RE: Coco fiber (was Worm Castings)

From: Ron McHatton rmchatton at photocircuits.com> on 2000.10.24 at 01:59:47(5594) It depends on the state of the coco fiber. As loose (relatively speaking) fiber of fine chunks, this material breaks down into a soggy wet mess in an amazingly short period of time. When used as fairly coarse (or large chunks) it does appear to last longer than fir bark. I wouldn't use coco fiber in a terrestrial mix. Even the large chunk material holds a tremendous amount of water which speeds the breakdown process. A similar phenomenon occurs with cork bark. Large slabs of this material are essentially indestructable and have been used for years for mounting orchids. Someone got the bright idea many years ago to use granulated cork bark as a substitute for fir bark in orchids. That material (the fine grade) turns completely to mush in less than 6 months. Anyway, pine bark mulch would be a better substitute in my opinion. +More -----Original Message----- From: Piabinha@aol.com [SMTP:Piabinha@aol.com] Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2000 9:09 PM To: Multiple recipients of list AROID-L Subject: Coco fiber (was Worm Castings) In a message dated 10/20/2000 11:26:57 PM Eastern Daylight Time, lkallus@earthlink.net writes: > A while ago there was a discussion about coco fiber. I understood the > general opinion to be that it broke down so rapidly that it was not a great > material to use in potting mixes. > i think it's the opposite, les. coco fiber breaks down much slower than peat or orchid mixes (bark etc.). tsuh yang chen, nyc, USA http://www.egroups.com/group/orchidspecies

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