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| I bought an amaryllis bulb at Lowe's. It came with a big brown pellet and instructions to add a couple of cups of warm water. Withing a couple of minutes it was swollen into almost a quart of fine feeling flaky potting medium.
Do you know what the pellet is called? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by toxcrusadr (My Page) on Wed, Nov 16, 11 at 16:56
| I believe that's called a peat pellet or compressed potting medium pellet. |
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- Posted by albert_135 Sunset 2 or 3 (My Page) on Wed, Nov 16, 11 at 17:47
| I found a Dutch wholesaler of something called "Coco-pellets (Soil-pellets)". Amaryllis might quite likely be Dutch I suppose. Why did I toss the box and instructions? Perhaps I could go back to Lowe's spend another six bucks? |
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- Posted by toxcrusadr (My Page) on Thu, Nov 17, 11 at 12:28
| I've grown Amaryllis for years, if there's anything you want to know I'll be happy to try and answer your questions. |
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| Coco is the lining between the coconut & the outer hull. This coco holds up to 9 times its weight in water. |
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| Go back to Lowes but don't spend the $6. Just read the package while there. |
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- Posted by albert_135 Sunset 2 or 3 (My Page) on Sun, Nov 20, 11 at 14:26
| The insert in the package at Lowe's just calls them ''compressed planting disk''. They are a bit less that four inches in diameter and a bit less than a half inch thick. The color and feel causes one to think that they must be primarily coco and they absorb much water incredibly fast. Of course I have not idea as to their value as a planting medium but I would really like to find a retail source. |
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- Posted by toxcrusadr (My Page) on Mon, Nov 21, 11 at 10:23
| Oh, you're just trying to buy the pellets? I didn't get that. Well, I found the name by just searching the net. Although a lot of the hits seemed to be producers and wholesalers, there has to be someone out there who sells them retail. Have you tried the big seed companies like Gurneys who carry a lot of products? Or are you looking to buy local and avoid shipping? If so you might talk to some nurseries or better yet, the ones with big greenhouses that grow all the plants that end up in the nurseries and stores. |
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- Posted by gardengal48 PNW zone 8 (My Page) on Tue, Nov 22, 11 at 17:39
| It's coir or cocoa fiber. Makes a great planting medium or component thereof and relatively easy to locate at any better garden center or online. They are usually sold as compressed bricks or disks. Hydration with warm water results in them swelling up to a loose and moisture retentive but yet feely draining planting medium. |
Here is a link that might be useful: coir disks and bricks
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| I happen to have one of these laying around leftover from last year! Bought 2 Amaryllis but only used one of them. It is a "Coir disc" as gardengal said. 1 disc + 3.5 cups of warm water = 1 pot of ready to use coir medium It is pretty cool the way it expands. My only concern with coir is that it may compress over time in the container perhaps as badly as soil does? Toxcrusader, do you have success getting your Amaryllis to rebloom? |
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| Any retail nursery that carries seed starting supplies should have those - probably even Lowe's does in spring. |
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- Posted by albert_135 Sunset 2 or 3 (My Page) on Sat, Nov 26, 11 at 12:17
| reg_pnw7 is correct in that the pellets should be at retail seed starting supply places. I am not sure we should expect them at Lowe's in the spring. As terrene suggests they are rather intriguing and may or may not be of interest beyond intrigue but I am a tinkerer and intrigue is my main interest. Some more searching brings up the a hint that ''CoCo'' may be a Dutch brand name but search tools that I know about will not sort out CoCo from coco I am still not sure about this glimmer of discovery. |
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- Posted by albert_135 Sunset 2 or 3 (My Page) on Tue, Jan 31, 12 at 17:43
| Does anyone here know if the US name for the disks described above may be "WonderSoil Expanding Wafers"? |
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| Albert, the product in the Lowe's is compressed coir. Coir is a natural product derived from the outer husks of coconuts. Often spelled COCO, it has nothing to do with cocoa. Coconut husk products have been used for years as door mats, wire basket liners, and a jillion other things. Its use as a growing medium is relatively recent (5-10 years) on the retail market. Coir is derived from the husk, not the shell. The peat pellets are something else entirely. They've been used by gardeners for ages. I would be quite certain the the pellets of which you are speaking are not Wondersoil Expanding Wafers, which contain and expensive mixture of other ingredients, coir as the main component. I was given an Lowe's amaryllis a couple of years ago, and it was simple a big ol' coir pellet. Some while back, I was given a sample of a potting mix composed of coir, bark fines, peat, and perlite. Not bad stuff at all. The mixes that I've seen that are pure coir I don't like at all. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Coconut husks=coir
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