FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I was just wondering if anyone used Coco husk and how well it worked instead of peat?. For those of you that do, do you have to rinse it like peat?

I started using the coco coir recently, I guess that is the ground up husks and coconut fiber.

Yes! definitely wash it a few times even if it says it has already been washed. Let is soak for a while each time. I used 122 ppm tap water the first few times then used rain water.

So far my VFT seedlings seem to be doing better in it than in peat/sand, but that's not scientific, just my personal observation.

It does have a light, springy texture that I love and it doesn't seem to dry out as quickly as other media. My neps are in a mix of about 60% coir, 20% long fiber sphagnum, and 20% perlite. When the pot feels light, there is still quite a bit of moisture when you touch the media with your fingers.

I don't really like it since it's not acidic like peat, but I haven't ever done any experiments with similar plants to tell if one is much different than the other. I do however use coco coir with some nepenthes mixes and also in one ceph pot since I was too lazy to go outside for the peat in the garage. They seem fine as far as I can tell. I rinsed mine, but just once over, I didn't feel like measuring any TDS (mainly because I don't have a meter).

Thank for the replies. My tap is 200ppm but the first rinse of pest with RO 3ppm test put at 170. So tap would raise it(right?). I like to do as much peat as I can so I have it on hand so it's a bit relentless. I was just looking for something that didn't need rinsing or very little. I'll have to try some and see how it goes. Anyone want to add more please do.