came across some new "secret"

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by iceicebaby

"But in many Asian cultures, water used for rinsing rice has been used for watering plants."

Can you please elaborate on it Philip.

Unfortunately, I don't quite understand the benefits of watering with rice water. All I know is that it's been done without harm to the plants. It probably has something to do with the sugars, idk.

Sorry, I can't be of much help with the issue of rice water.

The coconut milk/water I understand better, because there's information on why it's used in tissue culture.

If you do a Google search, you'll pull up some articles about coconut water/milk and the phytohormones it contains. It is much, much more than just auxins. Cytokinins are in there too and a few others. This is why the effects of coconut milk/water is so unpredictable.

Auxins are a family of hormones that deal primarily with root growth.

Cytokinins are a family of hormones that deal primarily with shoot growth.

Both of these families of hormones don't just do their primary jobs, they can affect other kinds of growth as well.

BTW, most people in tissue culture like using coconut water versus coconut milk. It really doesn't matter which you use. They're both endosperm from a coconut. The milk is both liquid and solid endosperm. The water is liquid. This is the only real difference. Coconut milk and coconut water both contain phytohormones and that's the only thing that really matters.

[lycaonpictus]

I've never used the coconut milk, but I've used fish fertilizer on both my orchids and my outdoor garden flowers. Everything seems to love it! Always seems like everything doubles in size overnight after an application. It is awfully stinky, though.

[iceicebaby]

Hi I did a google search, what I understood is that the water that is decanted after the rice is cooked has vitamins and carbohydrate in it.
which can be used for the orchids.
Also there is a thread on orchidboard which deals with the use of sugar for orchids as a fertilizer.

Few articles are there which recommend the use of egg shell and chicken bone extracts as source of calcium and phosphorus.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Here's my take on egg shells, and oyster shells (I'm not so sure about the chicken bone extract, so I'll leave that alone for now).

The egg shells and oyster shells are not really bio-available to the plants. You gotta crush or grind that stuff into a powder.

There are much easier ways to go about providing calcium.

Stores will sometimes carry crushed dolomite. Then there's limestone. Many places here carry limestone, but they call it something else (this marketing strategy bugs). Limestone chunks can be sold here in the US for top dressing for driveways or gardens.

The beauty of using limestone or dolomite is that every time you water, the plant gets a little calcium it can absorb in through the water.

Dolomite has a few more minerals in it that makes it a bit different from limestone. Gypsum is also a calcium based mineral. However, the structure and organization of the molecules in gypsum is a little different from limestone.

[JenHowlett]

From a google search:

"There is a lot of confusion out there about the difference between coconut water, milk and cream. Coconut water is the liquid that comes straight out of a cracked, green, coconut. Coconut milk is a thick liquid made by extracting in the fat from grated coconut meat. Coconut cream is the almost solid cream that you obtain by standing coconut milk overnight and letting the cream rise to the top. It is often already separated in a can of coconut milk."

When you guys say "coconut water"...do you mean the actual coconut liquid (as defined above) or coconut milk in solution with water?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Coconut water is the liquid you drink straight from a freshly cracked coconut.

Okay, I might have mixed up the milk with the cream, but if you heat the cream, it becomes the milk anyways.

When I'm referring to coconut water, or coconut milk, there's no water mixed in it.

This is what I'm talking about.

Coconut water:

http://diabetesdietdialogue.files.wo...andyalaorg.jpg

Coconut milk:

http://sarahmeyerwalsh.files.wordpre...shcoconut3.jpg

The coconut milk/cream comes in these kinds of cans in an Asian supermarket:

http://allisonwriting.files.wordpres...conut_milk.jpg

http://www.blork.org/blog/imyjiz3/coconut-milk.jpg

[Orchid126]

Although fish fertilizer or emulsion is excellent for the garden, it seems to be caustic and rot the roots of orchids. Orchids are not grown in soil which can break down the animal product. They are grown in bark and other materials, which cannot break down the animal product.

Far better to use liquid seaweed, which is a vegetable that grows as much as a foot a day. Coconut and rice water are also vegetable products.

Egg shells and oyster shells, more animal products, produced a fungus growing on the top of the medium. Infected plants had to be cleaned off and repotted.

A word of caution. When trying out these home remedies, do not--repeat--do not use them on all your plants. Experiment with one or two. Then you don't stand a chance of losing your whole collection.

[JenHowlett]

The dogs (we have three) have done a number on the yard over the winter and the grass looks like its got some serious acne from the urine.

I just mixed a small can of coconut milk with a two gallons of water in my watering can and used it to water the dead-grass spots (its already dead...can't hurt, right?). Half of them I didn't treat. I'll let you know whether the cococut milk/water solution or regular water make the spots grow back the fastest.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Alright, I found a free scientific article about coconut phytohormones.

http://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/14/12/5144/pdf

Enjoy!

[Connie Star]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

Alright, I found a free scientific article about coconut phytohormones.

http://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/14/12/5144/pdf

Enjoy!

Fascinating article!
They note that coconut water from different soil types and different growing conditions varies in the amount of different constituents.
Do you know if the phytohormones in it are heat stable?
After reading the article, I'm going to start drinking it myself- many health benefits.