First, I don't think repotting in winter is a good idea.

Then, are you having a problem with your media? Does it break down too quickly? Are you in a hot humid climate where a porous media is necessary? A greenhouse?

If you want to experiment, why not start with some cuttings in the coir? Why risk mother plants?

Also, beware of salt in coir and give it a good rinse with pure water before using.

P.S. you want coarse perlite. Fine is garbage.

iochroma - yep, I hear you on the coarse pearlite. No problems there. As for the repotting, I also agree with you, and that is exactly what I would do, start with some of the cuttings I've been rooting and do them first. I am pretty much a house hermit, so I tend to helicopter my plants (my dog helicopters me!). They give me something to do and putter over, which is why I would start slowly. Some of the hoyas, while not overly large, are in some large pots and those I would do in the spring.

I use coarse orchid medium with a little cactus soil thrown in for pretty much all the hoyas. They seem to like it, but I'm always up for experimenting. As far as the salts go, I had no idea there was salt in the coco chips. If I do decide to go this route, absolutely I would drench them in rainwater to remove any foreign material or any salts which don't belong.

I was curious if others used the coco chips, because I'm reading a lot about them on the web lately. I know Mike on here is now using tree fern fibers, and he says his orchids love it. I don't know if he uses it on any hoyas, but maybe he can chime in if he reads this.

Stay well IO, keep participating. We look forward to your input and contributions.

Later....

I know that April of UnsolicitedPlantTalks grows completely in coco chips now. She does sell her own blocks of it that she carefully sourced. They are triple-washed or some such thing. All of the hoyas I have purchased from her in the past two years are in only coco chip. I have moved one other hoya to her coco chips. They are doing fine and I'm not planning to mess with them. She does also use slow-release fertilizer and I think she also uses some water-soluable fertilizer. If you are interested, she does have a video about her choice.

https://youtu.be/iUIJMS9ssOo

By the way, I also love experimentation. So I'm all for that.

I can send you a couple of ziplock baggies of UPT coco chips if you want to try a small batch first.

Wow Taplia! There's a lot to digest here. I read it once, went back and re-read certain areas, and now tonight I'll re-re-read it again, this time taking notes. Great input. Thank you.

I'm not a huge fan of coir because I feel like it retains too much moisture. But the chips really don't. If that makes any difference to you, Bill.

@Bill M. - I help a dear friend of mine from Fremont, CA with her citrus and hardy fig trees. She tried coir and CHC's and had poor results compared to her results from plants in other media, most of which she had been transitioning ti the 5:1:1 mix, She arranged for some of each (coir + CHCs) to be drop-shipped to me to see if I could do better. She's a physician, so has a good working knowledge of organic chemistry and did a fair amount of inquiry beforehand. I couldn't and eventually spread the coconut products over the lawn.

Most of the information related to the chemical and physical properties I posted above was gleaned from 3 texts, Water, Media, and Nutrition for Greenhouse Crops by Ball, Growing Media for Ornamental Plants and Turf, by Handreck and Black,

and Plant Production in Containers II by Carl Whitcomb.

Since coir and CHCs are allelopathic (toxic to other plants) to a notable % of plants, it's best to research whether or not the plant one might be contemplating growing in coir/ CHCs is susceptible to the product's chemistry. There are also the other issues I listed above that require a different strategy than used when growing in primarily peat and or pine bark.

Best luck, Bill

Al

OK - this is a first for me. I checked into something before jumping in and trying it myself. It's a strange feeling. Ususally I try something, screw it up, it doesn't work and blame myself. This time I checked for other opinions. I'm free! Free at last! Whoopee! I'm going to stay with my present mix, the only exception will be I will be purchasing larger chunks of pearlite and charcoal, otherwise it'll be orchid bark, charcoal, pearlite and a sprinkling of cactus soil (maybe with the soil. We'll see). No sense changing what works I guess.

BTW - I have an odorada in bloom. It's been blooming its little heart out for the past week now. Lots of flowers, but absolutely zero smell. If this plant was discovered in the wilds initially, it would have been called Hoya odorless rather than odorata! So, assuming I don't have covid and still have my smeller working, have any of you run across this? Whereby a plant that is supposed to be fragrant - isn't? Just curious.

Thank you all for the through and comprehensive information on the CHC.

Bill M....

Update - duh - me being me, I obtained a small bag of coconut husks to try n my orchids. I mixed it with my Hoya mix (bark, pearlite, teeny bit of sphagnum moss, and charcoal) and used it to repot an orchid I just bought and had shipped in the winter (yep - another no no). The orchid arrived fine, although it did tell me it was getting worried but felt relieved when I finally opened the box and introduced myself. It's a maxillaria tenifloria, which was severely pot bound. Now it isn't and now it's in the new mix. Let's see how it works out.

Yes - please follow up with a follow-up. That, from the department of redundancy department. I'd be interested in knowing how the plant tolerates the CHCs.

Al

Will do tapla. I too am curious.