Coconut husk chips : your guide to CHCs
Hello all, I just noticed that there are many orchid enthusiasts out there who are very much interested in trying out different growth media, especially coconut husk products. So I decided to make a small tutorial of how I make my media which is almost entirely based on coconut husk. Let me begin by telling that from just one coconut palm at my house I get enough husk to pot and repot roughly 250 orchids every year, I also use it for my ferns, bromeliads and anthuriums.
1) Step one: take coco nut husk peeled off from a coconut and a pair of non sharp scissors that can be used like a crabs claw to peel off the husk.
2) Using the scissors peel out the husk, while doing so a lot of powdery, spongy material called pith will separate from the husk. At the end you will be left with 3 substances, 1) The de-husked coconut shell (used for making CHCs), 2) The pith (or cocopeat can be mixed with perlite and charcoal as a potting medium for orchid seedlings and other pot plants) , 3) The husk (can be used for mounting orchids, mulching, to line baskets etc.)
3) Now the de-husked shell can be easily drawn into thin strips about 1/2 to 1 inch thick (they will split sideways when you try to cut them with scissors).
4) Now using sharp shears, just cut the strips into small pieces roughly square in shape, so you will end up with CHCs about 1X1 sq. inch to 1X1/2 sq. inch
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