly.

then i usually water twice and sometimes even 3 times - it pours thru right away each time though. and has to be done at the sink :)...fortunately this only happens with small pots, so is doable.

i used to grow orchids indoors and they invariably dry to a crisp in large chunk bark - it is recommended to soak for 10-15min ev 10 day or so to rewet the bark.

in 511 mix using small bark chunks with more compression of the mix the bark prolly will stay wet MUCH longer and rewetting won't be necessary. i am indoor grower - so i dont' use mulch in my mixes - don't want to bring smth in, have no room for giant mulch bags and don't want to sterilize it either.

coco-chips are clean. and i can ship them in 1 foot bricks as i need. i have about 150 plants indoors, but 100 are in 4-6" pots, and 50 of those are AV's + other gesneriads (which do NOT like coir peat at all!, so don't use it with them...)

Hi Russ and Petrushka: well, as I said, coming from peat, watering cocopeat can be quite tricky. It just rewets so easily. I would liken it to a sponge. If you just drip a bit of water on a sponge, the water can spread in a water of seconds to saturate the whole sponge. So, imagine if you pour water on it. That's how cocopeat is for me. I was watering it as if it was peat, and that really did saturate the soil. I had good drainage, but still....

my cocopeat has no chips. Now I know: add lots of perlite. As matter of fact, the plant that I reported with 80% perlite and 20% peat is doing very well.

This is a very good thing for a person living in a desert, where water conservation is important.

Petrushka, do you think it's an overexaggeration to say that you need less than half the amount of water to rewet cocopeat as you do to rewet regular peat?

i blame myself because both Russ and Al told me to amend it heavily, but did I listen? No, I did not. And the plant suffered as a result.

>do you think it's an overexaggeration to say that you need less than half the amount of water to rewet cocopeat as you do to rewet regular peat?

if you catch the drip and pour that back in repeatedly - you'll prolly still need more for peat. But if you stand the pot in 2" of water for 15min it should be similar...

the articles that i read say that coir dust holds MORE water then peat..but i don't remember about the frequency of watering...

if you have plants in both may be you can experiment and measure .

i don't have anything in pure peat or coir peat, so can't say...most of my plants are on water-wicks (top or bottom) and due to that i use 25-30% perlite in the mix, for AV's even 40%. and i cut with orchid bark/cocochips at 25-30% approx.

those tuscon trials that i gave a link to were outdoors - so rewetting coir dust was prolly very easily done with min amt of water and it would not dry up too fast either (and no caking)..I am not sure how do you grow ? combo of in/out or just indoors?

Here's an update on my philo. I've repotted it into a faster soil and it seems quite happy:

Hi Lauren, thanks for the update and your philo does look happy. Is this the plant that was in 80% perlite? Just wondering what you potted it in to make it drain faster or dry out faster. Black Cardinal has been a picky one to grow for me.

Russ

Hi Russ:). No, this was the one in the mystery mix, which we thought was cocopeat. When took it out of soil, turned out to be a mix of peat and cocopeat, and the roots were drowning in it. How they managed to stay healthy and put out feeder roots is a mystery to me.

so I repotted in a potting mix with pumice, perlite, lime, and peat, and I cut that by about 50% coarse perlite. I also pruned the roots .

i think the thing about this plant is that it spreads out rather than grows up. It worries me that you've had trouble growing one because you are far more experienced that I.

If you say it looks healthy, I'll leave if be for now and let it adjust to the new mix.

Lauren, I'm always amazed commercial growers can produce good succulents in pure peat moss, but they do.

Most philodendrons, and aroids in general, grow well in any medium as long as it drains well. So the mix you potted the Black Cardinal in should work fine. I think I recognize the ingredients from your posting in another thread, the potting mix from Maine?

On your philo spreading out, I don't know it's background but I don't think it's one of the vining types. I suspect it's one of the semi self-heading hybrids, so spreading out somewhat would be typical. I'll try to find out.

Don't judge Black Cardinal based on my experience with it, I've seen too many really pretty ones to think it's a difficult grower.

