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Peat Moss VS Coco Coir

VegHead

VegHead

Im bringing this up because this year I was told by many people to try Coco Coir. Well ive had great results, so I was just wondering what peoples opinions are on this subject. Ill also post some links to articles that have convinced my to NEVER use peat moss again. I guess the argument isnt "which one is better in the garden?" because they have alot of the same qualities, the argument is "which is better for the environment." Since we are all gardeners and practice sustainability, recycling, and overall bettering of out planet, I thought I would share this info!! :cheers:

http://growmeorganics.posterous.com/peat-harvesting-and-carbon-pollution
http://journeytoforever.org/compost_peatmoss.html
http://www.gardenguides.com/122199-coco-coir-vs-peat-moss.html
 
I find coco to be better than peat in everyway, except cost. The only thing you really have to watch out for, I got caught last year with leaving my seedlings in coco for too long without any nutrients and they started to show it. The root structures in coco were amazing though. If I could get as much coco as I do peat for just 10 bucks then I would use coco for my potting mixes but it is still too expensive to make 100 gallons of potting mix out of.
 
There are different grades and types of both coco and peat. some coco products include coco fibers from the husk, chips, coir and other forms. they do not all have the same properties. high quality Sphagnum peat-moss is somewhat similar to what some call "Coco dust". both of them aren't cheap, but nothing of high quality is.

To sum it all up. I use both.
 
From the way your articles sound it would be environmentaly better to use the coco over peat. It sounds right and I hope it is a solution over peat. I'm always willing to do anything to help so I will be looking into this a little more deeper. I'm not jumping on the coco bandwagon without futher study :)
 
I've used coco coir (pith size) so far this year from General Hydroponics. The cost from the hydro store for 10lb block is about $14 that makes about 2.5cu ft. The plants love it compared to Miracle Gro and peat moss.

As was already mentioned, the extra cost of coir plus the cost of complete nutrients do add some cost but I think it is negligible. It was more expensive to power two T5 lamps than to buy nutes and coir.

I did some maths about a month ago to determine the cost of raising my plants from seed to transplantable size plants. I figured the cost of coir, nutrients, pots, water, electricity, etc. What I came up with was that my cost roughly comes out to be $1.50 over a 2 month period.
I have about 250 plants total.
 
Have had great luck with coco, far better than peat also coco is renewable, am growing in 100% coco now (3years) coco does require more nutes at the beginning, then it seens to be better than peat, here on the island peat is 28.00 for 4 cu bale, Coco is $ 9.00 for 4.2 cu the coco is a compressed bale works for me.
 
Just to show the other side of the story, here is a link about peat from the peat industry. Not saying either side is right, I'm just providing another view. I should also mention that I love the results from peat based mixes. Coir is great too but I like to use my own organic composts and not rely on coir specific nutrients

http://www.peatmoss.com/pm-efaq.php

http://www.peatmoss.com/concern.php
 
IN some places the coco is higher priced because the price of fuel is high, look for coco in pet shops some places have it a lot cheaper than garden centers, theres a big push on to use coco for there cages and it's renewable there coconuts growing in alot of places.
 
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