What is Coir pith? Or "Coco-Peat"?
Coir is the outside layer of husk that surrounds the shell of the coconut. It consists mainly of fibres, which have traditionally been used to manufacture rope, carpets, doormats, upholstery stuffing, brushes etc. Between these fibres is the corky substance called coir pith or coir dust, which has recently been widely recognised as the superior growing medium in which to grow tomatoes, roses and many other crops. The horticulture industry often calls this substrate coco-peat (or cocopeat) or coir-peat. Sometimes it is known by similar sounding brand names.
A TYPICAL PRODUCTION PROCESS*
The entire coconut husk is soaked with water and the fibres removed at the fibre factory for the production of brushes, rope, carpets, matting, etc. The coir pith is unused and becomes a by-product of the fibre factory process. Depending upon many factors including the local climate, the soaking method and the particular processes used in the coir fibre factory, the coir pith may be suitable for horticultural use.
If it is of suitable quality, it is moved from the coir fibre factory and the coir pith then undergoes various cleansing processes such as sieving to remove large fibres and unwanted particles including sand and grit. Sieve size and thus particle size will be determined by customers' requirements. The coir pith is washed at this point to reduce the unwanted salts before being dried. The coir will then be compressed into a less bulky form suitable for shipment. This may be in the form of grow-bags, small 650 grams briquettes or larger blocks. Compression will vary according to customers' requirements but will usually be between 4:1 and 8:1. Throughout this entire process, samples will be taken and tested by in-house laboratories to ensure that each batch complies with the required specifications.
*Certain factories will have slightly different techniques and in some cases the husks will come straight to the coir pith factory and avoid the coir fibre bristle/rope/upholstery industry altogether. In such cases the pith is the primary use of the coconut husk.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coco (Coir) is the outside layer of husk that surrounds the shell of the coconut.
It consists mainly of fibres, which have traditionally been used to manufacture rope, carpets, doormats, upholstery stuffing, brushes etc.
Between these fibres is the corky substance called coir pith or coir dust which has recently been widely recognised as the superior growing medium in which to grow tomatoes, roses and many other crops.
The horticulture industry often calls this substrate coco-peat or coir-peat. Sometimes it is known by similar sounding brand names
Why Coir you ask...
For starters it has excellent "Air Porosity qualities":
Coir maintains excellent air porosity even when saturated and gives better crops with faster developing roots and more flowers and fruit per plant when used correctly.
It also has excellent "Water Retention" qualities:
Coir has better water retention qualities then peat and other growing media...
That all means that coco has an excellent air/water ratio for horticultural purposes .
It quickly Reabsorbs Water From A Dry State:
Coir peat absorbs moisture immediately, even from a dry state, unlike sphagnum peat which tends to shrink when dry and form a crust.
This causes water run-off from the top surface and water loss between the peat and the inside edge of the flower pot. Thus plants growing in coir tend to recover quicker from dry conditions.
"Irrigation Efficiency":
The ease of re-wetting and the quick drainage characteristics of coir means that coir needs to be irrigated less frequently and for shorter periods.
This leads to reduced leaching losses of nutrients and lower water use.
Faster Germination Times And Quicker Seedling Rotations:
The inherent qualities of coir and the optimum water/air availability are ideal for quick rooting and propagation. ..
Environmentally Preferable to the Alternatives:
In its unprocessed state, coir dust is a waste product in its country of origin.
Its use therefore, does not involve the destruction of peat bogs and natural wetland wildlife habitat.
It is a renewable resource with no hazardous disposal problems (unlike some alternatives such as rock wool).
Having carefully researched the question, Horticultural Coir Ltd (who's website this article is from) is quite satisfied that the fossil fuel consumption associated with the transport of coir from Asia are no greater, and most likely significantly less that the fuel costs involved in the production and transport of peat-moss and rock-wool...
It degrades Slower Than Many of Its Rivals:
The lignin content of around 45% ensures that the excellent water/air ratio is maintained over a longer period of time.
