Joy I'm winter sowing my mater seeds this weekend, outside in gallon milk jugs. Also. Bell peppers aren't far behind.
Any Coco Grower Questions? PART 2
Gymgirl: Sniffles, it ain't fair, it ain't fair.
joy
Just found this thread and I'd like to chime in on the coir. Right now I am using coir for my inside gardening this winter. Mainly growing lettuce and microgreens and also using it with coleus cuttings.
I was really excited to find about coir and purchased cases of it in anticipation. I have several issues though that I didn't think I would have from all the reading I did.
First off, I was under the impression that fungus issues i.e gnats and damping off would be minimal with coir. Not so for me. I bottom water (always have) and I am over run with gnats as we speak and have just as much damping off of seedlings as I had with any other growing medium.
As for cuttings, I am having a much higher rotting rate than I ever did before with my handmixed peat and perlite mix. I am going to add some perlite to the next batch of coir I do and see if I can resolve that issue.
I have as yet been unable to reuse any of this mix between the fungus problems etc. I also have a HUGE aphid problem this winter since I started using this and don't know if that is related either.
I am hoping that when I can use this outside I will have better results, but right now I'm more than a bit disappointed. Somehow I got the impression that this stuff was the second coming or something.
It is lighter to work with I'll give it that much. :0)
Juanita
Juanita are you using Bocanob's coco coir? As for reuse, you can sterilize it in your microwave. I don't recommend letting it sit in your drip pan as it does wick up the water like a sponge. I can see the problems this would cause to your coleus cuttings. Don't give up on it just yet. Try a few adjustments and see what happens. Linda, who is scurrying back outside 2 continue planting greens in her EBs...
Thanks Linda. Yes I am using Bob's product as well as some from Spray and Grow. I wouldn't dream of trying to sterlize this in my microwave. No way. Sorry, but thanks. :)) We'll see what happens. Right now I just need to go order gnat traps before I end up eating them with the greens. ^_^
Sorry to hear all your problems? I now use Bocabobs coir in all my startings, roses, datura and of course tomatos for two seasons now. Perhaps you are useing too much water? As for gnats, I don't even have White Flies..The yellow fly traps really work if you are organic otherwise use Ortho Insect Spray for veggies. It really works.
Thanks Tplant. I am ordering traps today. I've been very conscious about the overwatering aspect. If I was going to site some where that it may be going wrong the overwatering thing is probably the culprit. I'm not ready to give up yet, just wanted to throw my 2 cents in the ring.
I have a grow mix of 80% coir, 20% perlite that is about 5 years old (maybe more like 6) that I have used over and over in stacking planters. As for "sterilizing" it, I havent done that exactly from year to year. Maybe I should but so far it doesn't seem necessary. I am a little haphazard in my gardening methods and the coir mix seems to forgive my sloppy techniques. In between crops I simply unstack the stacking pots and dump the mix and old plants into a large wheel barrrow where I can remove the old plants and roots from the grow mix. If it looks and feels and smells good, I re-use it. I may have to add a little more coir-perlite to compensate for what I couldn't pry loose from the old plants roots. I flushed a dilute mixture of water/hydrogen peroxide through some of the stacks last year as my version of sterilizing but I didn't do all of them that way and they all grew plants equally well.
Last year, in some other type of stacking planters, I experimented around with various mixtures of coir/perlite. For my use, I think I like a mix of 50% coir to 50% perlite mix. An even higher percentage of perlite works good too, especially if you water frequently or have an automatic watering system.