Russ

Lauren, Black Cardinal is a semi self-heading philo, so some horizontal spreading it perfectly normal. Glasshouse Works calls it a self-header but that's not correct since it's a hybrid with the vining P. erubescens in it's heritage. I couldn't find out what the other parent is, this is interesting so I'll keep digging.

Semi self-headers can climb over time, but the stem is short and leaves stack much closer together on it. Sometimes the stems curl back and forth on the top of the pot, only occasionally branching. You can take a tip cutting and force branching to make a fuller plant, but they tend to look much bushier than vining types because of leaves bunching closer together on the stem.

Russ

I got worried and took it out and put it in a clay pot. The soil, though cut with perlite seemed too heavy and not draining well in the plastic pot.

When I put it in the clay pot, I repositioned it so that it stands up a bit straighter. It is a very sturdy plant, and I think it will thrive in a clay pot.

i am a bad repotter. It shouldn't have taken two tries to get it right, but I'm working with potting mix, which is always kind of a pain for me.

oh, before I forget: I removed a plant cutting from cocopeat today to pot it up and the roots are absolutely beautiful. That plant cutting was one of my "test" plants for the cocopeat. It grew that cutting from no roots to beautiful, white, strong roots. So, the cocopeat is good! It does need to be amended with fertilizer and lime, though.

Okay Lauren, let's see how the clay pot works out. Good news on the cocopeat with the good roots, sounds like it's a good ingredient for you. Was this straight or were there other ingredients mixed with it such as perlite?

Russ

Russ, it was straight coco peat!

Well, no reason why they couldn't grow in it if they can do so in straight peat moss. No labor costs for mixing in other ingredients, and no need for a wetting agent since it absorbs without it. Peat must have it, otherwise it's like talcum powder and rejects water if totally dry.

Interesting!

Russ

Well, this plant was my own cutting I took from a big philo in my living room. But I can guess why they can't use cocopeat in bb stores. Every single time I go in, I see some kid watering the plants relentlessly and indiscriminately with a water hose. Cocopeat would collapse under such watering.

In a way, the regular peat is a natural defense against plant nursery workers who don't have any idea of how to water plants.

Refresh my memory, is cocopeat the same as coir? I was at Lowe's today and they had an entire section being watered by a sprinkler. There were a lot of plants in the inside display area that were so dry the leaves were hanging straight down. I'll bet when they rehydrate they won't be in good enough shape to sell. I don't usually see their plants in such condition, but they sure got behind on watering today.

Russ

cocopeat=coir dust=coir peat, etc..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coir

found another good write up about various coco products- might be of use to you.

in summer i rooted hawortia cuttings in plain coco-chips, allowing them to completely dry up before watering - they rooted fantastically and very fast.

now i wanted to see how coco-chips wick for passive hydro, since i grow almost all of my plants this way (in pots with medium, but with rope wicks dropped in the bottom container with water).

it worked! though my hawortias took barely any water at all: only 1 cup in 3 weeks. the top chips appear totally dry, but there is moisture in the bottom (they are in see thru 4" containers for monitoring). since i keep them on a window sill they are hard to reach for watering. so i can fill up the reservoir once a month and just enjoy the view :) ...

http://www.just4growers.com/stream/growing-media/thinking-of-trying-hydroponics-then-try-coco-coir!.aspx

Pretty confusing, actually. So cocopeat is the dust left over from processing the coir fibers.

I just bought two aglaonemas today, both in 6 inch pots full of what I guess is coir. They were way too wet although root systems looked good, I repotted them into my usual bark mix. I haven't found a local source for coir yet, I'd need too much of it to order and pay a big shipping bill.

Thanks for the info.

Russ

that seems strange to me that you can't find a local source - since i read that more and more of Fl nurseries are converting to it. obviously they do irrigation from the bottom - it wicks great! They're shipping it in bulk for sure, so you might contact them to find out how to get it. Provided, it's good for you. For your Fl humidity and rains i should think coco-chips would be better though - they act like bark, but even with MORE aeration since they are porous; and quickly rewet from bone dry.

Petrushka, I get my peat moss, perlite and vermiculite from a wholesale supply company in Apopka that sells to anyone, but haven't contacted them yet. I'm sure they have coir but I'll also ask about the chips.