Thus, for example, good performance is maintained over the commercial life of a rose plant which my be over 5 yeas.
It is free from Soil Diseases:
Because Coir originates above ground, it does not contain any soil diseases.
In fact several studies have indicated that coir substrate brings increased resistance to pythium and other root diseases.
The Production Process (How it's made):
The entire coconut husk is soaked in water and the fibres removed at the fibre factory for the production of brushes, rope, carpets, matting, etc.
The coir pith is unused and becomes a bye-product of the fibre factory process.
Depending upon many factors including the local climate, the soaking method and the particular processes used in the coir fibre factory, the coir pith may be suitable for horticultural use.
If it is of suitable quality, it is moved from the coir fibre factory and the coir pith is then sieved to remove large fibres.
Sieve size and thus particle size will be determined by customers' requirements.
Usually, coir pith is washed at this point to reduce the unwanted salts before being dried to less than 20% moisture.
The coir will then be compressed into a less bulky form suitable for shipment.
This may be in the form of grow-bags, small 650-gram briquettes or larger blocks. Compression will vary according to customer's requirements but in most cases it will usually be between 4:1 up to an 8 To 1 ratio.
Idiots Guide To Coco Coir permalink
Okay, if you've read this far you're obviously intrigued by the prospect of growing in coco coir. If you know any little tricks, please add them on.
Choosing a brand or type of Coco.
There are a lot of different brands out there. We won't name any one type. There are also a lot of different grinds and varieties of coco. They range from plain long strands, which come in bags or in pucks ( see profit disks ) to coco croutons, essentially very course chopped coco nut husk, to very fine chopped which has a few fibers and little chunks of coconut husk. We like the kind that comes from the pet store and is used for reptile bedding. It has a lot of long fibers and a good mix of small to large chunk coco husk. We use this in hand water to waste. We've seen profit disks used in ebband flow, and croutons in drip, but the beauty part is you could use any one of them for almost any system. Scope them all out and choose one that meets your needs.
Hydrating (Fluffing ) Coco.
This is pretty easy. You will want at least one big rubbermaid tub with small holes drained in the bottom, ands a pair of elbow length rubber gloves.
First of all coconuts are grown by the sea. They are harvested by the sea, and up till recently really the husks have been discarded by the sea and lain there absorbing salt. No matter what brand of coco you choose, flushing it out is a good idea.
So here's what we do. We take a couple of bricks of coco and throw them in a 10 gallon bucket. We add 3 gallons of warm to hot water per brick. Then We leave it alone. The coco will slowly absorb the water. If you're in a big hurry, put the gloves on and kinda peel it while it's sitting. The wet outside layers come right off. We don't like bending over the bucket so we go watch tv or play with the cat while this is going on.
After the coco has absorbed all the water, put the gloves on and reach in and fluff it all up, make sure there's no large clumps. While doing this, Keep an eye out for chunks of salt. We have found about a ping pong ball size chunk in a bale one time. It can happen. Now each brick hydrates out to about 3 gals. of coco. So if you have a bad back, this next part sucks. Ours are not the greatest but we can still manage it. Dump the coco into a large rubbermaid tub with a lot of small holes drilled in the bottom. Get your bucket and start dumping warm to hot water thru it, flushing out all the salt. Figure at least 3 times the water to coco. We'll pour a bucket thru,wait for it to filter thru, then we have another rubbermaid tub that slips inside on top and we'll stand in it to press all the water we can out. Pull the top tub out, fluff the coco again, and repeat. Do this till you've poured 2-3 times the amount of water to coco thru it.
That's it. Your coco is now ready to use, as is. Wait a sec, no additives?no perlite? no nutes? no lime? bone meal? wormcastings? guano? Nope. Nada. You really don't need any of that stuff really, because you're going to be watering everyday so it doesn't dry out. You'll also be feeding everyday. Depending on which system you use you may be feeding more than once a day. Coco is essentially a hydro system. The biggest mistake we made, and we made every mistake there was, was to insist on treating it like soil. You'll be tempted we know. It seems wrong to water everyday till you get 10-15% runoff. Do it anyway.
ph and Nutes for coco.
