Josh: The following link, "http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/potmix.html", provides references to places that market coir based product which guarantee no salt. Mr. Kelly M. Irvin 10850 Hodge Ln Gravette, AR 72736 USA 479-787-9958 USDA Cold Hardiness Zone 6a/b http://www.irvincentral.com/ On 7/28/10 6:22 PM, Josh Young wrote: > Steve, > > Believe me, that wasn't "too" much info! I just potted some geos in it > today and I was so amazed at how well it held water and how quickly it drained! > I ordered a few more bricks right afterwards, now I'm regreting it! > > > I'll give it a good bath and we'll see what happens, I just dont want to > risk losing any of my plants, I usually only have a plant or two of each species > that I collect and to lose one isn't worth it! > > Josh > Indiana > > > > ________________________________ > From: Steve Marak<samarak@gizmoworks.com> > To: Pacific Bulb Society<pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> > Sent: Wed, July 28, 2010 7:06:31 PM > Subject: Re: [pbs] What Do You Think Of Coconut Coir? > > This is a subject that seems to be coming up on a lot of lists I'm on. > > There's some confusion because there seem to be several closely related > products. I'm aware of three: fibrous coir, coconut husk chips, and coir > peat (obtained usually from the dust generated when producing the other > two). All are obtained from the husks of coconuts, and the stories I hear > about them seem to be similar, but they're rarely interchangable in use. > Fibrous coir has many non-horticultural uses, too. > > With good quality bark becoming more expensive and harder to get, many > orchid growers are looking at coconut husk chips as an alternative, and - > since even among fanatic plant-growers few groups are as fervant as > orchidists - I've done a lot of reading in those circles (plus I'm an > orchid grower too, and I hate repotting). Some are also using fibrous coir > as a substitute for long-fiber sphagnum. > > Most people seem happy with the water-holding qualities of all three > products, as well as their stability in use (less repotting). The question > of salt, and how to remove it, is always the big one - there are many > reports of people losing plants after moving them to a coir-based medium, > and it's always blamed on salt, though I don't know how many people > actually test to be sure. Salt content is reported to vary widely > depending on source. > > At any rate, it's always recommended to thoroughly wash the fibrous coir > and coconut husk chips, soaking them for at least several days and > changing the water regularly, before using it. If you're going to use a > lot of it, I'd recommend buying a cheap "Total Dissolved Solids" meter. It > won't produce lab-quality measurements, since they measure using > electrical conductivity, but it's good enough to give you a baseline on > your tap water (or whatever the source of your rinse water is), and to > compare that to what's shown after the coir has been soaking. When the two > numbers get fairly close together, we assume that we've done all we can do > just leaching with our tap water. > > Some have looked into it much more deeply - Bob and Lynn Wellenstein, at > Antec Laboratories, suggest that after water-soaking the coir, you soak it > in a solution of calcium nitrate and magnesium sulfate, to help remove > sodium and potassium ions which may be adhering to the surface (and which > may not be removed by just a water soak). Here's a link: > > http://ladyslipper.com/coco3.htm > > I've tried soaking coir peat, too. As you'd expect, it's a dirty, > unrewarding task which leaves you with a sodden glob of muck. I've read > that coir peat is much more thoroughly washed by the time we get it, and > that additional soaking isn't necessary, but can't verify that. We haven't > used that much of it. So far, we're happy with the chips we've used for > orchids. > > Probably more than anyone wanted to read or know ... > > Steve > > > On Wed, 28 Jul 2010, Mary Sue Ittner wrote: > > ... > >> As I recall there were some negative responses and some positive ones about >> using coir. On a recent trip to South Africa, I helped Rod and Rachel Saunders >> repot some Scadoxus to sell and they were growing them in pure coir, nothing >> else. When I asked about this, remembering that people had said they had lost >> things using coir, Rod told me that you needed to wash it many times before >> using it to be sure that you have removed the salt from it. But then they >> found it worked quite well. It reminded me that I once heard a lecture on >> insectivorous plants by a man who had written a great book about growing them >> and he lost everything using coir, but I don't know if he washed it first. >> > -- Steve Marak > -- samarak@gizmoworks.com > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > > > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > >