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media Tell me about coco coir

S

ShowMeDaSauce

A hydro shop up the street has coco coir available in small blocks and i would like to try it in a couple of my buckets with drip irrigation. The Tidy Cat litter containers are about 18" tall and about 11"x15". I want to fill 2 of these containers with this test grow media. So its close to a 5gallon bucket.
 
 
I have
3-4 bags of mushroom compost
About 25lbs of Black Kow....getting more when it goes on sale again.
Really good soil that already has a lot of Black Kow, coffee grounds and compost in it.
A little less than half a 3.8cu block of peat moss.
 
Obviously i need to make some holes in the buckets. Ive got a 1" hole saw bit so i got that covered. I don't have any perlite of vermiculite atm. I do have some sand but not a whole lot atm.
 
I still have plenty of time but what sounds like a good potting mix ratio with the coco coir? The small bricks they sell expand to around 8 liters.
 
 
I got a 2 of these 1.5lb bricks to try in a couple pots.
137301.jpg

 
EDIT:
 
Found a local wholesale outlet with a retail counter. 10lb blocks are $10. Thats really close to the same price as peat moss.
 
Coco coir is pretty much all that I use, anymore. I can use it a lot longer than peat, which is my main motivation. It needs more calcium, but if you use a nutrient based on calcium - like CNS17 Grow - it works a charm. Or, if you go organic - which I also do - and use fish emulsion and seaweed, you can just throw in powdered eggshells or a solution of calcium acetate. (eggshells dissolved in vinegar)
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I personally wouldn't put cow manure in anything. You don't know what comes out of a commercial feedlot, as far as pathogens, medicines for the animals, and let's not mention that cow manure has high salt content. It's often not very pure, and has high soil/sand, which can make it compact. Mushroom compost? Nah. Not for coco coir. For me, the only way to amend the stuff with an animal product, is rabbit manure. I do this. Fresh out of the rabbit, or aged. Doesn't make much difference.
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If you're going to use it to build a mix for outdoor growing, I'd do 60/30/10 coco coir/perlite/rabbit manure. If you're going to grow indoors, I'd do straight coco. Blister there has a pretty good method for processing coco. (which I feel is much better suited for an indoor drain-to-waste grow, whereas I believe mine is better for outdoors, or SIP type planters)
.
So long as I've not had any causes for concern with pathogens, I'll plant straight back into my coco, without even taking the old rootball out from the last grow. I do this 2-3 times before "refreshing" the mix.
 
ShowMeDaSauce said:
I got a 2 of these 1.5lb bricks to try in a couple pots.
137301.jpg

 
EDIT:
 
Found a local wholesale outlet with a retail counter. 10lb blocks are $10. Thats really close to the same price as peat moss.
Click to expand...
Keep looking for a better deal... My local hydro shop sells the 5kg "inflatable" blocks for around $11. It makes something like 80l of product.
 
ShowMeDaSauce said:
I checked the local hydro shops, they run over $12 for a similar size block.
Click to expand...
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You mean for the 5kg block? Because if that's what it costs, that's what you should be getting. Those small blocks are never a good deal, unless they're on clearance! (of course, I may be exaggerating - but they're not typically proportional in price to the larger quantity)
 
Interestingly enough, I was talking to a member here on THP from Indonesia... He says that the coco coir where he is at, is NOT cheap - it's priced for the export market. Talk about a shit deal! You have a resource right in your backyard that you can't even use!
 
5kg block at the hydro shop is listed at $16 at their online store. They wont sell it "walk in" for that price though. The next size smaller blocks were $13.99 or $12.99 which i think were 10lbs.
 
Im not sure i want to convert everything over to coco yet....at least not at their prices. At Hummerts pricing im very tempted. They supply many of the smaller local shops. I might have to setup a wholesale account with them. https://www.hummert.com/
 
solid7 said:
Coco coir is pretty much all that I use, anymore. I can use it a lot longer than peat, which is my main motivation. It needs more calcium, but if you use a nutrient based on calcium - like CNS17 Grow - it works a charm. Or, if you go organic - which I also do - and use fish emulsion and seaweed, you can just throw in powdered eggshells or a solution of calcium acetate. (eggshells dissolved in vinegar)
.
I personally wouldn't put cow manure in anything. You don't know what comes out of a commercial feedlot, as far as pathogens, medicines for the animals, and let's not mention that cow manure has high salt content. It's often not very pure, and has high soil/sand, which can make it compact. Mushroom compost? Nah. Not for coco coir. For me, the only way to amend the stuff with an animal product, is rabbit manure. I do this. Fresh out of the rabbit, or aged. Doesn't make much difference.
.
If you're going to use it to build a mix for outdoor growing, I'd do 60/30/10 coco coir/perlite/rabbit manure. If you're going to grow indoors, I'd do straight coco. Blister there has a pretty good method for processing coco. (which I feel is much better suited for an indoor drain-to-waste grow, whereas I believe mine is better for outdoors, or SIP type planters)
.
So long as I've not had any causes for concern with pathogens, I'll plant straight back into my coco, without even taking the old rootball out from the last grow. I do this 2-3 times before "refreshing" the mix.
Click to expand...
 