We have one friend who keeps his ph at 5.2. Ours is about 5.5. The safe range appears to be 5.4- 6.2 . IMO 6.2 is the very high end, and you see better results under 6.0
The good news about nutes is you can still use organics, but we'd recommend using them in liquid form. Liquid guanos, worm poo, teas. we've seen growers add them directly to the coco and get great results. Seen other growers add them and have nightmares. IMO it's easier to control them when adding them into your daily water schedule. You may need cal/mag and extra N to offset the naturally high level of K in coco. This is particularly a problem if you let the coco dry out or the ph gets out of whack. We like hygrozyme 1 tsp per gallon with every watering. Suffice it to say, almost anything works, you just have to get to know your plants and to figure out the formula that's working for you. If you want simple and easy, get a 1 step coco specific nute like CNS17, about 1/2 tsp per gallon a day works for me. We like the KISS approach to nutes and coco. Keep It Simple Stoner.
That's about all the knowledge we have to impart on this subject.
Originally Posted by jinxie
hello peeps, yes coco is the shit, I just pulled my first harvest off and yes it took some tweaking for sure.
I find the info regarding coco on the web pitiful, it has such potentiel alone or mixed with other substrates,.
Here is some info and tips for using coco in no particular order...
1.Don't cheap on the coco, bricks are good for ebb and flow but you have to watch the compressed stuff, sometimes it's too salty. Canna is very good.
2.Do an initial wash with a light cal/mag solution.
3.The best results in coco are using ferts designed for coco like Canna series, I've just completed a run with PBPro series with added calmag and it works well too.
4.You cannot overwater with coco but it does help to cut it with hydroton or 20%perlite for grit and oxygenation.
5.You can reuse you medium up to 3 times and coco is a renewable and eco friendly source of substrate.
6.The typical increase in yield from soil to coco is ~10%, typically this is from increased aeration in the root zone but also from it's nutrient web that favors cationic exchange.
7.It actually works well with hard waters wich typically can lead to ph fluctuations in hydro.
8.Coco can harbour a thriving microherd and is ideal for organic or inorganic grows alike.
Well that's all for now, i'll look into some links I used to have.
Coco and organics has occupied my thoughts for awhile now, it's relatively unchartered teritory when applied to 100% hardcore organic regime based on ammendments like kelp meal, worm castings, guanos and teas etc.
It is unclear to me yet whether dolomite lime is a compatible source of calcium and magnesium as well as a good ph buffer for the coco.
Dlime had a clear role in peat based mixes as ph of peat is low and lime buffers to upper 6's so we get an even 6.-6.5 range.
Coco is self buffered, it easily takes on the ph of the nute solutions we feed it.For all you hand watering folks remember that just because coco cannot be overwatered it doesn't mean you HAVE to water every day or second day.
Coco is suitable for soil like applications where hand watering occurs every 3-4 days on average.
Watering until some runoff occurs is always good, 25% runoff is a waste just alittle runoff is fine unless you typically overfeed them.
I feed PBPro with calamg @5ml/gallon every 2nd or 3rd watering depending on the growth stage, I used worm casting teas with molasses and some kelp meal as a plain watering between feeding but this is overkill.
You can also feed coco from the bottom up, just fill the saucers under you pots and watch it dissappear.
Remember to rinse the initial medium with calmag as this will release the potassium that occupies most of the initial food web, often young clones/seedling start twisting from overly high K until they are big enough to uptake the high K levels and that calcium ans magnesium start binding in the K's place.
I wish I had not deleted all my grow pics and budshots so I can show you the results and to alesser extent the problems that can occur like calcium def for users not feeding with a coco designed nute regiment.
