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10-09-2007, 10:17 AM
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| Coconut Coir Fiber Hi  ,I have seen Coir in some of the posts. Is anyone using this and how are they using it? Do you have to mix something else with it if you use it as a potting soil? Has anyone used it for planting orchids? If anyone is using it, where are you getting it from, online, local stores? Can you use it on all kinds of plants? Questions, Questions!   Thanks, Mercedesladie      |
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10-09-2007, 12:14 PM
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| You can get coir either as bricks composed of little chunks, which come apart when the brick is soaked and can be used by themselves or mixed with others stuff, such as charcoal bits, to pot orchids. Or coir can be purchased as bricks that will turn into fiber when wetted, somewhat like peat moss. For houseplants I mix coir fiber with a good deal of perlite and some charcoal and use it as a regular potting soil. I don't think it works well by itself, as it may get kind of caked and also dry out unevenly, but it seems fine when made up the way I described. I have used a coir mix for cymbidiums, although currently I'm trying horse manure for them (and they seem to be thriving). I also use coir as a soil amendment where I would have used sphagnum moss in the past. But coir is renewable and the sphagnum moss isn't necessarily. I haven't used the coir chunks for orchids much, but a friend gave me some, so I'm trying them. Mainly I've gotten the stuff on the web, although the local garden center sometimes has it. Coir has a fairly neutral pH, unlike sphagnum, so it may not provide desirable acidity, and it has not nutritional value itself, so fertilizer of one sort or another has to be added. It holds an enormous amount of water though, and when dry it is easier to wet than sphagnum moss. |
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10-09-2007, 01:03 PM
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| Coconut Coir with orchids Hi Since I live in the Caribbean almost of my orchids are growing coconut coir. They all seem to do very well and it is free here. I just let it dry and cut it up into chunks and then I set my orchids to grow in baskets and hang them in my mango treeso they get air dried. Recently a friend of mine told me she saw other people online using the whole coconut to grow their orchids in.They basically cut off the top and bottom of the green coconut and clean out the inside and place the orcid plants inside and hang it up. With time the coconut dries and the orchid clings to the coir inside. I dont know how long it will take before they dry out completely but I will be giving it a try and will send some pictures. Tress-Anne  |
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10-09-2007, 01:16 PM
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| At this point I love it for my phals - see this thread - Phal Repotting & Media I have used it for a couple cymbidiums and am slowly trying it on other genera as well when repotting is needed. mike |
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10-09-2007, 01:16 PM
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| I would mix it up with permiculite, or something less water retentive, as i found pure coir in a pot would hold too much water. Its fine in baskets, as it gets the openness, but in pots it can be abit too much, unless your using big chunks. |
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10-09-2007, 03:13 PM
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| I am currently using three types of coir products and have had great success with them. Pic#1 Coir mix made from a piece of CocoGro brick, plus perlite & charcoal. (Manufactured by Americanagritech Company). This mix will not be watered nearly as often as orchids planted in bark. (In my climate, I watered about every 10-14 days in the summer and it will be 3 weeks or more in the wintertime. The CocoGro bricks are available online, very inexpensive, and a very good quality. www.4hydro.com/growroom/cocogroBrick.asp Pic#2 Ascofinetia grown in coconut fiber. (Looks like threads) This is watered every 1-2 days. Pic#3 Phal grown in coconut chunks, a bit of perlite & charcoal. These products are also very nice quality and available from www.Oakhillgardens.com (about $3 a bag) This is watered about the same as other phals planted in bark. Use a skewer to check the moisture. If you check out some of Mike's (mayres) threads, you'll find a lot of information and his preference for proportions using the coir. He's right that that "all coir is not created equal." Trust me, I've made the mistake of using some poor product and also too finely ground up - it was a disaster. The links that I've listed above sell a very good product. I would only recommend a company that I have dealt with in the past and they're both top notch companies to deal with. I'm so happy since I switched from bark to the coir products. Good luck on your quest!  |
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10-09-2007, 07:06 PM
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| Hi Everyone, Thanks for all the info. I am certainly going to try this out. Sharyn, your plants look like they are thriving. I will check Mike's info out. From what I have read of his posts he has a lot of good info. Thanks everybody, Mercedesladie |
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10-09-2007, 07:19 PM
