When using coconut coir in the garden, you must use the right mixture of these three types for the best results. How to Choose High-Quality Coco Coir After correcting the coir with some additives, the plants went from strength to strength and have significantly outgrown the petunias I grew in regular compost.

Mixes can be expensive: Garden suppliers know that coco coir can be annoying to work with sometimes, so they’ve started to offer coconut coir mixes. This saves a lot of time but is pretty expensive — and making your own mix isn’t too difficult. Types of Coco Coir Environmentally safe: Although I am a fan of using sphagnum peat moss in the garden, there’s no denying the environmental concerns that peat moss poses. Coconut coir doesn’t have the same problems. Unlike peat moss, which breaks down more rapidly, it can be used more than once. It’s also a repurposed waste product from a renewable resource, unlike the peat bogs where we get our peat moss. Good quality manufacturers should thoroughly flush the coco coir. If gardeners wish to use it as a growing medium, it should also be treated with a calcium, magnesium and iron solution, so the salts don’t create nutrient deficiencies in the plants, this process is called buffering. We’ve tested a lot of different brands and learned a lot simply through trial and error. Here are our findings, which you can take with a grain of salt (pun intended).

Key features

Then, they’re removed from the water bath and dried for over a year. After the drying process, which is quite extensive, the coir is organized into bales.These bales are then chopped and processed into various formats, from chips, to “croutons” to classic ground coconut coir. Insect-neutral: Most garden pests do not enjoy settling in coconut coir, making it yet another line of defense in your integrated pest management system for your garden.

Now that you understand what coco coir is, how it’s processed and made, and what to look for when buying it, you’re armed with the info you need to make a good buying decision. Can be less complex than “traditional hydroponics”: If growing hydroponically is new, coconut coir is a good first step. You can practice the basics of hydroponic gardening without having to buy or build a hydroponic system and perform all of its required maintenance. Downsides to Coco Coir Coco coir is a great product to use for container gardening. However, it is best used with additional media, such as perlite and vermicompost. Because coir retains so much water, too much can cause damage to plant roots, essentially drowning them. The addition of perlite helps the mixture dry slightly and allows you to better control the moisture levels in your mixture. Vermicompost is an organic composting media that utilizes various worms to break down plants and food waste, creating a nutrient-rich material that is perfect for plant growth. Composting After the coir is separated from the coconuts, it’s stored in piles for a few years. This puts it at risk for pathogens due to the natural pH of coco coir. Most producers that experience this will chemically sterilize the coir so it’s ready for use in your garden. This also has its risks — it can prematurely break down the fibers and peat. Leave to stand for 24 hours. This will even out the water content of your finished coconut coir materialIf that sounds like a lot to look out for…IT IS! Fortunately, you don’t have to do any of that. All you have to do is make sure that it was done, either by asking your local garden shop about the supplier’s practices or by reading below, where I’ve answered most of these questions for each type of coconut coir product I review. TheBest Coco Coir For Your Garden Good transition from soil gardening: Growing in coco coir feels like growing in soil because the two media look so similar. You can have a completely hydroponic garden that looks almost the same as a soil garden. The only difference is instead of watering with only water, you would water your coconut coir garden with nutrient-enriched water. Inert: Coconut coir is inert, meaning it has no nutrients. It may look like soil, but it is not soil. This means you must add hydroponic nutrients and control the pH when using coco coir. Growing in soil isn’t too different, though, as many gardeners amend their soil constantly throughout the growing season anyways. First, they need to remove the coir from the coconuts. This is done by soaking the husks in water to loosen and soften them. This is either done in tidal waters or freshwater. If done in tidal waters, the coconut coir will take up a large amount of salt, which will need to be flushed out by the manufacturer at a later stage. Almost all of the coconut coir used for hydroponics is brown coir, as it’s processed even more after initial harvesting. How is Coco Coir Made?

There are amazing benefits to using coconut coir in your garden. But just like any other kind of growing media, there are also some downsides to consider before you buy Benefits of Coco Coir May need additional supplementation: You may find your plants short on calcium and magnesium when using coconut coir, so supplementing with “Cal-Mag” may be necessary. Other fertilizers will be necessary as well since coir has low NPK levels. While many people say you need coco coir-specific nutrients, this isn’t absolutely necessary. You can get away with the standard General Hydroponics Flora series, a pH testing kit, and some Calimagic calcium + magnesium supplement. All our seeds and products have been tested here by us however if we still cant help you get growing we will offer a free replacement.Because coconut coir is an inert growing media, you will need to supplement your plants with additional nutrition. Remember — this is still hydroponic growing if you are only using coconut coir.