What is your experience with cost of coir vs peat moss? And what about coir vs chips? Same, more expensive? It's a problem if coconut products are a lot higher in cost because of the number of plants I have.

Is it cold up there yet? Any snow?

Thanks for the info,

Russ

Russ, before you get a bulk amount of coco coir, maybe you could order a small amount and try it with some of your plants that you think might do well with it. If you have any hydroponics stores in your area, they might carry it. Or here's some on Amazon with free shipping: Coco Coir Block.

If you have Amazon Prime, you can get it from a seller that offers Amazon Prime, which is free 2-day shipping. If not, seller "Amazin Deals" offers free shipping: Buying Choices

Deanna

>>>cost of coir vs peat moss? And what about coir vs chips?

m-mm - you can find out and tell us :)...

but seriously, i am in the city apartment - so i order on-line and in small qty only,

both coco-chips and cocopeat are sold compressed unlike bark and it's a sterilized product usually, while only orchid bark is sterilized. but! coir chips are much lighter then bark-chips - so you get more bulk for the same amount of weight compared with bark. after soaking it expands a lot - on the packaging it usually says how much you'll get by volume after expansion.

coco-chips and coco-peat are used in passive hydroculture - so, they need to be clean, of course. and for me indoors it's a must! and compared to hydroton or rockwool they are very inexpensive.

so if you compare orchid bark to coco-chips - cocochips cost much less, of course! but you garden outside and you don't use sterilized bark - so-o it's a diff story.

i use actually 3 types of coconut products - each for a diff purpose: coco-dust (cocopeat), coco-chips and coco-matting (at least that i can get so far in 1! shop) - and all mostly for indoor plants. from my understanding of FL humidity and summer downpours - you'do better with chips then with cocopeat for outdoor pots. and i would not replace all peat with cocopeat - 1:1 at most.

but! cocopeat seems to be quite good for rooting cuttings and growing younger plants in small pots that tend to dry up too much too fast in reg peat - so in the greenhouse or shade-house (perhaps on a wicking mat) i can still see the sense to use it even in FL.

i am not advocating it, i just HAD to start using it for my particular style of growing: passive hydro on wicks or what they call semi-hydro often: plant in pots with wicking medium + rope-wick + water-fert-solution in the reservoir underneath. and it worked so far for most of my plants, if not all.

hope this helps smbody someday - as it takes forever to type it all up ;)!

Hi All,

I found a little block of cocopeat at Petco of all places. It comes compressed small enough to fit it my purse, and it makes 16 oz. of mix. It works beautifully as well. I planted a peruvian grape ivy in it and it looks great, two weeks later.

Hi Petrushka! I agree wholeheartedly about using it for rooting cuttings. It is perfect for rooting cuttings with small roots or no roots at all!

Thanks for all your time for this information, it has helped already. I used the coir those two ags as a replacement for Miracle-Gro in a mix with bark and perlite. Potting a plant with it, it looks the same and I imagine it'll perform the same since MG has a wetting agent. I'm sure it's better than plain peat moss though.

I assume you use it straight and not mixed with other ingredients. And the chips as well.

I think you're right that the chips might be a better product for me with my rainy summers. I'm going to try and get to the wholesaler this week and will let you know availability and price.

Russ

Deanna, thanks for the info and links. Do you use these coco products diluted in a mix with other ingredients or pot straight out of the bag?

Russ

Hi Russ,

Id be happy to send you some. Please do report back on how it works for you. I always check in on this thread, though lately ive been staying away until the political discourse dies back a bit.

