I have to agree, I moved to Coconut chips products a while back
and love them. I buy from a source that sells only washed chips and I
usually wash them once myself and check with a conductivity meter. All
of my Paphs and Phal. love the small chips, I use medium and large for
other species as they need the open mix. I use moss, perlite,
charcoal, and aliflor as needed to make a mix that holds more or less
moisture, like I did with bark. If you want a lot more information
look at Antec's web site. They have a great discussion about coconut
chips.
http://www.ladyslipper.com/coco3.htm
Tom Hillson
At 12:40 PM +0000 7/7/05, Blue Moon Exotics wrote:
Paul,
We have used Coco products now for several years and have had very good experience. For plants that need a coarse well drained medium we use 1/2" chips plus medium Aliflor (lava rock may be a good substitute) Used in a clay pot or teak basket it lasts for years without breaking down and turning to mush. For plants that like a moister medium use the same mix in plastic pots. Another mix that we like is to use the 1/4" chips with some coir for smaller plants and ones that do not like to dry out ( Phals really seem to like this one ). When we deflask the plants go right into straight coir in flats that have eggcrate in the bottom covered with insect screen.
Everyone seems to agree that the biggest issue with coco products is the possibility of high salts in the product when first used. We leach all our new plantings several times right after planting. We also check the TDS readings whenever we get in a new batch of material. Coco products have a low cation exchange capacity so they can take more fertilizer and be readily leached.
As always start off small and use trial and error til you find what works for you. We grow in a warm and wet envoironment and someone cooler and drier may have different results.
Good luck and Happy growing,
Paul and Diane
http://www.bluemoonexotics.com
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, July 7, 2005 03:05 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [OGD] Coconut chips as potting medium
Coconut Chips:Here in Melbourne, Oz, we are about to experiment with coconut chips as a potting medium. Please provide details of short and long term usage, its pros and cons, suitable genera, suitable additives (if required) and any other relevant details.Paul
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