I need several 2 cubic foot bags of Rexius Bark, 2 medium and 1 fine, does
anyone know of someone in the Philadelphia area. Parkside is sold out of the
medium and I did not want to make the trip for just the fine.

Thanks

Why not substitute CHC?

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info!

.. . . . . . . . . . .
"TRAINMAN9" wrote in message
...
I need several 2 cubic foot bags of Rexius Bark, 2 medium and 1 fine, does
anyone know of someone in the Philadelphia area. Parkside is sold out of
the
medium and I did not want to make the trip for just the fine.

Thanks

Why in the world would you want Rexius bark? Its the worst that I have
ever encountered...leaves your fingers full of splinters, rots at an
accelerated rate, and kills paphs faster than Roundup. Unless your'e
growing phrags, which for some perverse reason love Rexius (under my
conditions.....) if you must use bark go for Sequioia (Crystal River
sells it, among others...), but I agree with Ray....go for coconut husk
chips. Take care, Eric Muehlbauer

Why in the world would you want Rexius bark? Its the worst that I have
ever encountered...leaves your fingers full of splinters, rots at an
accelerated rate, and kills paphs faster than Roundup.

You are the first one to mention anything like this. There are a number of
growers using this bark with excellent results. The Little Greenhouse in MD, in
business for over 30 years, and one of the premier growers of paphs swears by
Rexius bark.

if you must use bark go for Sequioia

Sequioia, was very good bark at one time but near the end of their production
they were packing the bark wet. I had used it the last time I repotted my
greenhouse and even when treated with Physan I still got snow mold.

I also noticed that it broke down very quickly.

but I agree with Ray....go for coconut husk
chips.

I have been growing for over 25 years and was also in the commercial end of the
business for over 15 years where we sold thousands of plants all over the
country. We were a frequent advertiser in both AOS and OD. We always used fir
bark based mixes with great success.

but I agree with Ray....go for coconut husk
chips.

Thanks for the suggestion but I don't wish to make a change from bark based
mixes.

Hi #9, found this url, which you probably did too, on google. Interesting
reading.
But holy jump'in, is it expensive but shipping is included!!!!
I imagine if you bought a large bag of cheap orchid bark, soak it in a
trash can
& only use the stuff that floats, sun dry you would come pretty close???

http://www.rexius.com/orchid_bark/orchid.html

Cheers Wendy

"TRAINMAN9" wrote in message
...
I need several 2 cubic foot bags of Rexius Bark, 2 medium and 1 fine, does
anyone know of someone in the Philadelphia area. Parkside is sold out of
the
medium and I did not want to make the trip for just the fine.

Thanks

"TRAINMAN9" wrote in message
...
Why in the world would you want Rexius bark? Its the worst that I have
ever encountered...leaves your fingers full of splinters, rots at an
accelerated rate, and kills paphs faster than Roundup.

You are the first one to mention anything like this. There are a number of
growers using this bark with excellent results. The Little Greenhouse in
MD, in
business for over 30 years, and one of the premier growers of paphs swears
by
Rexius bark.

No one is questioning your ability as a grower, but this isn't the first
time I have seen remarks like Eric's. In fact, they seem to represent the
common wisdon at the orchid societies I have visited here. It is almost
certainly due to the two of you having very different experiences with it.
One of my references gives information that might help explain the
difference of experience. It said that fir bark was at one time the medium
of choice, but as time passed, the general quality of the bark available
declined, leading to a situation where many growers began actively searching
for an alternative, which turned out to be coconut husk chips. The problems
that author mentioned associated with bark were precisely those you have
identified with Sequioia bark and what Eric attributed to Rexius bark. Now,
not being an expert in the history of the orchid growing industry, I can't
comment on the competence of that particular author, but if he is right, the
information he has provided could explain why so many growers these days
have had bad experience with bark while you and your colleagues have had
good success with it.

It is no surprise that you and the growers you mention have had great
success with it. After all, you are all experts and presumably you would
not be buying poor quality bark.

I use coconut husk chips, and that with great success with my catts and
dends, but my phals have not liked 100% cocnut husk chips any better than
100% sphagnum (they're still alive, but not doing as well as they ought), so
I'll be setting up an experiment in which I'll mix the two. It is a
question of what will work for me in my conditions, and how easy it is to
get and at what price. At the price I saw on the web page for which Wendy
gave an url, I won't be buying Rexius bark any time soon regardless of how
good it is.

I have only one paph, and it came in what looks like cocnut husk chips mixed
with something else which I can't identify (it looks like tiny stones, but
I'm not sure what it is), so I can't comment on how well it'll do in the
long run, and since it's last flower has faded just recently, I haven't
gotten around to repotting it yet, so at present I have no idea as to the
condition of its roots.

Cheers

Ted

Now,
not being an expert in the history of the orchid growing industry, I can't

At one time osmunda fiber was the medium of choice even by large cut flower
growers. It is still a good choice but very difficult to work with and a little
tricky when watering. It tends to retain a lot of water and can cause root rot
if one is not careful. Even though it is expensive it does however last a long
time and perhaps that might have been one of the reasons so many wholesale
nurseries used it.

