Choosing Bark or Coconut Chips
 

Hi all,

A lot of you guys have recommended I repot in coconut husk chips or Monterey/New Zealand bark because of my phal root rot problems.

I checked out Ray's site and he has a lot of options! How do I know which size to use?

Thanks,
Ateles

Hi Ateles,

I think it depends on the pot size. For Phals in pots arround 10cm upwards I use mostly a medium grade, sometimes with a smaller amount of the smaller grade thrown in as well but mostly medium.

For small pots arround 8cm or less I use mostly a small grade.

9cm is about my changeover point, recently I did a 9cm one is small grade but I've done them in medium before.

Has anyone ever heard of people not getting as healthy root growth in CHC than bark?

Next repotting of my Phals will be into s/h Leca fired clay balls. Maybe some coconut fiber for added moisture retention.

I have a customer who grows HD phals and dendrobiums and I was amazed at all the healthy plants he had and lots of blooms. I asked about what fertilizers and fungicides, etc., he was using and all he used was urea based orchid fertilizer, nothing elsde.

Here I am with MSU fert, two different fungicides, etc, and my phals look like crap, and lack the blooms to boot.

All his plants are in Leca balls.

Time for me to try something else...

Izzie,

I've heard that CHC need much more thorough rinsing before use. I can confirm that it lets out a LOT of colour which will stain the roots, I think the worry is the salts it is also releasing.

I now soak it for at least a week before use, changing the water every day. It seems to stain the roots less when I soak that much and hopefully has also washed out all the salts.

I buy my chc from quarteracreorchids.com. I met the lady who runs the business and she says that she soaks them in a big trashcan twice, then she lays them out to sun dry. The coconut chips I get are usually well received by my orchids.

Thanks for the input- despite the hijack, sorry!

These guys just said that their orchid roots never really dug in and 'got cozy' with the CHC like they did bark?

My phals in CHC absolutely love it. I don't like the exponential degradation of bark, so tried CHC for the phals I have which prefer a drier root system and they have taken really well to it.

I also did soak mine for about a week, changing the water every day. Using this though I have so far, avoided any salt issues.

I have been using chc's for a few months now. A mixture of 50/50 chc and leca clay pebbles.

I put the pebbles in to get the mix drier faster as i have found that the chc holds a lot of water and has lead to a couple of root rot problems before i changed over.

Still experimenting with watering regime.

I soaked and rinsed my chc's in water for 4 days, changing the water everyday. But still discoloured water comes out the bottom!