Yes - following the thread here. I too had done some study of terra preta over (last) winter with the help of a bryologist (Rick S.) who had contacted me. He sent me a bag of the product that was supposed to be manufactured in similar fashion to the original method. I might be getting my facts a little skewed here, but I believe it had been made to fill a specification for use in water filtration for a city in OH. I did pot several plants in a kind of experiment with a loose control, but I was so busy this summer I lost track of what I was attempting to evaluate, so cannot report first hand. I can say though, that I use horticultural charcoal in plantings where the plant prefers a wet soil or in plantings where I allow the plant to stand in water to satisfy its thirst. If you're asking what to do about your coir-containing soil, I can't help. I have also been sent chc's for evaluation, which I'll do in the growth cycle subsequent to spring repot time, but haven't used the coir. I confess to being somewhat skeptical that it will outperform peat in the mixes I use, but I also like to think I am open minded enough to transition to it, should it prove valuable. I have no opinion on the validity of the U of U study, but I know I will be watching closely for evidence that there might be a problem when using coir. I probably should read the study again, to see if this is covered, but one thing I might note about any soil that holds high volumes of water is that low oxygen levels cause iron and manganese to become electron acceptors. This leads to their precipitation (iron and manganese) and, even though these elements might be present in soils, the plants inability to assimilate them. Either elemental deficiency will cause the chlorotic effect and certainly, because Fe is instrumental in the maintenance of chlorophyll, it will influence growth. What does all this mean? I suppose I would be very careful about watering practices when using coir. My observations are completely unfounded, so I would have to defer to any experienced grower if their experience is a + one until I have an opportunity to develop an opinion. Al

First I would like to quote some lyrics- Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen) by Baz Luhrmann "Be careful whose advice you buy but be patient with those who supply it Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past From the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts And recycling it for more than it's worth" This next bit is my opinion only and requires your patients to get through. I only offer it because it seems to be working well for me so far and I wish for all to have the success I seem to be having with it. I will post a couple of pictures at the end to show you what I mean. I did a lot of research about potting media and amendments. Last summer was my first summer getting into hostas and growing them in pots. I started by making my own mix using pea gravel, mother earth and sand. Seemed to be working well, other than the very heavy pots, especially when they were wet and the fact that while I was repotting using my new and improved media I found the bricks I had been creating with the old mix in the bottom of the pots. I read somewhere that if the pot is full to the bottom and there are holes in the bottom of the pot and it is touching the ground, then the earth will act like a wick to pull excess water out of the pot. Water will always find the easiest route to travel, so once it has created it's own channel in the pot, down the sides, it will be hard to get the pot completely saturated. As I was repotting, though, I found enough earth worms in the pots that I could have fished for a week. Although this is not for everyone and there are many paths to get to the same end, this is how I have been doing it this year. It requires the use of a chipper/shredder, a cement mixer and a cheap plastic lemonade pitcher. I did a massive amount of repotting this spring, so I bought in bulk to reduce my costs. I ended up creating my mix for right at $2.86 a cubic foot and have made over 12 cubic feet of mix so far. I buy southern pine nuggets at Lowe's, comes 3 cubic feet in a bag. Perlite-4 cubic foot bags, peat-2.8 cubic foot bags. Greensand-36 lb bags, Alfalfa meal-50 lb bags and Bio-Tone-25 lb bags. I run the bark through the chipper and end up with fines and small chips. I next mix 5 gallons of bark fines with 2 pitchers of perlite and 2 pitchers of peat. The next part is my own special sauce. I add 1/2 cup of Bio-Tone, 1 cup of Greensand and 1-1/2 cup of alfalfa meal to every cubic foot of mix. Alfalfa meal has triaconatol, which is a fatty acid growth stimulant. I read somewhere that it may increase the possibilities of sports and the worms love the stuff. I get mine at the local Co-Op, it is sold as a livestock feed. Bio-Tone contains Mycorrhiza which become symbiotic with the roots and helps the plants in their uptake of nutrients and the creation of fine roots. Greensand contains many micronutrients not found in most fertilizers. I also use a little sprinkling of Osmocote on top after potting, although it may not be necessary. I am going around now and adding a ring of my special sauce with a layer of compost on top to all of the ones I have in the ground. I just pummel the same ratios of amendments into a powder. Now for the pudding. Here is a seedling that I repotted a week or two ago. I started my seedlings on January 3rd of this year and they were growing in 5 ounce cups using this mix for about 2 months at the time of this picture. This is what they all looked like: Also, here is what it looks like inside my mini greenhouse today. Most of these are from last year after I repotted this spring. The leaf damage on the Fire Island liners in the middle is due to them getting too cold one night before I added heat to the mini greenhouse. They were the only ones that suffered and it only got down to the mid 40s.

Years ago, I had terrible clay. I dug all my beds, it was back breaking. This was before the gardenweb and "lasagne" bed forming (which is basically a version of creating the garden above the soil.) I threw out solid junks of clay and amended with loads and loads of compost/humus, mostly in cheap bags from Walmart. Because of the clay, many poorly chosen plants did not do well, so each time I replanted an area, I double-dug and turned in more compost. Cost me a lot of money and sweat. Today, my soil is SWEET to work in. Fluffy, easy. A real joy. People comment on it when they see me dig. I often hated gardening when I had the clay and I hated weeding..because it was so difficult. Now, weeding is fun. The stuff just pops out for the most part. So, it can be done, you just have to want to do it. My philosophy was this: never ignore an opportunity to amend...if I was digging for any reason, I amended. I usually bought the humus bags on clearance, too, so I'd have them on hand whenever I was gardening. I also used some pricy soil conditioners now and then, as well as gypsum. Just depended on my budget/mood and level of frustration. Lately, I've seen quite a few bags at nurseries that say "soil conditioner". Nice thing is, the hostas always did just fine in the clay. Those were the beds that took me the longest to get fluffy because I didn't have to replant them often, so they got amended less. However, even years of mulching helped those beds and they are nice now, too. If I were you, I'd do the largest area you have time and budget for. Maybe instead of "one hosta hole", you dig and amend 1 square yard each time you plant a hosta. Before you know it, you'll have beautiful fluff. Some free opportunities do exist that will help: coffee grounds from coffee places, autumn leaves on curbs...bring them home, run the mower over them a few times and spread them on your beds, your own produce waste for composting, your community may offer free compost. When you get free stuff, you often introduce a lot of weed seeds. I found that applying PREEN really helped with that.

Esther, it's a decision you'll have to make. Few people have ever used that product in the way you are using them, so you will have to gather your differing advice and make the call. What's confusing for me is the difference between a one gallon nursery pot and a gallon. They are not the same. A "one gallon" nursery pot looks like about 2 quarts to me. In the real world, I have a blue angel in what is about an 8 gallon pot and I can't lift it when it's wet. (I'm guessing it to be that size by comparing it it to a 5 gallon bucket.) You will need a fork lift to move a 25 gallon pot, whether it's a real 25 gallon pot or what nurseries call a 25 gallon pot. (Think about a 33 gallon trash can.) It's my opinion that the sizes recommended are at least 3 times the size needed. I just went out and measured my Irish Luck. It's 26" across and 13 inches high. The pot it's in is between 1.5 and 2 gallons (not nursery size). It's a happy camper in that size pot. Definitely, an 8 inch wide hosta does not need a 3 gallon pot. bk