Re: Is this coarse clay?
 

Hi Ed

Nice "clay" you've got yourself there......And also you have MIGHT???? Okay wasn't here to say that but anyways...I agree with most of them that you should just buy a pack of red soil or burnt clay or something since its proven usable for everyone..

Ken

Re: Is this coarse clay?
 

Okokokok.........Now I just got sooooo fed up, I just went to the nursery to get a packet of burnt coarse clay. It only cost RM1.50, sooo cheap lah. Plus, it comes in a large bag, wowowow........

Something I discover about coarse clay whether it is burnt or not, it tends to be a very bad drainer when it is water logged. I mixed some burnt coarse clay that I bought with perlite, and water it till none of the water could drain of anymore. Now, the water is still at the top of the pot, not draining at all. Same goes to a pot of 100% burnt coarse clay that I water till the water could not drain.

This leads me to believe that if anyone is using coarse clay for their neps, whether it is burnt or not, and whether it is mixed with other potting medias to watch their watering. As in, growers should water carefully, to avoid the coarse clay to become too waterlogged and unable to drain excess water.

This is just my opinion. If I am wrong, please correct me.

Cheers

Re: Is this coarse clay?
 

Edward , there is no control of what sizes goes into the bag, give it a rinse to separate the coarse and fine parts. Use straight from the bag the finer ones will clogged the pot's drain holes.

Re: Is this coarse clay?
 

I agree with Robert.. You have to sieve the burnt clay first and use only the granular ones.. Burnt earth is widely used as medium for terrestrial orchids which require perfect drainage, so I'm surprised you said it holds water...

Re: Is this coarse clay?
 

Edward,
I've used burnt clay extesively on my neps and have observed no ill effect on the neps. Some like albomarginata and northiana I used 100% burnt clay with good results. I washed, soaked & sieved all the burnt clay I use to get rid of those fine dust which I believe will cause what you've encounter if you don't sieve it.
Just make sure what you get are those hard chuncky clay, not the ones the will break apart when it's wet. Hope this help.

Re: Is this coarse clay?
 

I use burnt clay and I wash it over a sieve. The fine particles are washed off. I only have problems of too open media, i.e. it doesn't hold water.

Re: Is this coarse clay?
 

You have to add in some organic based media to enable some moisture retention if you want to use burnt clay as part of the media. 100% burnt clay is suitable for neps that prefer drier media, i.e. albomarginata, northiana, campanulata and etc....

Re: Is this coarse clay?
 

can you take a picture to show.

since clay are porous and retained moisture the plant ( northiana in this case ) will be fine. The idea was to mimic northiana's natural growing conditions.

Re: Is this coarse clay?
 

Will take a picture and post it soon.

Re: Is this coarse clay?
 

Oh, I must have missed a lot while I was gone. Well, now I have to sieve the clay. I got a siever from my mom,(didn't buy one, they are so darn expensive!!). I wil have to get another bag too.

Cheers