I have read so much information on Coco Coir I thought I would try it. It is not available locally and the cheapest I could find it on the net was eBay. A10# block cost $12 plus $10 shipping. It was a little pricey but I figured part of the cost would go to education. I have not used any yet but my parliamentary thoughts now are a good bit of that $22 will go toward education. This photo is the 10# block in the recommended 4 gallon of water in a storage tote. P7030505 by tsebmj, on Flickr After 12 hrs of scratching the wet surface with a hand cultivator I had the 6” x 12” x 12” block broken into eqq size chunks. Some smaller and some larger. P7040508 by tsebmj, on Flickr The chunks sat in the water over night and the next morning with less than ¼” of water penetration in to the surface. After an additional hour, I had the chunks rubbed through ½”hardware cloth. P7040509 by tsebmj, on Flickr I ended up with less than two cubic feet of nice looking sphagnum moss substitute after $22 and 21 hours of time invested. I will not be buying any additional Coco Coir in the future. P7260007 by tsebmj, on Flickr
I will not use coco coir either. It dries out very quickly and doesn't seem to have much in the way of nutrients. I don't find it easy to work with either.
I've only seen it as the shredded product used in hanging baskets. The birds and squirrels love it for nest building. Never thought of it as a chopped planting medium. Is it used in place of or in combination with peat?
Nice and interesting posting, JB. You just have to try things sometimes, right. I liked the step-by-step foto's.
It is used to replace peat. I thought it was a great idea until I tried it. I'll stick with peat moss!
The one plus I will give it...it does rehydrate much quicker than peat, but I still like peat better than this stuff, nor is coir isn't any more cost effective than peat in our area.
