Your thoughts on coconut husk chips vs bark?

[isurus79]

Looks pretty good!

[james mickelso]

Those who think that CHC is long lasting, moisture retentive, and a good potting media.... and those who don't...raise your hands. Hmmm, everyone raised their hands. Well as with everything in this world there are good and bad characteristics to anything. Product quality, environment, micro-climate, air flow, water quality and compostition, fertilizer, type of plant.... you could go on forever. If it works for you, use it. If it doesn't, then use something else. I tried CHC and found it to be too moisture retentive creating a good environment for fungus and mold but not orchids but that is mainly due to where I live and my climate. Here in coastal SoCal there are growers who use it (cyms, massies, zygos, ect) and do very well with it. But they grow in climate controlled GH's with heat and very good air flow. I live at the beach where the RH is around 50-70% and the temps rarely exceed 70*f. Someone in say San Jose, Ca has higher temps with a drier RH. Someone in GB might have higher RH but higher temps. Nothing works for everyone. Experiment. That's the key. I started using lava cinder because it gives the the option of watering more often so also fertilizing more often. It doesn't stay wet but does retain moisture at the roots. Works for me but not others who live inland where it is hot and dry. They might need CHC or spag moss. Experiment.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by james mickelso

Those who think that CHC is long lasting, moisture retentive, and a good potting media.... and those who don't...raise your hands. Hmmm, everyone raised their hands. Well as with everything in this world there are good and bad characteristics to anything. Product quality, environment, micro-climate, air flow, water quality and compostition, fertilizer, type of plant.... you could go on forever. If it works for you, use it. If it doesn't, then use something else. I tried CHC and found it to be too moisture retentive creating a good environment for fungus and mold but not orchids but that is mainly due to where I live and my climate. Here in coastal SoCal there are growers who use it (cyms, massies, zygos, ect) and do very well with it. But they grow in climate controlled GH's with heat and very good air flow. I live at the beach where the RH is around 50-70% and the temps rarely exceed 70*f. Someone in say San Jose, Ca has higher temps with a drier RH. Someone in GB might have higher RH but higher temps. Nothing works for everyone. Experiment. That's the key. I started using lava cinder because it gives the the option of watering more often so also fertilizing more often. It doesn't stay wet but does retain moisture at the roots. Works for me but not others who live inland where it is hot and dry. They might need CHC or spag moss. Experiment.

Excellent summary!!

[Wild Orchid]

Originally Posted by isurus79

Excellent summary!!

[cattleya80]

James is correct. And to add a little more to the conversation, orchids really don't care what they're potted in, as long as the get the right stuff and the correct amounts (water, air, nutrients etc.) Think about it, in the wild orchids cling to trees and rocks and are as happy as a pig in shit (don't try potting in shit). Potting materials are really designed for growers and their situations i.e. local humidity, watering regime, and aesthetics. And these materials (bark, moss, lava rock etc) serve orchids differently depending on how tightly they're packed into the pots, how often they're watered, and the type of fetrs we use. Short story even shorter, if your orchid is doing well, keep doing what you're doing. If it dies, try another method. The point is no single methods works for everyone and you need to find your own nitch.

[Jayfar]

I've had mixed results, or really just a learning curve, with CHC. I grow mostly Phals and use clear, slotted pots. I found that CHC in the 3" slotted pots dries too fast for my preference to need watering no more than weekly and some of my species and primaries weren't maintaining viable roots systems in it. The bellinas tell me they hated it, but at least one of them survived (although still sulking a bit after I moved it to spag with some charcoal and styrofoam).

I did just tonight repot a newly purchased Phal. lueddemanniana var. delicata 'Orchidphile' from bark to CHC in a 3" pot. The vendor advised me it was due for repotting, but I didn't want to go straight from bark to spag. I'll be watching this one closely though and likely will eventually go to spag, maybe with a little charcoal, in the same 3" pot.

What I've mostly done lately with CHC is used it for my handful of bigger complex hybrids that live in pots 5" or bigger, mixed with a judicious amount of medium charcoal. Those I already had in CHC previously (but without the charcoal) and when I repotted several months ago, I found mostly very large healthy root systems. These plants were climbing out of their pots and leaning toward the light, so I needed to pot up a size to reorient them vertically. Really I repotted mostly because I got tired of placing small rocks on one side of the pots as counterweights to keep them from tipping over.