Whats wrong with using mushroom compost?  I picked up several bags at the end of last season that were on sale.  I'm in the process of enoculating my soil for my 5 gallon container grow and I'm using 1/3 part mushroom compost in my mix.  Was this a mistake using it in my mix?
 
jswieton said:
Whats wrong with using mushroom compost?  I picked up several bags at the end of last season that were on sale.  I'm in the process of enoculating my soil for my 5 gallon container grow and I'm using 1/3 part mushroom compost in my mix.  Was this a mistake using it in my mix?
Click to expand...
To get the advantages of coco, I just don't believe it to be a good quality ingredient. It's a bit heavy, lots of sand, and doesn't help retain the nice structure of coco.
 
solid7 said:
To get the advantages of coco, I just don't believe it to be a good quality ingredient. It's a bit heavy, lots of sand, and doesn't help retain the nice structure of coco.
Click to expand...
 
ok, the blend I'm useing is 1 part P. moss, 1 part mushroom compost, 0.5 part perlite, 0.5 part coco, 0.5 part worm casting,and then I several amendments like fish bone/feather/kelp/allfelfa meal, azomite,epsom salt, leonardite/humic acid, and mycos.  I wanted to use more coco coir instead of moss in my mix but it's pretty expensive where I live to make x25 5 gallon containers out of coir.
 
A Spicy English Cheapskate said:
I think worm castings can also work well as an amendment in coco if your trying to use it as part of a soil mix.
Click to expand...
Yes, it can. But as I said before, to get the advantages of coco coir, you want to keep that light. Absolutely not more than 10% worm castings, as they are very heavy, and can get "muddy".
 
jswieton said:
ok, the blend I'm useing is 1 part P. moss, 1 part mushroom compost, 0.5 part perlite, 0.5 part coco, 0.5 part worm casting,and then I several amendments like fish bone/feather/kelp/allfelfa meal, azomite,epsom salt, leonardite/humic acid, and mycos.  I wanted to use more coco coir instead of moss in my mix but it's pretty expensive where I live to make x25 5 gallon containers out of coir.
Click to expand...
That's a very heavy mix. I have heard of some folks somehow getting away with it, but where I'm at, something like that would turn into a concrete block.
 
I go through a lot of coffee so i always have grounds. Last year two of the pots had a really heavy amount of grounds and lots of compost/Black Cow. The orange hab  and super chile that were in those pots were some of the best producers i have ever grown and the soil mix drained better than any of my other pots.
 
I drink a lot of coffee but not enough to make up 12+ 3-5 gallon pots. :D I can get worm castings, neem cake and kelp meal for a reasonably good price. At least good enough for the 2 pots i want to experiment on.
 
Ive seen a few people use coco a little differently. They use several inches of straight coco in the bottom of the planter to help with drainage and a mix above. Ive also seen all coco or coco/perlite with just a top dressing of mushroom compost and/or other amendments.
 
ShowMeDaSauce said:
I go through a lot of coffee so i always have grounds. Last year two of the pots had a really heavy amount of grounds and lots of compost/Black Cow. The orange hab  and super chile that were in those pots were some of the best producers i have ever grown and the soil mix drained better than any of my other pots.
 
I drink a lot of coffee but not enough to make up 12+ 3-5 gallon pots. :D I can get worm castings, neem cake and kelp meal for a reasonably good price. At least good enough for the 2 pots i want to experiment on.
 
Ive seen a few people use coco a little differently. They use several inches of straight coco in the bottom of the planter to help with drainage and a mix above. Ive also seen all coco or coco/perlite with just a top dressing of mushroom compost and/or other amendments.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I don't know how you manage that. I've tried compost heavy mixes, and none have ever worked well.
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As for coco in the bottom of a pot... That is not how drainage works. It's no different than putting shards of gravel at the bottom of a pot. It doesn't provide drainage, but just raises the saturation zone, even higher. (as each separate media has its own perched water table)
 
I just expanded 1 brick to see how much it filled my container. It came up to around 60% full but i only used a little over 3 quarts of water to expand it. Directions said to use 1-1.5 gallons. I will probably take a trip Monday for one of the larger bricks and some perlite.
 
3 parts coco and 1 part perlite?
 
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