Nice to see another zone 8 coco grower. What part of zone 8 you in? I'm in Waco, TX From what I've read, the number 1 reason people have problems growing in coco coir is they treat it like soil. Coir is a hydroponic medium, and should be treated as such. I have 5 pepper plants and 1 cherry tomato plant on the patio growing in coco coir / perlite mixed about 7:3. I'm currently hand watering every day or every other day, using Hesi coco nutrients (a 1 part fertilizer designed specifically for growing hydroponically in coco). I feed 12 ml of nutrient mixed with 4 L of water, pH'd to about 5.8 The trick is to feed until you have run-off (approx 10-20% of what you watered should run out the bottom). Never let it dry out. Watering til that much runs out does two thing: 1)flushes the medium with every watering, preventing build up in the medium. 2)ensures you maintain a fairly consistent level of nutrient in the medium. Fluctuations in ec/ppm & pH = no good. I was a little leery at first to water that much. I was always told too much water is the most common mistake people make. Well, with coco, forget all that. The more often you water, the better off you'll be. Since the coir is so coarse, it will always have plenty of oxygen trapped inside, unlike most mediums that become water-logged and drown roots.

I'm not sure if this is the same stuff, but we use a compressed block of coco coir for bedding in our snake tank. (Yes, we have 3 Boa constrictors as pets.) When we change it I just put the short end of the block in a shallow amount of water and when it rehydrates I break it off and kind of fluff it up with more water. If it isn't enough, I wet and repeat. Nice benefit is that when it is time to change the bedding, the used bedding goes in the compost. I love stuff that has extended value.

tapla said... "Ideal pH for container gardening is about 1 whole number lower than growing in mineral soils" Again, you've simply thrown out another statement un-tethered to anything... I know, I know you intended it to be that way... but why? I've no idea. As far as water holding capacity... you choose to present it based upon weight where dried peat is going to be much lighter than an equal volume of coir and so appear to hold more water but to my thinking basing water holding capacity on volume would likely be more relevant for the gardener (in either container or in soil). This I've done myself and am quite sure coir is going to expand far more with a given volume of water. Water holding capacity is important provided air pore spaces remain equivalent... however perlite, pumice, or vermiculite is so often suggested as an addition with peat potting mixes to make one wonder why the need for these components... likely to maintain the air pore spaces due to compacting as the peat degrades and thus collapses within one growing season, its lignin content notwithstanding (btw, coir has significant lignin content as well, especially considering percentage of weight). And as every gardener knows, maintaining the air pore space is critical for healthy root development and growth of a good many plants (but not all plants however). Holding luff then is the important feature and not necessarily lignin content. Again, a simple comparison study would prove out which material best maintains adequate air pore space over time... so could you point me to one or more of these studies? I don't know the answer but would definitely like to see some studies conducted that could enlighten me on this subject. Until then, I've got to say the jury is still out... there's lots of theory out there but empirical evidence is what's called for to solve this particular inquiry. tapla said "Allelopathy - High levels of phenolic compounds known to be present in coir ... can profoundly affect root morphology, limiting length, number, and size of all orders of roots" From the foregoing statement I gather you're saying that coir has an allelopathic effect on ALL rooted plants? and thus you cannot and/or need not supply a list of affected plants... is this a correct reading of what you're meaning to infer? I'm surprised that this allelopathy of coir is not mentioned on the Internet somewhere... or at least from the simple yahoo search I've done so far. I'm so intrigued by this new piece of information that I'm going to take it from a theory and try to come up with empirical evidence of it by planting some radishes in dixie cups... a half dozen in a 50/50 with peat/soil and another half dozen in 50/50 with coir/soil... the soil will be the same (coming from my garden to supply the micros and biology) and then water the same amount each day with one teaspoon of Jack's Classic into a gallon of water. In approximately two weeks I'll wash the soil mix off the roots and compare. Do you see any complicating factors I should be aware of before beginning this little experiment? I'm excited. (BTW, the reason for radishes is merely speed of germination and the roots will not swell if I end the experiment too soon... I don't have the time or patience to carry on anything that's going to take more than 2 weeks at the most to complete... also I already have everything I need to do this in the shed right now). EDIT: In my search for allelopathic connection between phenolic compounds and plant root growth I came upon these tidbits from two separate sources... make of them what you will but they sure seem to complicate matters with previous claims of allelopathy of coir over peat... "Once the coir is freed from the fiber it goes through a maturation process to stabilize the product and this can take up to 6 months. During this process salt, tannins, and phenolic compounds are removed. It is buffered, washed and calcium nitrate is added to displace sodium and balance the pH." "Sphagnum and the peat formed from it do not decay readily because of the phenolic compounds embedded in the moss's cell walls." So does that mean peat too is allelopathic to plant roots? If so, then its a wash and I'd be wasting my time conducting the simple radish experiment? Final UPDATE: Okay I give up... After a single search I've already found several references to peat and peat bogs as being allelopathy to the germination of certain plants... I'm going to call the allelopathy claims against coir and peat a wash.

Minibot You got the great main idea! We all here share our finds and answer questions. But again- it is not a science - it is an art. What works for Korina -not necessary will work for you. You are right - you need different recipes to try and choose what is better for your watering habits, water Ph, just plain how much you compress soil when you repot - or if you live on East or West coast or right in a middle. The people here are from the very beginners to the very top growers. Top growers had already fine tuned their mix - and the beginners are still learning why the peat mix the store sells the plants in - is NO-NO, bad news and needs to be removed and rinsed off - otherwise you only be adding to the common opinion that AVs are very hard to grow because they die on you with no reason. IMHO and it can be just for me - AVs grow better under the lights than in natural light. They grow better on wicks than without. And if you are using wicks - the soil you will use will be some variation of a basic Cornell mix 1:1:1 - peat, vermiculite and perlite and additives like dolomite lime and charcoal - and there is enough discussions about if the is anything at all in charcoal or it is all old wives tales. Korinna replaces peat with the coir - and it works for her. Leaf mold is a good component for non-wicking mix, as well as garden loam - or whatever you could find in old books. But looks like serious growers nowdays are all in wicking. Fiber that you see in your orchid pot is most possibly a sphagnum moss - which also has it uses in gesneriad growing - milled moss is added to the basic mix for growing rhizomatous gesneriads - kohlerias, smithianthas. Jon_D here knows an awful lot about all gesneriads besides violets. About researching the web, finding your own links - it kind of educational - you read a good book - you always learn more than you asked. AND you can always share your finds. Good luck Irina PS If your collection is not yet overwhelmingly big - order some soil from specialized AV stores - you can get the links from AVSA site on vendors.