Biggest plant is a Phal. White Dream that now lives in a 5 quart gray paint bucket, with half inch holes drilled liberally in the bottom and sides. This one I water no more often than every 2 to 3 weeks, but spritz the top daily and maybe weekly shoot a single shot from the sprayer into each of the side holes.

With the larger pots I just wanted to open the medium up a bit, so the charcoal seemed like a good choice, although lava rock or something similar would probably be just as good.

Anything in a 3" pot or smaller, I'm pretty well settled on using good quality NZ spag, with or without a little charcoal, and a very little bit of river rock pebbles at the bottom to lower the center of gravity. And the occasional styofoam peanut in the center.

EDIT: paint bucket size corrected; 5 quarts, not 2-1/2 gal

[Wild Orchid]

Originally Posted by cattleya80

James is correct. And to add a little more to the conversation, orchids really don't care what they're potted in, as long as the get the right stuff and the correct amounts (water, air, nutrients etc.) Think about it, in the wild orchids cling to trees and rocks and are as happy as a pig in shit (don't try potting in shit). Potting materials are really designed for growers and their situations i.e. local humidity, watering regime, and aesthetics. And these materials (bark, moss, lava rock etc) serve orchids differently depending on how tightly they're packed into the pots, how often they're watered, and the type of fetrs we use. Short story even shorter, if your orchid is doing well, keep doing what you're doing. If it dies, try another method. The point is no single methods works for everyone and you need to find your own nitch.

How true!
I've given away one of my Phals as I've got tired of it. I gave it to an elderly neighbour who doesn't even know what orchids are.... Her approach - everything needs to be repotted into the larger pot. I tried to mention that the Phal would appreciate to be kept on a dryer side, offered a spare wooden skewer as well as some bark mix. I was certain it wouldn't last long......

Two months later, I bumped into the lady in the hall and she invited me in for a moment. She casually mentioned that the Phal got repotted into a regular and larger pot (of course! ) and that she added "some soil" to the media because she was short of "other stuff".
To my surprise, the Phal looked ok, was still in bloom and even leaves looked ok, not wrinkled.

I don't know how long it would last given the drastic culture change but... I was genuinly surprised as I expected it to be dead long time ago.

[ALToronto]

FWIW, I've put away my CHCs for good. Not because they decompose too quickly in my growing conditions (they last) or because they retain too much water (they dry out quickly). From following discussions on other forums and reading insomnia-curing research papers, it looks like they like to hold onto fertilizer salts, and regular flushing with pure water doesn't clean them out. So eventually the medium becomes toxic to roots, and the orchids suddenly die. The same happens with bark.

I haven't been using CHCs long enough to have this happen, but I'm not going to push my luck. I'm gradually repotting into lava rock, and the plants seem to love it.

If coconut is working for you, perhaps you should repot more frequently and avoid potential toxicity issues. Just something to keep in mind.

[DavidCampen]

Originally Posted by ALToronto

FWIW, I've put away my CHCs for good. ... From following discussions on other forums and reading insomnia-curing research papers, it looks like they like to hold onto fertilizer salts, and regular flushing with pure water doesn't clean them out. So eventually the medium becomes toxic to roots, and the orchids suddenly die. The same happens with bark.

I have seen this paper that was mentioned over at SlipperTalk:
http://www.usu.edu/cpl/PDF/CoconutCoirPaper.pdf
That paper shows coir to be greatly inferior to sphagnum for a number of monocots but I have not seen any evidence that this is because coir like(s) to hold onto fertilizer salts ... So eventually the medium becomes toxic to roots nor that The same happens with bark.. Coir does apparently have significant cation exchange capacity but this cation exchange capacity is not a reason for it to become toxic to roots.

[WhiteRabbit]

I've been using chc a few years and haven't experienced that. Lava rock would seem likely to hold onto mineral salts quite a bit (I do add lava rock to mix for some). But I don't have enough experience with it to say with certainty .... but have been warned about it.