If i have a 10 litre bucket full of water with it half full of coconut husk chips,
how many teaspoons of calcium nitrate and how many teaspoons of epsom
salts need to be added for the final rince please? cheers

Laidback it would take 4 grams of the Calcium Nitrate, and 4 grams of the Epsom Salts. How many times are you soaking the CHC's, and are you then running water through the chips after each soak until you get a clear affluent? - Millet

I am soaking over night twice and then i will do the cation exchange bit.
Is it a good idea to soak overnight?I just soak in a 10 litre bucket and
rinse in the morning.cheers

Laidback, sounds good. Glad your a member of this forum. - Millet

Hi Millet,Just want to run this by you= I filled a 20 litre bucket with water and
10 grams of calcium nitrate and 10 grams of epsom salts,then half filled
it with chc chips.I also filled a 10 litre bucket with water and half filled with coir(coco peat) and put 5 grams of each in that.I am leaving them all overnight.Flush in the morning and then leave to soak half a day in water and the correct amount of soluble fertliser for citrus with the idea the fertilser will soak into the chips..Then i will mix at 4-1 ratio(chc/coir),should i add a little coarse river sand(pumice)?. i will also add a slow release citrus fert to the mix(like the way you do osomocote),
Does all that sound Good? Cheers and thanks.

Sounds alright to me. If you are going to add citrus fertilizer and also add a slow release fertilizer just be sure you do not add to much fertilizer, so that you harm the roots. I add both slow release and regular fertilizer also to my CHC. Here is what I add to 1 cubic foot (0.028 cubic meter) of my 4:1 CHC mix as a pre-blend nutrient package.

259 grams Slow release fetilizer (23-4-8 One year slow release)
218 grams Dolomite
36 grams Regular Fertilizer (13-2-13)
36 grams STEM (Soluble Trace Element Mix)

Although the slow release is rated as having a one year release life, I think it actually only lasts 6 months, because of the extra greenhouse heat and the constant year around watering of a containr plant. I then continue with a regular fertilizer program once a month. Remember that all my trees (56) are inside a warm day and night greenhouse through out the winter months. Take care and good luck to you and your tree. - Millet

Do you think i should add coarse river sand(pumice) to my 4 to 1 mix
of chc /coir?or would i be better just to stick to the chc/coir mix with
slow release citrus fert and trace elements. cheers

If it was my tree I would not add the river sand. It would tend to fill in the air spaces between the CHC/Coir which will displace the aeriation. - Millet

great,thanks for that,today i will do my tangelo,which has paler green leaves
than my other trees,i reckon its due to soggy soil in the pot(poor drainage).
it is however,producing new growth.Is that a sign of poor drainage,leaves
looking pale green? cheers.

Laidback, poor drainage can cause many problems. Lght green leaves, provided we are NOT talking about new young foliage, is more likely caused by a deficiency of nitrogen, a deficiency of iron or a high pH. - Millet

I think its the first one.The leaves were pale when i bought it all over and
there was no new growth but yesterday when i removed from pot,there
were some nice healthy light coloured new roots. I have transplanted now
to the chc/coir and i watered with seasol(seaweed) to help combat shock.
The new growth went a bit droopy! but it seems ok now.I will keep you
posted in time.I am a bit nervous of this method,so this is my experiment.
I have a valencia orange that is going nicely in a container mix,a navelina
orange still in its conatiner and mix and a clementine mandarin in its
original container and mix.The plan is to see how the most unhealthy
looking of the lot can adjust to the chc/coir mix. If its looks cool after
a month and growth continues,i will start to convert them all over.
In my past 5 attempts to grow citrus.i never managed to
get new growth,but now i am getting some joy.Good things come to those
who wait,or maybe ones who want it enough! Expert advice is always
appreciated,thanks for your help millet.
P.s that picture by your name ,what is it? looks like a banana tree to me!!!lol.

Laidback, yes it is a Chiqita banana growing inside my greenhouse, that has newly fruited. The number one killer of container grown citrus is over watering, so just be careful and you and your trees should be fine. Take care. Back when I first started to grow citrus I killed the first three or four trees, before I turned the corner and begain to have some success. Take care. - Millet

I am new to this forum, usually post on the Gardenweb forums. Benny referred me here.

I last year I started repotting my perennials into CHC. I wanted to get a feel for them before I repotted by thai lime. Unfortunately, I didnt know about the cation exchange thing and I only washed the CHC with water. I am now ready to repot my thai lime (as soon as I receive the calcium nitrate I ordered). Millet, I think you said 4 oz each for 10 liter bucket. Can you break that down into amounts per gallon? I am washing my CHC in a bucket in my bathtub.

Also, what do you recommend about the plants I already potted? I bought some Clearex which is supposed to leach salts. Is there anything else I should do?

Thank you,
Lydia

Lydia:
Welcome to the forum.
I was about to ask Millet the same question as I am not familiar with the metric system.

Millet:
I referred Lydia to you as she has many questions about the CHC that I could not answer.

Benny

Is there another, hopefully more commonly available chemical, that can substitute for the calcium nitrate?

I've got citrus I want to repot this coming weekend and no one that I've been able to find has calcium nitrate.

I've got calcium chloride at the house and can probably scare up potassium nitrate if I can convince the pharmacist I won't be making bombs with it.

Or maybe reacting ordinary calcium carbonate with an acid then using the solute?

.....Alan.