Cedar shavings

[nepaholic]

Hi

Anyone use Cedar Shavings?
I got a bag of this stuff 2 weeks ago and i love it. My trailer smell like wood when i come in.
Hope my plants also like it.





I potted a bunch of neps in this stuff 2 weeks ago. Time will show how it works

Jens

[rainforest]

I have never seen shavings, but I have used cedar bark mulch (its the dried bark that is scrapped off the wood before it is processed into lumber planks). I love the cedar bark mulch because it holds very well into many seasons and even with the addition of fertilizing and excess watering in my climate, it doesn't decompose and break down rapidly like fir bark or redwood mulch.
I have been using cedar for almost five years and love it. Best used when mixed with a bark compost and perlite or pumice and other grainy medias.

M

[vraev]

I just started using this. I potted up a veitchii in it. THe plant hasn't skipped a beat in its transition. I got one of those natural cedar mulch bags at a local nursery and damn! I have the bag in my apartment I sooooooo love its smell. Its sooooo nice. lol! BTW...mine doesn't look as clean as yours Jens. But it seems to be all natural and that seems to be good enough for the neps.

[nepaholic]

Thanks Guys

Vraev i also love the smell.
I got this stuff when i was at our local Pet store to buy some things for my wife's rabbits.
The branding says: Canadian Red Wood Cedar
used as ground soil for rabbits.

Jens

[vraev]

OOOOOH! I acutally bought that too. BUt I returned it. It was 10$ for a bag and my main purpose was to mulch my temperate CP's. SO when I found that a local nursery carried a bigger bag of natural cedar mulch for 5$, I returned it. Yes...that stuff is cleaner.. I do know a friend who uses it in his plant mixes (especially for cephs and helis), and as far as I know he said it works fine. If I recall correctly though....his villosa didn't like it...so he repotted it in a more LFS, fir bark based media.

[nepaholic]

Thanks Vraev

it is also expensive here in Sweden. But nothing is to expensive for my Neps i only want the best for them.
Hope it works, because it is not easy to get this stuff here and i was looking for a long time for this.
I mix the shavings with Perlite, Charcoal and pieces of foam.
When the plants i potted in this like it i will mix it with a little bit LFS and plant some rarer plants in it.

Jens

[vraev]

Aaaah! Good luck Jens. I personally would expect those plants to do pretty well. My veitchii has shown no signs of shunning the media change. It actually seems to be liking it...but too early to tell. From a friend of mine who uses this, he says there are anti-fungal properties in cedar which actually help plants. But as I said his villosa didn't like it and grew very very slowly. After using a sphagnum heavy mix it has picked up speed. I guess you just have to experiment.

I am myself slowly shying away from sphagnum heavy mixes and using a lot of fir bark with perlite and charcoal. This is the traditional orchid mix. Neps seem to be liking it. I do put a 30% of moss in for good measure and top off the pot with live sphagnum and the plants do fine so far. My mira which is potted in a relatively heavier sphagnum mix is suddenly showing some typical signs of overwatering with leaf edges browning and curling of those old leaves. THe plant is still growing and I have decreased the watering. Hopefully its nothing. But if it declines more, I will repot it into the cedar mulch based mix.

[jgriffin]

Personally, I think it's easier for a beginner to start with sphagnum heavier mixes and then taylor from there. I know many would disagree with that(especially on a nep forum).
Thinking of buying a bag of cedar mulch this weekend, lol.

Cheers,

Joe

[rainforest]

That would also depend oin your growing environment. If you're fortunate to grow in an outdoor environment where plants drain freely and pots can dry out, then one kind of media would work wonders for you. But if you were growing in a chamber, where water cannot drain freely or pots sit in water, your media again would be different.


M

[jgriffin]

I agree 100%.


Joe

[phissionkorps]

I don't really have time to read the thread, just popping in for a sec, so excuse me if I repeat something.

I've used lots of cedar, and I've liked it. I'm sure someone's mentioned the oils as insect repellent, and at least in my case, it has worked as such. In fact I probably have about 10lbs worth of ants living in my chamber right now, but none in the cedar/perlite mixes.

The only thing to worry about is it drying out, since it can and will do so pretty quickly. It's easy to let stuff get too dry in it. I bought a 50lb bag and try to get 1/3 fibers, 1/3 small chunks, and 1/3 large chunks as the cedar component of whatever mix I'm using. I add other things like perlite etc from there. That way you will get some water retention, but not too much. Play with the ratios and find what works for you.

Off to fail some more exams .