Coconut husk chips anyone?

[Pananep]

I was wondering if anyone had experience using a mix consisting mainly of fine/medium coconut husk chips? I read it is an alternative to orchid bark and has a life expectancy of 3 - 5 years. It is also a bit cheaper. I am planning to change my current mix to a mixture of coconut husk chips and sphagnum moss, 1:1 or 2:1 for the few intermediates/highlanders I have. Maybe some perlite or charcoal added, but not sure about that yet. For lowlanders I plant to use the same with some sphagnum peat moss thrown in. I am afraid that my current mix is retaining too much water plus I want more air to reach the roots. Any opinions?

[Jonathan]

Hello...

I'm currently using 2:1:1 coco chip,peat and perlite... they worked great for my lowlander since i have never try on my highlander yet... they required to be water once a day and they are airy i would say... overall they worked great^^

Regards
Jonathan

[Pananep]

Jonathan,

Living in Kuala Lumpur I believe you are ~3-4 degrees north of the Equator. Panama is ~ 9 degrees north. By this I mean to say that we probably share very similar weather. I have one or two plants that are potted up in coconut husk chips mixed with sphagnum moss, I only water these guys 3 times a week tops. Sometimes only once or twice. It has been raining a lot lately though so that might be the reason. They seem to be doing fine and growing healthy hence why I want to change my mix to coconut husk. For lowlanders, perhaps adding more peat and or sphagnum moss into the mix will allow it to stay moist for longer periods of time. I want to be sure that my mix drains well and has good air circulation but I also want it to hold enough water just in case I have to go away for a few days I dont have to be worried about it drying out. Also, if I wanted to fertilize any plants I want the medium to be well draining in order to respctively flush out any possible residual salts and mineral builup. Thanks you for your answer.
Later!

[Jonathan]

Hello...

I guess we does have similar weather since it's raining season here in kuala lumpur... i dont actually water my plant in raining season because they are all out in the garden where they get rain bath... but in drier season you does have to water atlease once a day or you could do as you says add more peat and perlite i assume a 1:1:1 ratio? anyway hope you could keep us update with the result... take care

Regards
Jonathan

[Pananep]

Jonathan,

Sometime during the next month I plan to repot all of my plants into the new mix. Once I do this I will post updates on what mix I decided to go with and later on how the plants react to it. Thanks a lot for your input, take care.

Later!

[Aliamyz]

That would be great Pananep!
You'll see some differents after repotting.
Currently my ventricosa is growing od rough coconut husk so i'm planning on doing the smae too but not now as my plants are recovering from stress and i don't want them to stress again too!

Please keep us updated!

[shawnintland]

I agree with the other comments, it works fine for me here in Thailand. I started out using only coco cubes for my neps but have added in charcoal, perlite, small size pummice stones, etc to help when the coco starts to break down and become compacted. My main problem is frogs, toads and lizards that seem to love burrowing into it! About 7 months of the year my weather is hot and fairly dry so most my neps get the 'tray' method to keep them from drying out. That probably effects how fast the coco breaks down. I pretty much only grow low-landers here as it's just too hot for anything else. I'm trying out some highlanders from seed and seeing if I can get enough of the survivors to make it to maturity to cross into intermediate conditions...hopefully I can keep picking out the most suitable ones and get some that can handle my conditions. Good luck!