Pax I was happy with Planet Natural.

Here is a link that might be useful: Planet Natural

Cindee, how long does one brick usually last you? Have you had any problems with the coco from this company such as mold, fungus, etc? Danke =)

Paxfleur - I ordered a bale of Coir from Interior Gardens in Minneapolis, Minnesota... it worked out to be a good deal, even with shipping... Planet Natural was another place we looked, and found them to be good, too...

Be careful which coir you order... make sure it has been flushed to remove excess salts, and that it's been fully decomposed... both very important!

Keep in mind that coconut coir requires adding nutrients, and make sure the PH is balanced... I prefer using a mixture of coir and vermiculite, with a layer of charcoal chips at the bottom of the pot, both for drainage and keeping the medium "fresh"...

What I'm getting at is... research a bit before you make a purchase... be sure you know what you're getting and why you're using it!

Here's another link to check out... this is the type I bought...

Here is a link that might be useful: Interior Gardens, Inc.

Wow, you bought 25 pounds of Coconut coir? That must've been a whole lotta medium because the soil felt really light to me when I used my coco disc! =) I don't know if I will need quite that much of coconut coir. =) Did you say that you also ordered from Planet Natural or just heard that they were good?

Cindee ordered from Planet Natural.
Jodi is planning to set up an amaryllis farm, so she needs a lot of coconut coir! :o)

Hehe! Not a big farm... just a little one!

I originally placed my order for coir with Planet Natural, but for some reason they had a problem running my PayPal MasterCard, so I re-ordered from Interior Gardens and everything worked out fine. I got a large bale, but because it's an inert product, it should store fine if I don't use it relatively quick.

So far, I've used it to re-pot and pot all my bulbs and a few of my other houseplants... and I'll be using it for seed starting in spring... I don't think the bale will last as long as you'd think. I mix it with vermiculite, and it makes a nice fluffy medium with good drainage properties. I also plan on trying a coir/perlite mixture, and a coir/Bonsai mixture.

You know how it is, Jodi,

You start with a little amaryllis farm, and in years, you will not even notice that you are planting 2 acres already full of bulbs.

Pax, I used 2 bricks to fill 7 in-ground planting holes. 2 Very large planters and I med size planter. What I like is it drains so well. It gets light and fluffy on the surface but stays slightly moist below. DO NOT water until you can get your fingers to the base of the bulb and feel dryness. The stuff from Planet Natural is 100% pure coir. I have not had a mold or rot problem. I would think that would only occur if you over watered or they got too much rain. One of my older larger bulbs I first planted in the coir 2 weeks ago has roots putting out in all directions. The medium is light and lets the roots spread out rather than clump together like they do in soil. I love it.

soultan-soon we will not be able to find jodi, hidden in the back 40 by millions of amaryllis! lol

We will find her buying up all the bulbs from the stores and sell them on ebay.

I would never do that, Soultan! I would only buy the bulbs I want for myself, and leave the rest for others who might want some!

If I lived in a frost-free climate, you might just find me somewhere out in the back 40 checking the progress of my bulbs! I wonder how costly bulb farm equipment is... hmmm...

On a serious note... we are talking about getting a large greenhouse next year... it would be a permanent set-up with water and propane piped right in... I do hope we can get one!

Wow... Now you are getting realy serious. I spent on the amaryllis bed as well, and I just created two more beds for the seedlings, and probably for Hungarian vegetables and stuff. We will be experimenting next year.

Cindee, I'll look into Planet Natural. =) With the holidays coming up, I'm not quite sure I'll have room for the 25lb bag of coco but thanks for the reccommendation Jodi, I'm keeping that link on my favs. [img]http://www.websmileys.com/sm/angels/angel2.gif[/img]

Pax, use HTML code here, not img code.

Well, Paxfleur, you never know when you might need a back-up place to order from! I think both places have nice items at decent prices... you can't go wrong with either place!

Soultan - The larger greenhouse wouldn't be just for hippeastrums... it would be for seed starting, young plants, and more sensitive plants... plus, we plan to sell a few flats of annuals, perennials and herbs from it, as well... we're positioned right on a corner where two roads meet, and we have the room to start a small home business of selling flowers and herbs, and a few vegetable starts... that's one of the reasons I've been working so hard at making the gardens look nice... so people will want to stop and look around, perhaps buy a few flowers or plants... would be good for making a little spending money!

