I also use 4 parts CHC, 1 part perlite, and 1 part charcoal for most of my plants. I find that I don't have to water as often as I do with bark, and the CHC don't break down as quickly as traditional bark chips do. CHC does need to be soaked at least overnight but 24 hours is better, and change the water a couple of times to get rid of the salt.

In an emergency repot situation when you don't have any soaked CHC ready you can pour boiling water over the chunks. I let them soak in a bowl of boiling water for about 30 minutes. While the chunks are soaking I usually give the plant a good soak too. The boiling water opens up the fibers in the chunks and allows it to soak up water. Repot when cool. :goodluck:

I'll let you know how they fare: i now have one phal in mostly CHC with some just a little bark and a tiny bit o hydroton and one stanhopea in chc/bark/sphag at about 3:1:1 (it's in an open basket, even though it's very small) so i figure that'll the extra airyness will compensate for the extra water in chc and sphag

So how do you decide it's time to water with CHC? i tried squeezing out water from the top pieces to see if i could get moisture but at least the top ones were dry. The bottom ones also feel dry but i understand that's just the surface and there's more moisture inside. So how do i know it's time to water?

I have mine in clear pots and can see when the beads of moisture are no more.....then it's time to rewater.

Me too. All of my plants are in clear plastic pots.

mine is in a transparent container (one of those plastic grape tomato thingies) no beads of moisture even right after i watered it though (again, this am.... i hope it's going some place aside from the sink)

irrka submerge the container in water for 30 mins. to an hour and then drain it off. From this point forward, water when there is no condensation visible in the container.

Brooke

woo hoo! thank you, brooke!! i did submerge for about 30' this morning and finally got a bit of condensation!! i was beginning to wonder if the container was fog-proof ;)

oh shoot me. condensation was gone today but i felt the chips in the pot and they were still moist. i guess it's going to be a finger test for me :(