>>>I assume you use it straight and not mixed with other ingredients. And the chips as well.

no , as a rule i don't. i plant most of my tropicals in jungle mix based on exoticrainforest formula (Steve Lucas) that i mix myself. but i up the amount of perlite as it's necessary for passive water-wicking and i cut <soil> part by half with coir peat, and <bark> part by half with coco-chips.

so this is my own mix:

2 parts av(MG african violet soil mix) mix + 3 parts coir peat + 4 parts perlite + 3 parts orchid
bark mix (use half coir chips) + 1 part sphag peat.

when i am lazy and in a rush i just do 1:1:1 of av soil-mix/coirpeat, perlite, coco-chips.

some plants require special adjustments though.

so far i have only hawortias that are in pure coco-chips - they seem to wick a little bit just by themselves. not enough when hot, but for cooler winter months is ok, so i am leaving them for now as is.

and i actually had a few succulents (just as bought in 4" pots) in pure coir. i didn't get to transplanting them for 6mo - they were on top rope-wicks over winter AND in clay pots. so with evaporation thru clay pot they were not too wet. i stuff my cold window sills to the gills over winter and can't even reach them at all for months - hence the wicks :). but after that i changed the mix to 1:1:1.

I never would have thought succulents could handle the pure coir mix. I must try it now.

Russ, I haven't used coco coir for potting houseplants before, but after reading this thread I've decided to try it with some of my plants. It's good timing because I have a tendency to forget to water during the winter, and have killed some plants in the past because of it.

However, I have always used a coco coir mix for starting seeds inside. It's coco coir with perlite. It doesn't dry out as quickly as a peat based mix, which is perfect for seedlings, since they die quickly if they dry out.

I ordered a coco coir compressed brick off Amazon this week, and when I use it I plan to mix it with other things like bark, perlite, and a little Crump's succulent mix.

Deanna

Petrushka, can you post a picture of the coco-chips you use? I've never seen or heard of such a thing. I was in a local nursery yesterday and saw this:

Russ, this is some eye candy for you that has nothing to do with potting soil:

Deanna

Thanks for the pic of those beautiful ags Deanna, Anyamanee has become almost as common as Siam Aurora. They look pink in the pic, I guess the red washed out in translation of posting.

I found two unnamed ags at a Home Depot this week, one is Pink Dalmation but don't know the name of the other one. Equal amounts of white, pink and green, very pretty. I'd much rather find a species or an old, vintage hybrid rather than new, modern ones, but I like any ag I can find.

That coco mat does look like the stuff for lining wire hanging pots. They sure grow good plants but the mat rots in time and it gets messy.

Please let me know what you mix with the coir and how it works.

Russ

Russ, the ags were exactly the color in the picture - pink. Do you think they are mislabeled?

I think so Deanna, it's possible new leaves could be pink but older leaves should be dark red. I think I see a small lower leaf or two in your pic that look red, but it doesn't figure that the rest of the leaves are pink if they're really Anyamanee.

I'm curious, did you notice the price of those ags?

The narrow lance shaped leaf top left of the pic looks like another ag.

Russ

That's expensive, Home Depot here sells Anyamanee in the same size pot for half that price.

It might be Valentine, a hybrid that's becoming more common with many sources for it online. Those plants you saw were probably tissue-cultured so makes sense that it'd be a more common variety.

http://www.jaycjayc.com/aglaonema-valentine-thai-hybrid/

Russ

these are the coco chips i got from amazon, it's a compressed brick from root organics, they also have coir dust/peat (cocopeat...what's in the name ? :))))

http://tinyurl.com/h7qmkp6

@gardenfanatic

yes, this is coir matting that i use to put on top of my pots as mulch, i tear it off and sometimes split in 2 layers, as it is thick. i noticed that landscapers were planting rose bushes with circles of this stuff as mulch stuck on them - so i thought <how clever>! and started doing it myself.

the advantage is that when you wash the plant or shower it - stuff does not float off the surface! i also dunk some of my plants - pot and all : by tying up the pot with a plastic bag and around the base (the coir matting keeps ev from floating off nicely).

i also line my plastic pots with coco matting, sort of like wire baskets, but again, i split the matting in 2 to make it thinner. it helps with aeration and i see roots always making their way to outside. it helps with many things too: i can pop the plant out without spilling mix everywhere, it prevents roots sticking to the pot, so much easier to push the root ball out. and and it helps to wick moisture up the sides of the pot for me since i put the rope wick around the bottom and going up the pot diagonally.

found this canadian site - they actually have 2 grades of coir chips , which i have not seen before. don't know if they ship to US or not. but there are pics of chips.

http://www.vgrove.com/index.php?p=Coconut_Husk_Chips