How may of you soak your orchid bark(or cocohusk) to remove as much tannins as possible. I get the impression some people use it right out of the bag.
I just got done soaking some cocohusk chips for about three weeks to a month, changing the water every few days. I did not intend to do it for that long(I was lazy and kept forgetting to take it out and then thought "I better change the water and soak it overnight again).
The thing is, once you soak either for a couple of days, the bark has a pinesol smell to it. It took weeks of soaking for that to go away and now the cochusk smells really clean. I am going to try this with bark too. I have no idea what this means, but no smell seems better than a pine smell, for some reason.
I know one Australian grower who uses pine bark and piles it up, sprinkles urea on it in and hoses it a little, repeating this for six weeks or so, to leach the tannins out. He says the bark ends up nice and black and rich.
Regards,
Joe
I just got done soaking some cocohusk chips for about three weeks to a month, changing the water every few days. I did not intend to do it for that long(I was lazy and kept forgetting to take it out and then thought "I better change the water and soak it overnight again).
The thing is, once you soak either for a couple of days, the bark has a pinesol smell to it. It took weeks of soaking for that to go away and now the cochusk smells really clean. I am going to try this with bark too. I have no idea what this means, but no smell seems better than a pine smell, for some reason.
I know one Australian grower who uses pine bark and piles it up, sprinkles urea on it in and hoses it a little, repeating this for six weeks or so, to leach the tannins out. He says the bark ends up nice and black and rich.
Regards,
Joe