After about a year of using coco coir in planting, seed starting, and containers, I am calling it quits. I have noticed this summer that everything I have planted in coir is doing very poorly. It finally hit me a few weeks ago after I eliminated every other variable. The pots of impatiens on my fence that are usually gorgeous by now are about the same size they were when I planted them. So I took a few out, shook off the coir mix and replanted them with Miracle Grow potting soil which is what I have always used. A week later they are already bigger and healthier looking. Even though I was mixing the coir with some fertilizer and perlite, it apparently just isn't as good for my environment. I will probably still use the coir for starting my lettuces inside, but otherwise as much as it pains me and my back I will be switching back to MG soil for next season. I'd like to thank Boca Bob for all his help in getting my started with the coir.
Hope eveyone has a beautiful garden this summer!
Juanita
The End of My Love Affair With Coir
After reading through Tapla's explanation of how soil and planting mediums must allow for oxygen and drainage, AND how different sizes of particulates within the medium are absolutely necessary to help avoid soil compaction, I think I can see how using only the coir might become problematic over time.
I never could afford to convert totally to coir so I just mixed it in with my existing MG potting soil and homemade compost. Apparently, I had enough particulate variation to provide adequate oxygenation and drainage.
After learning from Tapla, I won't be sifting my compost anymore either! While it looks rich and beautiful, the absence if the pebbles and chunks and small sticks would eventually lead to soil compaction, plant suffocation and/or drowning of the roots.
My suggestion would be to mix the coir with your MG potting mix and perlite, and add some pine fines (soil conditioner) and peat. I believe the ratio should be 5:1:1 conditioner:perlite:peat. If you don't mind, could you do another experiment and post how it turns out?
Post your results here.
Linda
Will do Linda. I still have about a half a case of coir left, so I was wondering about mixing it in with the MG soil to kind of stretch it a little. I had given some blocks of the coir to my Mom to try too and she had very similar results. We were both hoping to be able to make it work so that I could avoid dragging those heavy bags of mix around. :))
I just bought about 10 of the lay flat bags full of coir and about 30 bags of the coir in the 5 gallon bags, along with 10 of the strawberry/lettuce stackable planters, and 10 EBs, was going to use the coir in the EBs and mix the coir with perlite. It works well here in my end of FL. I also had a bush that really flourished when my daughter dumped out a huge tote of it on the ground. Of course, here, we have problems with mole crickets, it rains like crazy in the summer, the very reason I'm buidling a screen house for my EBs and buckets for the summer, I'll beat those bugs this time round. LOL
joy
RVNSBRK,
Here's the link to the discussion on soils, et al, in containers.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1095346/
Tapla's explanation makes really, really good sense, and is something I never would have known otherwise. The ease and sheer pleasure of working with coir is something that could never be debated. However, all that glitters 'ain't necessarily gold.
In this case, "too much of a good thing can be a bad thing!"
Hugs!
Linda
If coir wasn't so expensive here, I might try it. I would fertilize weakly with every watering, tho'. I'm using 100% shredded cypress mulch for all my potting now, and lots of different liquid fertilizers. So far, so good. I figure with the generous root growth the fluffy, fibrous mulch makes, that once the mulch breaks down, I'll have solid roots in the pot! I'll post photos in a few weeks. I got this idea from someone, wish I remembered who, who said she ran out of potting mix, and used cypress mulch on her last two pots, and later, she was amazed at the roots.
Molamola,
I think you hit upon the recipe by accident! How chunky is the cypress mulch? Tapla's recipe calls for starting with a larger portion of large particulate (pine bark chips from dust up to about 1/2" diameter or as close to dime-size as possible), then adding a peat component (in our case it would be the MG potting mix/coir/compost adjusted for moisture retention), and perlite (quantity adjusted for fast water drainage).
His recipe:
5 parts pine bark
1 part peat
1 part perlite
Then add your amendments like 1/2 dolomitic lime and a water soluable fertilizer with a ratio of 3:1:2, preferably a 9:3:6 used frequently in the watering.
Go to the soil and composting thread.
A lot of working with coir as a medium also depends on your zone and weather. I found that by adding perlite to the coir, helps amazingly here. And people like TPlant and Boca Bob can probably benefit from straight coir. The perlite holds in any excess water just like the coir does; but, when you get a lot of rain you need to add perlite also, when it really a fairly dry climate, straight coir wouldn't hurt.
One of my sisters used the 5 gallon bags to grow her tomatoes in unsuccessfully, she got huge green plants but no fruit. On research, I discovered it wasn't the coir; but, the fact she has no bumble bees to stir up the pollen in the flowers, a good shaking would have helped that; but, live and learn. My other sister grows her tomato plants right on up til after the first frost, I don't, early summer usually ends the season for me; because, when summer hits, so do the bugs. Of course, I am researching on a solution for that also. Did you know that tomatoes don't set below 60 degrees or over 90 degrees, so, if you climate is lower than 60 or above 90 degrees you can give it up.
joy112854
I believe that between 60-82 degrees you can give it up...
?????? What do you mean you can give it up between 60-82? That is when you get lots of blooms, when you get above 90 degrees you can forget it, it is way too hot, ask TPlant, Boca Bob and everyone else in south FL, the very reason they don't grow maters in the summertime, it's too hot. Now, here, we cannot start ours til March 31st as usually before that it is below 60 degrees, and it will slow or stop the growth of maters. Up here where I live, we call August and September our dog days, and that is when everyone pulls their maters as the bugs are insane during those two months. Late October, here where I live, we pull our plants indoors that can not survive below 50 degrees. Right through to November though we still get sunny, warm days but the evenings are very cool --- too cool for anything other than cool weather crops.
For instance, if I wanted to plant spinach, I'd wait til about the second week of November or even a little later, as it might still get warm enough during the daytime to make them bolt. So; from what I've read and from experience, below 60 degrees and above 90 degrees is detremental to maters.
Sigh, won't be planting strawberries this year either, as the local strawberry farm I usually buy my strawberries from isn't selling plants to the public this year. So; I'm on break until January when I plant my taters in the smart pots.
joy
I don't know, its been in the low 40s here some mornings and my tomato plants are loving it. We don't have humidity tho.
I believe our approximate cutoff for blossom setting in Houston is somewhere below 60 or above 82, due to our high humidity that makes the pollen clump, because it's damp.
This isn't a hard and fast rule, 'cause I'm sure during those freak peaks when it's higher than 82 and relatively dry, we will get some fruit set. And, we can always keep shaking the vines to try to disperse the pollen.
Linda
me picturing Linda out there shaking those vines and yelling "give me some more of them maters". LOL
joy