Coir

[mrsbusy]

Is anyone on the forum using coir as a peat substitute?
IF you are what is your opinion?

[ameno]

Texture-wise, coir is very good. It's light and fluffy, and holds water well without becoming waterlogged. It's probably the best peat substitute.
However, much like raw peat, coir is pretty much devoid of nutrients. If you're buying a peat-free compost which contains coir then it should have fertiliser added to it, but if you're just buying a brick of coir (the kind you need to add water to to make it expand first), then you will need to add fertiliser yourself, or else nothing will grow for very long.

[rary]

I have only used coir once and it was coir bricks that I used, I found that it dried out quite quickly, but peat was like that at the start, you had to get used to the difference between peat and soil, the coir may be the same and not work or perform the way you are used to, when peat dried out it was a problem to re hydrate and you had to add some liquid soap to the water, apparently this broke down the waxy coating that formed on the peat, so if you experience similar problems try adding liquid soap to the water, it might not work, but you would never know till you try

[ameno]

when peat dried out it was a problem to re hydrate and you had to add some liquid soap to the water, apparently this broke down the waxy coating that formed on the peat, so if you experience similar problems try adding liquid soap to the water, it might not work, but you would never know till you try

A few drops of washing up liquid will work for re-wetting any dry compost, not just peat.
It's not because it's a detergent, but because it's a wetting agent. Very crudely, it makes water more "wet".
Less crudely, water usually has stronger powers of cohesion (its ability to stick to itself, and form droplets) than adhesion (it's ability to stick to other things), which is why it tends to run off or straight through completely dry objects, but will stay on or in things which are already slightly damp (as it sticks to the water already present).
Wetting agents help to reverse this, and make the water's powers of adhesion stronger than its cohesion, so that the water actually sticks to stuff.

[Babru]

I produce my own compost, but not in the quantity I require, so I've thinking of mixing in other things such as coir. This is from a US growing media website, and it looked to make an important point:

"Adjust watering practices

Peat-coir-perlite growing media will hold more water than peat-perlite growing media. In addition, the surface of a coir-based growing medium will dry more rapidly than the root zone, compared to a peat-based growing medium. Using the colour of the surface of the growing medium as an indication of when to water works for a peat-based growing medium, but is less effective for a coir-based growing medium. Growers must be attentive to not overwater crops in a peat-coir growing medium. This characteristic of the surface drying out quickly will often lead to crop growth issues from overwatering, especially in cool climates, high humidity or cloudy conditions."

Cool, humid and cloudy pretty much describes my garden.

[Jungle Jane]

I produce my own compost, but not in the quantity I require, so I've thinking of mixing in other things such as coir. This is from a US growing media website, and it looked to make an important point:

"Adjust watering practices

Peat-coir-perlite growing media will hold more water than peat-perlite growing media. In addition, the surface of a coir-based growing medium will dry more rapidly than the root zone, compared to a peat-based growing medium. Using the colour of the surface of the growing medium as an indication of when to water works for a peat-based growing medium, but is less effective for a coir-based growing medium. Growers must be attentive to not overwater crops in a peat-coir growing medium. This characteristic of the surface drying out quickly will often lead to crop growth issues from overwatering, especially in cool climates, high humidity or cloudy conditions."

Cool, humid and cloudy pretty much describes my garden.

If you put some of your compost mix into a 12”plastic pot (or bucket) for a tomato plant,it could be used as a test pot. After watering pick it up to see how heavy with water,how fast it dries out,that will help with knowing if the beds are ok too. Coir does look dry on the surface when it’s wet underneath,maybe some people water it three times a day because it looks dry?

[Babru]

That is a good idea Jane.

I'd thought of mixing it with bought compost and getting into a routine of use, but the commercial composts seem to change from season to season, so I'm not sure that would work.

[MelanieSW]

I mainly use coir in the container mix for potatoes (a purple blue variety that would be very hard to spot in the ground).
Coir mixed with compost and a bit of chicken manure pellets or similar, in barrels. Has been working very well for the last few years, and as an additional plus the potatoes come up really clean