Should We Give Up Peat For Coir

Peat has always been one of my personal favorites but I recently tried some new coco coir products and I am seriously impressed. To add to that I am going to educate you a little bit about peat and coir and allow you to make your own decision.

1. We are running out of peat. It is considered a non-renewable resource because it takes 220 years for peat to replenish itself. Peat used to come from europe, but we used up all the peat in europe and now all the peat comes from canada. Coconut is an awesome replacement for peat it is a renewable resource and coir is a waste product that would normally be thrown away.

2. Coconut retains more water then peat and does not blow away when the wind blows.

3. Coconut holds more water then peat and does not break down as fast. If you are like me and you like being able to water more often then you can add perlite to the coco. adding perlite allows for more oxygen in the root system. Some gardeners prefer a larger coconut chunk.

4. If the coco is not flushed enough it will hold a lot of salt which is bad for the plants. The higher quality the coconut the more it has been flushed. New products like Canna coir are pre-soaked for 14 months and have calcium added to them. coconut is known for calcium deficiencies, the easy fix is to add calcium to the nutrients you are watering with.

5. I am running experiments at the north store compairing perlite to a canna coir/ perlite mixture. The plants in the coir are growing at twic ethe rate as the plants in straight perlite. I will post picturs of the plants as they grow so yo can see for your self.

http://www.simplyhydroponics.com/canna_coco.htm
http://www.simplyhydroponics.com/canna.htm
http://www.simplyhydroponics.com/cocnut%20coir.htm
http://www.simplyhydroponics.com/coco_gro.htm
http://www.simplyhydroponics.com/crop_circles.htm
These are just some of the links to coconut products simply carries