Charcoal in the mix question

[Dido]

I have a question,
does anyone of you work with charcoal in the mix.
I was wondering if it could benefit some of my cyps or phaphs.
because if I read some articels about the wild orchids, it often shows up that fire and cutting the forest can be a benefit to the gound orchids.

So I was wondering if t could be of benefit to some kinds. :evil:

The idea came up, when I looked at old pictures of the orchid garden from singapur, a lot of orchids was grown there in this medium, even Vanda like looking kinds. So I am wondering if I can use it or not.
Which reaction will happen is it more acid or more alkaline.

 

[Shiva]

Adding a bit of charcoal in orchid mixes is a long tradition only impaired recently by some studies that suggest breathing charcoal dust could be detrimental to your health. These days, I used large chunk of charcoal exclusively for vandas and large plants whitout any visible problem. As for health, I have long concluded that simply being alive is detrimental to your health.

 

[Marc]

I use charcoal as well, but I'm not sure if it actually does anything for the plant outside of being coarse semi poros material that doesn't degrade very fast.

 

[paphioboy]

Er, I grow all epiphytes in charcoal or charcoal + broken brick/potshards. Its not the addition of charcoal that matters so much, but the type and source of charcoal. Some are good, some are not so good. I think there have been previous threads about this topic.

 

[Lycaste53]

I add some charcoal (5-20mm) to the potting-materials. It´s the lower frequency of diamonds....maybe some day, we all will be able to add the pure thing...
Best regards, Shakti

 

[Rick]

I use it routinely too, but maybe for no reason other than everyone else does.

I use activated carbon of much better grades in waste water treatment.

It pulls out toxic organic materials, some heavy metals, and will catalyze chlorine to chloride.

But not sure if agricultural grade carbon is capable of efficiently doing the above. And in short term may be no more than additional drainage material.

 

[NYEric]

Charcoal - Yes!

 

[Dido]

many thanks.
so I only did not realize it before.
But have someone heard about growing gorund orchids like Cyps in it.
I am not a chemist is the reaction more on the acid or on the alkaline side.
Or maybe nutral.

 

[Stone]

I bought a large P gratrixianum last year. It was growing in a 50/50 bark charcoal mix and had fantastic roots. I believe good hardwood charcoal is best.

 

[slippertalker]

My standard mix has charcoal, fir bark and perlite as the primary ingredients. The size of the particles is determined by the size of the roots......

 

[gonewild]

Charcoal is on the alkaline side for pH. Depending on what species of wood it is made from and if it is completely carbonized it probably has a pH of about 8.0.

Keep in mind that not all burnt wood is the same. Good quality charcoal is made over a long period of time by limiting the amount of oxygen when the wood is combusted. This makes the charcoal mostly pure carbon and good for using in potting media.

Wood that burns quickly in a high oxygen content atmosphere will likely contain a lot of compounds in addition to carbon and these may be harmful to orchids. So charcoal from a fireplace or forest fire may have a very high pH and probably not be good to use.

 

[Stone]

Here is a good way to check for toxicity of any media.
1 Put some of the material into a clean plastic pot and water
2 Buy some radish seeds and sprinkle them on top ( don't worry if they work their way down it still works)
3 Water lightly and cover with a sheet of glass
4 Place in a warm shaded spot for a week
5 Tip out the contents and examine the roots. ( magnifying glass?)
If the fine root hairs are white and clean-- your ok to go, If they are discolored in any way-- problems!

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

I use small amounts of charcoal (lumps) in my paph mixes, out of habit. When I run out of it, the plants in mix without it don't seem to do any worse.

 

[SlipperFan]

Stone, that is very interesting. Is there a specific type of toxicity this checks for? Wrong ph? Pathogens? Salts?

 

[Stone]

Stone, that is very interesting. Is there a specific type of toxicity this checks for? Wrong ph? Pathogens? Salts?

Checks for any gross imbalances of salts, nutrients things like sodium, chloride
IF ph is way off, probably soil- borne pathogens as well. Its an old test we did at hort. school.

 

[SlipperFan]

Thanks, Stone.

 

[Erythrone]

Thank you for sharing your old test, Stone!!!

 

[Dido]

This test is very interesting.
Will try it with my source