What is the right amount of experimentation with new growing mediums in your garden or greenhouse?
Soils have been about since the dawn of time, but we as growers have expanded to growing in moss, polymer-based gels, and even water!
And then there are those who have gotten a little bit more avant-garde and experimented with the fibrous part of a coconut for use as a growing medium. Can you use coco coir as soil?
The answer is yes! Let’s learn more about how coco coir can be used as a growing medium in place of soil as well as the advantages and disadvantages of using soil for growing plants.
Coco Coir
You may picture the brown fuzzy seed that is hard to open or the big green ball that comes off the tree when you think of a coconut.
Coco coir are the fibres in between the flesh of the fruit and the outer husk.
There are two types of coco coir:
- Brown coir is from mature coconuts and is strong.
- White coir is from unripe coconuts which is flexible.
Both types may be used to replace soil.
Pros
- Eco-Friendly: Coconut coir is made from a renewable resource and every step from soaking in water to drying in the sun can all be done in an eco-friendly way. Coconut coir is also reusable and won’t break down over time. Believe it or not, coconut coir is a waste product, and repurposing it for planting helps reduce waste from coconut farms.
- Good for Root Growth: Coconut coir is light and airy and gives the roots plenty of space to develop and grow, which will provide a very solid root system versus a compacted root ball.
- More Control: Coconut coir does not have any inherent nutritional content. There are no different levels of sand, silt, or clay, there’s no decaying organic matter, and nothing to affect the nutritional content your plants are being provided with. This means you have complete control over what nutrients you give your plants.
- Introductory Step to Hydroponics: The basics of hydroponics is the growing medium is water, so you have complete control over nutrient feeding into the plants. Planting in coconut coir provides you that same control without having to (buy or) set up a hydroponic system or maintain one.
- Water Retention: Coconut coir can absorb 10 times it weight in water. This amount of water retention means the growing medium will not dry out as quickly, you can go longer periods between watering, and your plants are at a lower risk of suffering from dehydration.
- Insect Repelling: Many plant pests will avoid making a home in coconut coir. This is because coconut coir does not have any decaying organic matter for the pests to feed off of!
Cons
- Absorbs Nutrients: Although coco coir holds moisture, it will also hold some of the nutrients that you will add for your plants. Cocord coir particularly absorbs calcium and nitrogen, though you can offset this by adding a good CalMag. You also can prevent the coco coir from absorbing the nutrients if you hydrate it beforehand.
- Dependent on You: Your plants will be completely dependent on you, the grower, if they are planted into coco coir. Although you have full control of the nutrients you add to the coco coir, too much or too little could kill your plants.
- Rehydrate: It’s not a difficult step, but you will have to rehydrate the coco coir before you can use it. Coco coir usually comes in dehydrated compressed bricks and if you were ready to get started once you got your coco coir home to use, you may be a little disappointed.
- Expensive Mixes: Due to coco coir being difficult to use because you have to adjust the nutrients yourself, you can buy premade coco coir mixes. This will make growing your plants easier, and save you time not having to do it yourself, but the premade mixes can be pretty expensive.
Soil
Dirt. Earth. Soil. You’ve heard these words before, but what exactly is soil?
Soil is a combination of five essential components; minerals, organic matter, air, water and organisms. Soil is categorized and defined by the different proportions of its ingredients which leads to soil types classified as clay, silt or sand.
Each soil type has strengths and weaknesses regarding plants, but the ideal soil type you want is a loam mixed type soil.
Loam is composed of;
- 20% clay
- 40% silt
- 40% sand
Loam is sometimes called topsoil and is used by landscaping companies, garden centers/nurseries, and most home gardeners.
Pros
- User-friendly: Soil is usually very forgiving! In addition to it protecting the roots from damaging temperature fluctuations, you can buy premixed soil for each type of plant you have, it will store nutrients, and it is just plain simple!
- Buffering Acidity: Microbes and organic material in the soil or soil organic material shift the soil pH to that which is optimum for nutrient absorption by plants. This will be for most of the plants that range from 5.5 to 6.5.
- Already Has The Right Stuff: Set it and forget it is my style of gardening! A premixed soil for each specific type of plant is basically that. The premixed soil has the correct ratio of sand, peat, organic matter, perlite, food, and microorganisms for the plant type that you purchased the premixed soil for. That is all you have to check off of your gardening list. All you have to do is learn to water when the plants are truly thirsty and place the pots in the right lighting.
Cons
- It’s Heavy: Soil can weigh three to four times as much as a similar amount of coco coir, which is more of an issue if you are growing in pots. When moving the plants back and forth from indoors to outdoor growing, heavy soil makes that incredibly difficult.
- Soil Mixes: The real complication with soil is that it is a mix of different retentions of water, nutrients based on the composition. Finding the soil that is just right for your plant could be difficult. If you have more than one variety of plant, you will need to simply keep several mixes for them.
- Less Control: When using coco coir, you are in control of nutrients. However, with soil, there are nutrients that already exist in the soil from the decomposing of organic material. To actually know what nutrients your plants are getting, and how much, is nearly impossible.
Verdict
Coco coir can certainly be relied on as soil and I might even venture to say it may outperform soil in a lot of situations.
Having complete control over the nutrients you give to your plant, great water retention properties, and coir is not a hospitable environment for pests, coco coir is my next go to growing medium.
But instead of asking coir or soil, you can have the best of both worlds.
Combining soil and coir will provide better control, a lighter mix, room for your roots to grow, and insulation from temperature changes for those roots.