- Sat Aug 04, 2012 3:55 pm
#150415
Personally I've had great results with Coir based mixes for Dionaea. Keeping in mind I've gone to great lengths to make sure the salinity levels are well below recommended.
Keeping a close eye on future levels as well by testing water sitting in trays periodically.
The coir in question is your standard Canna Coir from the local hydroponics store. 35 bucks for 50L.
Rinsed around 4 times, soaking overnight or during the day for a minimum of 8h at each interval using rain water measuring 10-12ppm.
The last soaking usually registers around the 25ppm mark.
I had previously tried some $2 Brunnings Coir Bricks before that but after over a week of soaking it was still hovering around 50ppm so that went into the compost heap
I've noticed in other countries there are two types, in that case it will be the one with added trichoderma.
Having potted some of my earlier plants when I couldn't get my hands on some good quality sphagnum peat moss, I ended up using coir as a substitute for standard peat based mixes recommended to me.
Currently I have 1 Typical Cephalotus and 2 Heliamphora plantlets in this media growing in a comfy greenhouse.
As well as other cephs and helis potted into peat/sphagnum based mixes a little while after.
It's been around 2 months give or take and I've noticed the ceph is as happy as it's ever looked as we're about to come into the growing season. Throwing out some fresh new leaves and the beginnings of multiple pitchers.
As for the helis it's the same story, they are very healthy and have put out a few new pitchers.
Still a little early to say for certain but so far so good. I'll be sure to keep you guys posted about my results.
However, I do have some concerns regarding the build-up of salt and other such nasties. So I might end up repotting the majority of my vfts to peat at the end of the growing season if the levels exceed my limits.
If it's taken for what it's worth, coir seems like a good medium for getting small plantlets started which could be potted into peat based mixes after the useful life of it has been spent.
Probably a little costly however. But I can't say it's not wonderful seeing how fast and vigorously they recover from repotting in coir.
The ones in peat seem to be slower at this point.
I've heard of a few people using coir for cephalotus with good results but I'd like to know if anyone has used it with helis? such as a 4:2:1 peat:sphagnum:perlite.
Keeping a close eye on future levels as well by testing water sitting in trays periodically.
The coir in question is your standard Canna Coir from the local hydroponics store. 35 bucks for 50L.
Rinsed around 4 times, soaking overnight or during the day for a minimum of 8h at each interval using rain water measuring 10-12ppm.
The last soaking usually registers around the 25ppm mark.
I had previously tried some $2 Brunnings Coir Bricks before that but after over a week of soaking it was still hovering around 50ppm so that went into the compost heap
I've noticed in other countries there are two types, in that case it will be the one with added trichoderma.
Having potted some of my earlier plants when I couldn't get my hands on some good quality sphagnum peat moss, I ended up using coir as a substitute for standard peat based mixes recommended to me.
Currently I have 1 Typical Cephalotus and 2 Heliamphora plantlets in this media growing in a comfy greenhouse.
As well as other cephs and helis potted into peat/sphagnum based mixes a little while after.
It's been around 2 months give or take and I've noticed the ceph is as happy as it's ever looked as we're about to come into the growing season. Throwing out some fresh new leaves and the beginnings of multiple pitchers.
As for the helis it's the same story, they are very healthy and have put out a few new pitchers.
Still a little early to say for certain but so far so good. I'll be sure to keep you guys posted about my results.
However, I do have some concerns regarding the build-up of salt and other such nasties. So I might end up repotting the majority of my vfts to peat at the end of the growing season if the levels exceed my limits.
If it's taken for what it's worth, coir seems like a good medium for getting small plantlets started which could be potted into peat based mixes after the useful life of it has been spent.
Probably a little costly however. But I can't say it's not wonderful seeing how fast and vigorously they recover from repotting in coir.
The ones in peat seem to be slower at this point.
I've heard of a few people using coir for cephalotus with good results but I'd like to know if anyone has used it with helis? such as a 4:2:1 peat:sphagnum:perlite.
- By Tanya Drossos
- By optique
- By andynorth