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soil Cocopeat as potting soil

I am contemplating buying pure cocopeat to use as potting soil. Regular potting soil prices have sky rocketed and cocopeat is way cheaper. Me being a cheapskate, price is somewhat of an important factor.

However, I've occasionally used one of those cocopeat slabs and my experience has been as soil, it dries out within the blink of an eye. Do I mix it with something else? And if so, what are your experiences or recommandations? I have some vermiculite and compost still that I could use. Would a mix of those suffice? Or better use something else?

And how about fertilizing? The cocopeat has nothing in that regard. I have some liquid fertilizer and solid feetilizer like vinassekali, blood and bone meal. Do you add it to the potting mixture at the start? How much? I'd hate to kill my babies at this stage.
 
Last year we switched from peat based soil & planting pellet's to all Coco Coir.
Using only Coco Coir pellets with a liquid plant food we missed all the mold, moss & insect problems associated with
using a soil that attracts problems. We have had problems with Fungus gnats after using peat & compost growing inside.
Coir seems to hold water like a magnet.

Now we buy the 11# compressed Coco Coir blocks & make up our own soil blends with all organic foods like Bone meal, blood meal, & pearlite for a good soil mix etc.
So far the Coir has met our expectations, & our new pepper crop is looking real good, just fed them first time yesterday.
 
I've read about the water retaining qualities. I wonder how my experience is so different. I really was under the impression it would dry out in a jiff.

I've bought a few blocks nonetheless. Maybe I should experiment with my regular potting soil mixture, one with just coco coir and a third where I mix some regular potting soil with coco coir.
 
I use coir very extensively for succulents, after observing what you’ve noticed: it drains extremely well. I wouldn’t necessarily say it dries quickly — it dries at an appropriate rate, and very importantly it rewets easily even when dry. That’s in contrast to peat, which when fully dry requires careful soaking to rewet or else it actually repels water and kills plants. Coir wets easily but refuses to become sodden, may be a good way to describe it.

I initially used it in combination with Turface MVP (a calcined clay product made for baseball infields) for especially xerophytic succulents, but have since switched to 100% coir for them with similar performance.

I’ve never had a failure with coir. I wish I could use it for everything, but nobody stocks it locally and I can’t afford to ship it in for the whole garden.
 
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Maybe that's a better way of putting it, it drains quite well.

Do you both use the blocks of coco coir? Over here, a shop chain called Action sells these blocks for a bit over 1 euro.

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I read about Coco Coir here at the HP & used it for last years grow.
We have used many bales of peat moss for everything in past, however now the Coir seems to work so much better.

My problem with peat moss is the insects like to lay eggs in it. Coir seems like something they don't look at as food.

Also used the coir in pots to root grape vines in & it worked very well for that & other cuttings.
 
Here’s another positive note about coir: it doesn’t clump or cement in the pot.

My bare root process has gone from: soak the rootball in mildly soapy water, break clods by hand, tease apart roots, and still tear lots of healthy tissue.

To: lift the plant out of the pot and shake. Congrats, the roots are now free hanging and need only a rinse.
 
One last question then, how much fertilizer, i.e. blood and bone meal (or other) do you throw in the mix? I plan on using it this weekend for the seedlings I want to repot. Not sure if I'll add in diluted liquid fertilizer or some bone and blood meal.
 
I’ve thought about how I world enrich coir for seasonal crops, but if I’m honest, I’ve only used it in conjunction with expensive liquid nutrients (Dyna-Gro All-Pro 7-7-7) for my succulents.

I would mix the coir with some kind of rich compost (worm castings are always good, but cheaper stuff works fine so be flexible) and a little bonemeal. But I don’t know what ratios to use.
 
One last question then, how much fertilizer, i.e. blood and bone meal (or other) do you throw in the mix? I plan on using it this weekend for the seedlings I want to repot. Not sure if I'll add in diluted liquid fertilizer or some bone and blood meal.
When I transplant my pepper seedlings in Coir pellets to their next 4" pots I mix Blood bone & seaweed meal Organic 4-2-2 fertilizer.
The mix includes Worm castings & low nitrogen Chicken Compost a dab of Hi Cal Limestone.

I wish I could help on the, how much plant food to put in.
After 51 years of growing plants I just go by my experiences. Oh & the force Luke LOL.
Feed your fish too much food & their water gets sick & they die. Plants need food. Soil is the place plants get their food from.
 
I prefer coco coir but it’s more expensive for me since I can’t find it in bulk. Wish I could get away from both to be honest but that would be tough indoors. I’ve had decent success just using compost and topsoil outdoors in containers.

I have purchased many things from Indiamart, only not Coco coir yet. My next stop for coir from now on.
 
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