I am not uploiading pics to any server anymore so others will have to fill in with pictures.
Peace
J
Peace coco nuts and ty for taking up the cause.
Coir is the outside layer of husk that surrounds the shell of the coconut. It consists mainly of fibres, which have traditionally been used to manufacture rope, carpets, doormats, upholstery stuffing, brushes etc. Between these fibres is the corky substance called coir pith or coir dust, which has recently been widely recognised as the superior growing medium in which to grow tomatoes, roses and many other crops. The horticulture industry often calls this substrate coco-peat (or cocopeat) or coir-peat. Sometimes it is known by similar sounding brand names.
A TYPICAL PRODUCTION PROCESS*
The entire coconut husk is soaked with water and the fibres removed at the fibre factory for the production of brushes, rope, carpets, matting, etc. The coir pith is unused and becomes a by-product of the fibre factory process. Depending upon many factors including the local climate, the soaking method and the particular processes used in the coir fibre factory, the coir pith may be suitable for horticultural use.
If it is of suitable quality, it is moved from the coir fibre factory and the coir pith then undergoes various cleansing processes such as sieving to remove large fibres and unwanted particles including sand and grit. Sieve size and thus particle size will be determined by customers' requirements. The coir pith is washed at this point to reduce the unwanted salts before being dried. The coir will then be compressed into a less bulky form suitable for shipment. This may be in the form of grow-bags, small 650 grams briquettes or larger blocks. Compression will vary according to customers' requirements but will usually be between 4:1 and 8:1. Throughout this entire process, samples will be taken and tested by in-house laboratories to ensure that each batch complies with the required specifications.
*Certain factories will have slightly different techniques and in some cases the husks will come straight to the coir pith factory and avoid the coir fibre bristle/rope/upholstery industry altogether. In such cases the pith is the primary use of the coconut husk.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coco (Coir) is the outside layer of husk that surrounds the shell of the coconut.
It consists mainly of fibres, which have traditionally been used to manufacture rope, carpets, doormats, upholstery stuffing, brushes etc.
Between these fibres is the corky substance called coir pith or coir dust which has recently been widely recognised as the superior growing medium in which to grow tomatoes, roses and many other crops.
The horticulture industry often calls this substrate coco-peat or coir-peat. Sometimes it is known by similar sounding brand names
Why Coir you ask...
For starters it has excellent "Air Porosity qualities":
Coir maintains excellent air porosity even when saturated and gives better crops with faster developing roots and more flowers and fruit per plant when used correctly.
It also has excellent "Water Retention" qualities:
Coir has better water retention qualities then peat and other growing media...
That all means that coco has an excellent air/water ratio for horticultural purposes .
It quickly Reabsorbs Water From A Dry State:
Coir peat absorbs moisture immediately, even from a dry state, unlike sphagnum peat which tends to shrink when dry and form a crust.
This causes water run-off from the top surface and water loss between the peat and the inside edge of the flower pot. Thus plants growing in coir tend to recover quicker from dry conditions.
"Irrigation Efficiency":
The ease of re-wetting and the quick drainage characteristics of coir means that coir needs to be irrigated less frequently and for shorter periods.
This leads to reduced leaching losses of nutrients and lower water use.
Faster Germination Times And Quicker Seedling Rotations:
The inherent qualities of coir and the optimum water/air availability are ideal for quick rooting and propagation. ..
Environmentally Preferable to the Alternatives:
In its unprocessed state, coir dust is a waste product in its country of origin.
Its use therefore, does not involve the destruction of peat bogs and natural wetland wildlife habitat.
It is a renewable resource with no hazardous disposal problems (unlike some alternatives such as rock wool).
Having carefully researched the question, Horticultural Coir Ltd (who's website this article is from) is quite satisfied that the fossil fuel consumption associated with the transport of coir from Asia are no greater, and most likely significantly less that the fuel costs involved in the production and transport of peat-moss and rock-wool...