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| Hi again, What grade of charcoal do you get? I see there are 4 grades to choose from. Mercedesladie |
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10-09-2007, 11:15 PM
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| I just go to a local garden department of a department store and get "horticultural charcoal". Seems to work great. Pieces are just a little larger than I would like for my phals, so I put a portion into a zip lock bag and smash with a hammer to reduce the size to go along with my edia mix. mike |
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10-10-2007, 02:01 AM
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| This is the recipe I obtained at the last orchid show I attended. This guy has the most fantastic cymbidiums I have ever seen. Pure, clean, large flowers, perfect leaves, not a mark on them. Here is his recipe; I have not tried it yet as I have only just repotted all mine in bark. 80% coconut chips, 15% perlite 5% conunda shell add 1 tbsp dolomite to each orchid pot |
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10-10-2007, 08:27 AM
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| Thanks, I am going to try this mix on my plants. I hope they turn out as nice as what I see in this forum. Mercedesladie |
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10-10-2007, 09:16 AM
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| I've been using coco fibre chunks for about a year and a half now. It's brilliant when mixed with 13mm bark and 10mm river pebbles at 60/30/10 for Masdavallias. I tried it with Aussie Dendrobiums, most of the larger rooted types such as speciosum loved it, but today I found a problem with repotting some of the Dens that were in it.....they don't come out of the pot easily.....the center of the plant tends to tear the fibre, whereas the extremities hold onto the pot. To combat this, I had to scrape the roots off the interior pot walls to get the plant out. This doesn't happen with a full bark mix, well, it hasn't happened to me yet. So, I'm switching back to a bark mix of 85 bark / 15 river pebble. That's what I used to run without the ripping difficulties, the only reason I changed was the cost factor. But, for Masda's, the results are sensational and due to the small root system, it won't tear. Hope this helps somebody. 
__________________ Daryl. If at first you don't suceed, Try, Try, Try ..............a different species!! Devonport Orchid Society. |
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10-10-2007, 08:29 PM
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| Hi Everyone, I ordered a bunch of supplies today. I am going to an Orchid Auction this Sunday so I will need to repot all that I bring home. We have an auction every year and you can pick up some beautiful orchids for $20.00 or less. I brought home 5 last year and the most expensive one I got was $7.00. They are all still living and growing! One of those was that beautiful Den that I posted here in the spring. Thanks for all the wonderful advice! Mercedesladie |
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10-10-2007, 09:02 PM
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| Tess - ALL Australian cyms are gorgeous!! Your cascading types I would just cut off a finger for! (now you know I'm really hooked)
__________________ "Women who obey seldom make history." |
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10-10-2007, 10:17 PM
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| Now PhalPhal - don't you need your fingers for repotting? LOL |
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10-11-2007, 11:47 AM
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| You go girl! Just make sure it's not a thumb! |
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10-11-2007, 11:48 AM
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| PhalPhal - are you near San Marcos or are you further north? My brother is a dentist down in San Marcos - his office is in the old 1910 Schoolhouse. |
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10-11-2007, 01:29 PM
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| Vivienne I'm farther north, not San Diego and not Los Angeles. San Marcos is northern San Diego; I grew up not far from there when there was nothing out there but horses!
__________________ "Women who obey seldom make history." |
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10-11-2007, 04:01 PM
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| Co-Co Liner Uses I just lined a hanging basket I have for other plants and had to trim sections for it to fit. Can the trimmed sections be used for orchid mix or any other uses you can think of? |
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10-11-2007, 04:45 PM
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| Vivienne: I also use the coco liners for a couple other plants. The birds nearly destroyed the edges of the liners picking at it for their nests. To make them happy, I torn off some extra and pulled the fibers apart, threw it around the patio floor - leaving them some nice stuff to build their nests so they'd leave my baskets alone. I have an Ascofinetia & a Neofinetia which were purchased from Oak Hills and they were planted in this type of coir fiber (I call them threads). I hadn't seen orchids planted in this stuff before. Can't be certain if there's any difference in the quality used between that of the coco liners and the stuff from the orchid nursery. When you tear some of the liner apart, the threads look the same as the small bag I bought for repotting these plants. |
