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29-Jan-2006
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#1 |
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Enthusiast
 
Join Date: Feb-2005
Location: Carlsbad, California..coastal desert
Country: United States
USDA Zone: 11
Posts: 5,412
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Chocolate soil
Yesterday at Home Depot I was looking for some soil components. Pushing one of those big flat carts, in search of the right ingredients for a nice soil mix.
First disappointment - big, noisy, flat cart with one cockeyed wheel... second disappointment - aisles narrowed by the inclusion of sale plants, other people's carts, fallen pots, old people who take twenty minutes to decide which flat of marigolds to buy....third disappointment - they didn't have any of the components that I most wanted. Anyway, while looking through the big bags of components in the back, I came upon "Cocoa Mulch". It's ph neutral, etc. and it was cheap, so I bought it. I remembered reading that coconut fibre could be used as a soil component. Okay, so I was tired and irritable and the brain cells weren't communicating. Later, at home, (after a trip to another nursery, for the right components) I opened up the Cocoa Mulch and started to screen it. Funny, I thought... this doesn't look like coconut. Or smell like coconut.... okay, you caught on quicker than I did.  Yes, it seems to be from cocoa beans, the outer hull of cocoa beans. And it smells faintly of....CHOCOLATE! The dog was suddenly more interested in the cocoa mulch than he had been in the unopened bone meal. (Which he nuzzled and whined at for a few minutes... "Mommy, BONE! Bone, Mommy, Bone! Bone? Please?") A little more reading on the package reveals that it gets a little gelatinous when wet, but remains porous, and retains water. Which, in some applications, may be good. I'll use it in the new growing bed as a mix-in. With lots of landscape paper and redwood chips to keep the dog, raccoon, squirrels, etc. out of the chocolate. Just thought you might be amused by my chocolate soil adventure... Joanie |
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29-Jan-2006
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#2 | |
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Old Bonsaiman-new pots
 
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Quote:
Joanie, Probably twenty years ago when I first saw this I got some to try as mulch because of the smell. I found it molds very BADLY , very quickly. Dale
__________________
________________________________ If you want to be Different.... You have to DO something Different! __________________________________________ Some people NEVER take the time to do a job right the first time.... but, they always seem to make the time to do it over again... ____________________________________________ Dale Cochoy Wild Things Bonsai Studio Yakimono no Kokoro Bonsai Pottery Hartville, Ohio |
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29-Jan-2006
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#3 |
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Enthusiast
Join Date: Feb-2005
Location: Carlsbad, California..coastal desert
Country: United States
USDA Zone: 11
Posts: 5,412
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Ah, so their way of saying it gets gelatinous really means that it gets moldy?
Figures. In our dry weather and quick draining soil, it might work out in the raised bed as a component no more than 5% of the total. I can't take it back, and hate to waste it. We have much more trouble keeping soil moist than we do keeping it dry, here. (We haven't had rain here in...hmmm... over a month? Our average here is about 10 inches a year, I think)Joanie |
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29-Jan-2006
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#4 |
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Enthusiast
Join Date: Feb-2005
Location: Carlsbad, California..coastal desert
Country: United States
USDA Zone: 11
Posts: 5,412
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Okay, on second thought... I won't put it into the raised beds. I'll give it to Mom to use in her "secret garden". I just went out to check, and something has already gotten into it.
More creatures love chocolate than just us! Joanie |
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29-Jan-2006
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#5 |
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Old Bonsaiman-new pots
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Depending on how much you bought....
You could use it inside as room freshner/potpouri. Change often. Give your home that "Chocolate Factory" smell....until you get sick of it! If you bought several bags... Well, how many homes in your neighborhood?  Dale
__________________
________________________________ If you want to be Different.... You have to DO something Different! __________________________________________ Some people NEVER take the time to do a job right the first time.... but, they always seem to make the time to do it over again... ____________________________________________ Dale Cochoy Wild Things Bonsai Studio Yakimono no Kokoro Bonsai Pottery Hartville, Ohio |
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29-Jan-2006
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#6 |
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Enthusiast
Join Date: Feb-2005
Location: Carlsbad, California..coastal desert
Country: United States
USDA Zone: 11
Posts: 5,412
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I like that.... chocolate potpourri. Mmmmmm...
No, only bought one bag. Mom can use it. She has one of those small side yard gardens with ferns and orchids and vines-in-lattice. She's watering all the time, because our sandy soil drains like.... well.... like bonsai soil! Chocolate potpourri.... Hmmmm. Joanie |
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29-Jan-2006
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#7 | |
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bonsaiTALK Artisan
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Quote:
Sheesh! I admit I've had friends who had "secret gardens", but your MOM!?? You really ought to have a talk with her. 
__________________
"I want life in every word to the extend that it's absurd....." -- the postal service |
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29-Jan-2006
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#8 | |
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Enthusiast
Join Date: Feb-2005
Location: Carlsbad, California..coastal desert
Country: United States
USDA Zone: 11
Posts: 5,412
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Quote:
(laughing, shaking head) Not THAT kind of secret garden! Think "Fern Gully". She has little resin angels and foofy little silly signs, cutsy-ugly gargoyles and lots and lots of baby tears moss. Joanie |
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29-Jan-2006
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#9 |
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bonsaiTALK Master Chief
 
Join Date: Aug-2004
Location: Aberystwyth Uni
Country: Wales
USDA Zone: 8
AHS Heat Zone: 0-1
Posts: 1,100
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it looks chocolatey, smells chocolatey, but does it taste choclatey?
lol Al
__________________
I can feel another "I wish that was my tree" moment coming on... Currently studying BSc Plant Biology at the Universty of Wales, Aberystwyth |
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29-Jan-2006
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#10 |
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recovering pine addict
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It must be from New Orleans...just don't let Nagin know about it...he will figure out a way to make a buck off off it and the price will go up!
Last edited by TimZ8 : 29-Jan-2006 at 10:38 PM. |
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