Next might have been tree fern fiber which was very popular at one time. It
still is as slabs for mounting.

I would guess that the use of bark products could be traced back to the early
70's with Wyerhouser, not sure of the spelling, being the preferred source.
They kiln dryed the bark before packaging in three cubic foot bags. They
stopped selling bark products and the Sequoia company stepped in.

We used to split a truck loadof about 400-500 bags with other growers in the
area and during the 80's and early 90's had very good results.

We had a fairly complicated formula for our paph mix which a few local growers
adopted for a time. In addition to the fir bark we added bone meal, electra,
sand and granulated limestone to the mix along with fine charcoal. The extras
provided several nutrients and therefore we did not have to fertilize very
often. The mix now just consists of fir bark, sterlized sand and charcoal.

For phals we began adding some Pro-mix to the bark mixture and found that this
helped to eliminate the shock of potting newly arrived mature phals. We even
found that when we used Pro-mix that we rarely lost any plants or flower
spikes.

Sometime during the late 80's and early 90's people began using NZ spagnum. At
first they had great results but after a time many hobby growers found that
this product was not suited to all of their plants. One grower in particlular
decided to replant his entire greenhouse with NZ spagnum and he nearly lost his
entire collection. It might work well for some growers but not for all.

Anyway, there are many ways to grow orchids and many mediums that work well. I
just prefer fir bark based mixtures over the other products.

Now if I can only find out why I keep killing den. loddigessi. It is a named
variety that I bought at the Little Greenhouse, it is mounted on a tree fern
slab, it was very healthy and had about fifty growths when I bought it. I think
about half the growths are dead. Maybe my greenhouse is too warm.

If you're willing to experiment, I think you'll find that substituting CHC
for bark gives fairly similar conditions, but rewets easier and lasts
longer.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info!

.. . . . . . . . . . .
"TRAINMAN9" wrote in message
...
Why in the world would you want Rexius bark? Its the worst that I have
ever encountered...leaves your fingers full of splinters, rots at an
accelerated rate, and kills paphs faster than Roundup.

You are the first one to mention anything like this. There are a number of
growers using this bark with excellent results. The Little Greenhouse in
MD, in
business for over 30 years, and one of the premier growers of paphs swears
by
Rexius bark.

if you must use bark go for Sequioia

Sequioia, was very good bark at one time but near the end of their
production
they were packing the bark wet. I had used it the last time I repotted my
greenhouse and even when treated with Physan I still got snow mold.

I also noticed that it broke down very quickly.

but I agree with Ray....go for coconut husk
chips.

I have been growing for over 25 years and was also in the commercial end
of the
business for over 15 years where we sold thousands of plants all over the
country. We were a frequent advertiser in both AOS and OD. We always used
fir
bark based mixes with great success.

but I agree with Ray....go for coconut husk
chips.

Thanks for the suggestion but I don't wish to make a change from bark
based
mixes.

As for the snowmold, I found Physan a perfect solution, although the process
was laborious and certainly not what I was looking for when I opened the
bag. I soaked all the bark in the bag (those big heavy ones) in Physan 1
Tbsp/ gal for several hours. I then spread the bark out in treated flats
(diamond flats with a piece of screen in the bottom). When dried, I packed
it away in a large trash bag inside a garbage can. Not one bit one snowmold
showed up. I now take that precaution if even a little is spotted in a new
bag. If I were totally obsessed and paranoid and nothing else to do, I'd
probably soak all bark as a precaution just as all users of CHC should take
the precaution of washing it several time to be sure there is no salt left.
Do what you feel comfortable with. But it wouldn't hurt to try a small bag
of new medium on a few plants by way of experimentation. You might find you
like it.
Gary

"TRAINMAN9" wrote in message
...
Why in the world would you want Rexius bark? Its the worst that I have
ever encountered...leaves your fingers full of splinters, rots at an
accelerated rate, and kills paphs faster than Roundup.

You are the first one to mention anything like this. There are a number of
growers using this bark with excellent results. The Little Greenhouse in
MD, in
business for over 30 years, and one of the premier growers of paphs swears
by
Rexius bark.

if you must use bark go for Sequioia

Sequioia, was very good bark at one time but near the end of their
production
they were packing the bark wet. I had used it the last time I repotted my
greenhouse and even when treated with Physan I still got snow mold.

I also noticed that it broke down very quickly.

but I agree with Ray....go for coconut husk
chips.

I have been growing for over 25 years and was also in the commercial end
of the
business for over 15 years where we sold thousands of plants all over the
country. We were a frequent advertiser in both AOS and OD. We always used
fir
bark based mixes with great success.

but I agree with Ray....go for coconut husk
chips.

Thanks for the suggestion but I don't wish to make a change from bark
based
mixes.

If I were totally obsessed and paranoid and nothing else to do, I'd
probably soak all bark as a precaution

Although I do not consider myself paranoid we have always soaked the bark in
water with Physan added. This is done prior to preparing the mix.