Saying Hi!

[Sam_Smith]

Been an orchid geek for a few years now, just changed my growing system over to coconut chips/hand watering, I was trying hydroponics but that didn't works so well for me.

[tizzycat]

Hi Sam, welcome to the forum, looking forward to chatting.

[articuno75]

Tons of information here on the forum. Seen that you found the Neofinetia falcata thread. Love your setup. Is that all you use is just coco husk? How long have you been doing that and how has that been working for you so far? I found that with my conditions being so dry in my apartment I had to mix stuff up a bit. Even with just using bark.

[PhalPal]

Welcome to the forum SamSmith!!!

[kmarch]

Welcome Sam. Your set up is interesting. I'm going to copy your post into tour thread on growing spaces. Thanks for posting!

[evagentry]

Hello Sam Smith, welcome to the forum.

[BunnytheOrchid]

Hello Sam Smith! Lovely phalaenopsis, looks like you've got a great setup and lots fun orchids! Hope you enjoy it here!

[Sam_Smith]

Originally Posted by articuno75

Tons of information here on the forum. Seen that you found the Neofinetia falcata thread. Love your setup. Is that all you use is just coco husk? How long have you been doing that and how has that been working for you so far? I found that with my conditions being so dry in my apartment I had to mix stuff up a bit. Even with just using bark.

Ya now thats all I use is the coco chips, I started potting all my plants over to the chips on may 3rd, so maby by late april ill see if it works. The chips stay moist for a long time they pick up way more water then bark, you can actually squeeze them like sponges and get water dripping out.
What I love about the coco chips is they keep the root zone "moist" not wet, for a decent amount of time, and they don't compact like sphag does, which means good aeration. The chips seem to release water at an even rate, and they soak up whats right around them. The only downside to them is the same as any other organic media, they eventually need to be changed. With the hydroton media it holds a tiny amount of water on each ball, but I found the spheres were to small and they ended up keeping the roots soaking wet or bone dry.

Oh another thing, the table that my orchids are on is 4'x8' with two shelfs, I built the table part myself from plywood (yup the whole thing is plywood) and the tray on the table is an 4'x8' ebb-and-flow hydroponics tray, so I can water all my plants were they are without flooding my house If anyone likes this table design I can try to dig up the pattern for it.

ooo, btw that spell checker I was talking about is just my new browser! Lol I was working on a webpage and it started checking my spelling!! I was amazed till I realized its the browser not the page, here I was thinking it was some fancy javascript or something.

[jctusa]

Hello Sam,

Welcome to the forum