Coconut fiber is ok as long as the soil mix remains slightly acidic

It should be fine, Chris. How coarse is it? I know growers who are using coir peat, either straight or adding some perlite to it. Whatever you use, it's best to be consistant. It's easier to control the watering if everything is drying out at the same rate.

Thanks for the replies.

Lisa, I guess this stuff is the fine grade. It all came as a compressed brick that had to be soaked from a hydroponics store. It made the soak water like dark ice tea!

I use coir peat (coco peat) as a medium for retaining moister in a range of specie mixes. ALSO I wil use coco chunks strait or a 50/50 mix with pine bark. I have had some plants in other brom mixes for upto 4 months without a root appearing, then i've placed it in just coir chunks and within a week or so roots are growing. Other species I have put into coir chunks I have found they have formed masive root systems in no time at all.when I look at some of the photo's through this site from plants grown in bancock I noticed they use alot of coir.

Hi,

I met a woman who winds a wad of coco fibre (the hairy stuff on the outside of the coconut??) around the 'root' area of her broms and then plonks the whole lot in a pot - she swears by it as she reckons the roots appear earlier than any other 'mix' that she has used.

I now only use compressed coco 'peat' - the chunky variety that is suited also to orchids - it is cheap, makes tons, has some fertiliser added and stores well. I break off a chunk as needed. The fine variety could be added to a chunkier variety to hold water on the roots for a little longer, if that is what you want.