second thoughts re CHC

[irrka]

I ran out of soaked hydroton and potted a phal in coconut husk chips. I've never played with that medium before, but it seemed nice and airy and i didn't remember anythign about needing to presoak it like with bark so i went with it. Now i'm second guessing about whether that was a good idea or if i'm going to dry the daylights out of it or if it was supposed to be pre-soaked etc. etc. I did put a bunch of sphag on top to keep the umidity high.
Could anyone that uses CHC please say how to use it??
Thanks,
Irene

[Paul]

Some folks hate the chunks. I know some who really like it. Part of it simply comes down to learning what you may or may not need to do to amend it for you conditions.

Irene, a bit of bad news for you -- you really should unpot it and rinse the chunks. Sometimes, I understand, they will cure the chunks in saltwater. I soak it to leach out salts and tannins. Drain, & repeat until the water from the leaching is closer to clear.

Pot up with chunks that have been moistened.

Also, be forewarned -- the chunks will be FAR more water retentive than bark. I'm still experimenting but find that it works best for me to mix in large grade charcoal and hydroton. Otherwise it retains too much water for me.

[kiki-do]

I love using it. I pre-soak, yes, and I mix it with a little fir bark, perlite, charcoal, and aliflor pellets. I have more husk than the others. I use the fine husks. My chids seem to do well with that combo....for the most part.

[irrka]

thanks!
oh crap, i also used some chunks with bark and sphag to pot my new tiny stanhopea. it's going to be busy busy repotting tonight!
Kiki-what's aliflor? how much chunkage do you use for your phals?

[kiki-do]

Hi Irene, Aliflor are little, medium, or large pellets (depending on what you prefer). They are clay balls that are used to help provide excellent drainage and moisture retention. They don't break down, either. I usually get the small ones and mix with all that other stuff I had mentioned. I also get the fine coconut husk chips.
Usually when I mix mine, the coconut chips are more prominent than the rest. That's just me. Everyone does something different. It seems to work for me here in my climate area.
Orchids love good drainage and air flow. Most normally don't need medium except that we pot them so we try to make them as secure as possible.
So you will notice many different ways of potting them. Good luck on your repotting! Sounds like you will do fine.
Hope that helped!

[kimstwin]

All of my orchids are in some form of CHC or another. My phals seem to like it. Bark was too dry for me and moss is too wet, so I think it's a good inbetween medium. For my drier orchids, I use the straight chips. For orchids that like it a little moister, I mix in some sphagum. My phals have a layer of sphagum on top. I bought a great mix from repotme.com that has the chips, perlite, charcoal, and sphag and have been repotting some smaller oncidiums and some neglected big box plants I found in that with some great results so far.

[kiki-do]

Hi Kim, I think you were the one who got me to look at repotme.com and I just got an order in from them. They are very fast! I certainly am pleased with the product. I am trying that MSU for the first time today, and I got a bunch of the $1.00 products to try, too! They had the fine coconut chips. I also ordered some stuff from Quarter Acre Orchids, but it hasn't arrived yet. A couple people go in with me on orders and we split shipping. Works out well. Yes, shipping is a tad high, but every site is for me because of where I am. There was only a $1.00 difference in comparing 4 different sites, plus I wanted to try that fertilizer. So thanks for sharing that site with us.

[irrka]

Ok, i just got around to unpotting my CHC plants and the roots were super dry. i guess soaking IS the way to go. How long of a soak do you guys do? I know with hydroton it's usually overnight, but i figured chc should be more spongy and take up the stuff faster?
I figured out that i water my bark stuff A LOT less than all the S/H and since half the time i don't have time to check in to see if there's still water left in the chamber for S/H i figured i'd try using conventional media a little more. not that my other plnts are not loving hydroton. i'm just being lazy.

[kimstwin]

I usually soak overnite. If it's orchids I just brought home and I feel an urge to repot right away, I will first soak the CHC while I prepare the plants. That usually gives 1-2 hours. If you don't soak the CHC before you pot the plants up, you could try soaking the newly potted plants in the sink for about an hour. Your other option would be to water them well for a couple of days in a row to get them holding water better.(I prefer to soak them in the sink)

[caseydoll]

Hi! I thought I would post a link that Ray posted on here awhile back. It's about how to prepare LECA for s/h but Ray says it's a great method for chc too. I've been using this method and really like it. Hope that helps!

LECA Preparation