Coconut fibre mulch for potting media

[Weekend Gardener]

I started growing orchids when I was growing up in southeast Asia. There we used coconut husks for some non-terrestrial varieties. I am wondering if the coconut fibre mulches that are sold in dried compressed 'cakes' can be added to orchid mix, especially for the Paphiopedilums. The reason is that most of the readily available orchid mixes are too coarse and do not hold moisture well. I have been using sphag to ameliorate this, but since I used coconut fibre on a regular basis and they seem to have moisture retention properties, I am thinking of using it as a sphag substitute.