It degrades Slower Than Many of Its Rivals:
The lignin content of around 45% ensures that the excellent water/air ratio is maintained over a longer period of time.
Thus, for example, good performance is maintained over the commercial life of a rose plant which my be over 5 yeas.
It is free from Soil Diseases:
Because Coir originates above ground, it does not contain any soil diseases.
In fact several studies have indicated that coir substrate brings increased resistance to pythium and other root diseases.
The Production Process (How it's made):
The entire coconut husk is soaked in water and the fibres removed at the fibre factory for the production of brushes, rope, carpets, matting, etc.
The coir pith is unused and becomes a bye-product of the fibre factory process.
Depending upon many factors including the local climate, the soaking method and the particular processes used in the coir fibre factory, the coir pith may be suitable for horticultural use.
If it is of suitable quality, it is moved from the coir fibre factory and the coir pith is then sieved to remove large fibres.
Sieve size and thus particle size will be determined by customers' requirements.
Usually, coir pith is washed at this point to reduce the unwanted salts before being dried to less than 20% moisture.
The coir will then be compressed into a less bulky form suitable for shipment.
This may be in the form of grow-bags, small 650-gram briquettes or larger blocks. Compression will vary according to customer's requirements but in most cases it will usually be between 4:1 up to an 8 To 1 ratio.
Idiots Guide To Coco Coir permalink
Okay, if you've read this far you're obviously intrigued by the prospect of growing in coco coir. If you know any little tricks, please add them on.
Choosing a brand or type of Coco.
There are a lot of different brands out there. We won't name any one type. There are also a lot of different grinds and varieties of coco. They range from plain long strands, which come in bags or in pucks ( see profit disks ) to coco croutons, essentially very course chopped coco nut husk, to very fine chopped which has a few fibers and little chunks of coconut husk. We like the kind that comes from the pet store and is used for reptile bedding. It has a lot of long fibers and a good mix of small to large chunk coco husk. We use this in hand water to waste. We've seen profit disks used in ebband flow, and croutons in drip, but the beauty part is you could use any one of them for almost any system. Scope them all out and choose one that meets your needs.
Hydrating (Fluffing ) Coco.
This is pretty easy. You will want at least one big rubbermaid tub with small holes drained in the bottom, ands a pair of elbow length rubber gloves.
First of all coconuts are grown by the sea. They are harvested by the sea, and up till recently really the husks have been discarded by the sea and lain there absorbing salt. No matter what brand of coco you choose, flushing it out is a good idea.
So here's what we do. We take a couple of bricks of coco and throw them in a 10 gallon bucket. We add 3 gallons of warm to hot water per brick. Then We leave it alone. The coco will slowly absorb the water. If you're in a big hurry, put the gloves on and kinda peel it while it's sitting. The wet outside layers come right off. We don't like bending over the bucket so we go watch tv or play with the cat while this is going on.
After the coco has absorbed all the water, put the gloves on and reach in and fluff it all up, make sure there's no large clumps. While doing this, Keep an eye out for chunks of salt. We have found about a ping pong ball size chunk in a bale one time. It can happen. Now each brick hydrates out to about 3 gals. of coco. So if you have a bad back, this next part sucks. Ours are not the greatest but we can still manage it. Dump the coco into a large rubbermaid tub with a lot of small holes drilled in the bottom. Get your bucket and start dumping warm to hot water thru it, flushing out all the salt. Figure at least 3 times the water to coco. We'll pour a bucket thru,wait for it to filter thru, then we have another rubbermaid tub that slips inside on top and we'll stand in it to press all the water we can out. Pull the top tub out, fluff the coco again, and repeat. Do this till you've poured 2-3 times the amount of water to coco thru it.