You see, you are just starting a new business. It must be exciting. You can have your own little corner for your fun plants and you can tend for commercial growing as well. Which will be fun anyway because you are into gardening. If I didn't grow the bulbs from seed and they wouldn't be mutts, I would probably sell my bulbs as well, but this charity thing might work, because I can make sure that the mutts make others happy, even if they are not worth much...
Good luck with your green house and project...
Oh - We got approved on the house by the Commission... I took a video camera to the meeting and it completely intimidated them, so they approved us within 7 minutes... Sometimes, you just have to show people that you can fight back.

Oh, Soultan! I am so happy for you!!! Yay!!! Now, we do the dance of joy!!! Very good, and lucky for them, because I was getting ready to come out there and kick some stuck-up butt!!

We just need the greenhouse set up, and to come up with a catchy name for a sign to be put up on the corner... and we'll be in business! Nothing too large... just enough to make a little extra money, and have some fun doing it... we'll have the staple veggie plants, herbs and annuals, and several kinds of perennials... plus a few unusual plants that you wouldn't find anywhere else. And as our veggie garden is harvested, we'll also have a few things from there to sell, like tomatoes, peppers, green beans and thing like that... it should be very fun and interesting!

I will try not to forget to send you a few Hungarian TV paprika seeds for your garden or green house. They are not like the Dutch bell peppers. They are smaller, have thinner meats, full of juice, and do not overpower food like the bell peppers. Then you can start them and then plant them out or whereve you wish, and enjoy them. They are very easy to grow and they taste very good. You remember, I smuggled in some seeds with me... :o)

I would love that, Soultan! And when I grow them, the tags will say: "Soultan's Hungarian Pepper", and I bet people will come back and ask for them the following year! Yes, that would be wonderful, and it would be an unusual type of vegetable plant that no one else had! And I will save the seeds every year and grow them... they must be an heirloom variety!

Not heirloom. They are hybrid. I will still try to get seeds for something called Pritamin or Tomatopepper. It looks like a small very deep red pumpkin, but it is a pepper. If I get some seeds over here, I will send some to you. They are fun to grow and taste. All these will have normal given names. I will write them on the package.

Ok... I am willing to try to grow any seeds you'd like to send! I do like to try a variety of different vegetables and herbs, perennials and vines... it would be nice to have an array to offer potential customers!

Yes. You can save the seeds for yourself and maybe sell the seedlings too. I guarantee you these taste very good. Though I must say that it always depends on personal preferences. I always prefer taste to size.

I couldn't agree more... flavor wins over size of fruit... what good is a huge tomato or pepper if it tastes like cardboard?

There are a lot of fruits and vegetables here in the US, but since they are grown in factory-like circumstances and harvested still unripened, they are so tasteless, that I rarely if even buy them from stores... It is especially evident when you can grow your own and taste it... As different as chalk and cheese... When I can, I go to Farmers' market and try to buy from small growers. They might not use the latest *icides or whatever the vitamins and hormones' names are, but their product is real and harvested at the peak of their time... If you have ever eaten really ripe watermelons, you refuse to buy any from the stores. If you have ever eaten really ripe grapes, you can really taste how sour the packaged ones are in the stores.
I so miss Hungary for this. You can actually get ripe fruits and vegetables there... I guess, in smaller countries, it is easier to distribute and sell the goods faster than here in the US, so because of the vast quantities and large distances, US growers just want to go for the safe solution and harvest the goods still green, so by the time it gets to the stores, it might turn to it's ripened color, but the taste is just missing.

I agree... this last season, I grew watermelons and cantaloupe... the flavor was excellent!

I do notice that even some tomatoes we buy plant starts for and grow, do not taste good... I think it's the genetically engineered seeds... I prefer the old fashioned types that really have good flavor...

Next year, we should have apples growing, too... we planted a Fuji apple tree a couple of years ago... it had 3 apples on it last season, but I didn't taste one. I'm hoping it produces more apples next year!

In Hungary, they haul the watermelons on trucks and people go to the farmers market to buy them. That is guaranteed fresh, just picked.

Jodi, I just love fuji apples. I grew up in a farming and canning area in Michigan. One thing I sure do miss is crisp apples in the fall. By the time most fruit not grown in Florida gets shipped here, it is tasteless and bland.

For a short time, the local store here carried Cameo apples... I love them, but they must be seasonal because they are gone now! I love the taste and the soft flesh... they were perfect for slicing and eating with peanut butter! This is the first time I've tried Cameos, and I really enjoyed them...