That's it. Your coco is now ready to use, as is. Wait a sec, no additives?no perlite? no nutes? no lime? bone meal? wormcastings? guano? Nope. Nada. You really don't need any of that stuff really, because you're going to be watering everyday so it doesn't dry out. You'll also be feeding everyday. Depending on which system you use you may be feeding more than once a day. Coco is essentially a hydro system. The biggest mistake we made, and we made every mistake there was, was to insist on treating it like soil. You'll be tempted we know. It seems wrong to water everyday till you get 10-15% runoff. Do it anyway.
ph and Nutes for coco.
We have one friend who keeps his ph at 5.2. Ours is about 5.5. The safe range appears to be 5.4- 6.2 . IMO 6.2 is the very high end, and you see better results under 6.0
The good news about nutes is you can still use organics, but we'd recommend using them in liquid form. Liquid guanos, worm poo, teas. we've seen growers add them directly to the coco and get great results. Seen other growers add them and have nightmares. IMO it's easier to control them when adding them into your daily water schedule. You may need cal/mag and extra N to offset the naturally high level of K in coco. This is particularly a problem if you let the coco dry out or the ph gets out of whack. We like hygrozyme 1 tsp per gallon with every watering. Suffice it to say, almost anything works, you just have to get to know your plants and to figure out the formula that's working for you. If you want simple and easy, get a 1 step coco specific nute like CNS17, about 1/2 tsp per gallon a day works for me. We like the KISS approach to nutes and coco. Keep It Simple Stoner.
That's about all the knowledge we have to impart on this subject.
Originally Posted by jinxie
hello peeps, yes coco is the shit, I just pulled my first harvest off and yes it took some tweaking for sure.
I find the info regarding coco on the web pitiful, it has such potentiel alone or mixed with other substrates,.
Here is some info and tips for using coco in no particular order...
1.Don't cheap on the coco, bricks are good for ebb and flow but you have to watch the compressed stuff, sometimes it's too salty. Canna is very good.
2.Do an initial wash with a light cal/mag solution.
3.The best results in coco are using ferts designed for coco like Canna series, I've just completed a run with PBPro series with added calmag and it works well too.
4.You cannot overwater with coco but it does help to cut it with hydroton or 20%perlite for grit and oxygenation.
5.You can reuse you medium up to 3 times and coco is a renewable and eco friendly source of substrate.
6.The typical increase in yield from soil to coco is ~10%, typically this is from increased aeration in the root zone but also from it's nutrient web that favors cationic exchange.
7.It actually works well with hard waters wich typically can lead to ph fluctuations in hydro.
8.Coco can harbour a thriving microherd and is ideal for organic or inorganic grows alike.
Well that's all for now, i'll look into some links I used to have.
Coco and organics has occupied my thoughts for awhile now, it's relatively unchartered teritory when applied to 100% hardcore organic regime based on ammendments like kelp meal, worm castings, guanos and teas etc.
It is unclear to me yet whether dolomite lime is a compatible source of calcium and magnesium as well as a good ph buffer for the coco.
Dlime had a clear role in peat based mixes as ph of peat is low and lime buffers to upper 6's so we get an even 6.-6.5 range.
Coco is self buffered, it easily takes on the ph of the nute solutions we feed it.For all you hand watering folks remember that just because coco cannot be overwatered it doesn't mean you HAVE to water every day or second day.
Coco is suitable for soil like applications where hand watering occurs every 3-4 days on average.
Watering until some runoff occurs is always good, 25% runoff is a waste just alittle runoff is fine unless you typically overfeed them.
I feed PBPro with calamg @5ml/gallon every 2nd or 3rd watering depending on the growth stage, I used worm casting teas with molasses and some kelp meal as a plain watering between feeding but this is overkill.
You can also feed coco from the bottom up, just fill the saucers under you pots and watch it dissappear.
Remember to rinse the initial medium with calmag as this will release the potassium that occupies most of the initial food web, often young clones/seedling start twisting from overly high K until they are big enough to uptake the high K levels and that calcium ans magnesium start binding in the K's place.
I wish I had not deleted all my grow pics and budshots so I can show you the results and to alesser extent the problems that can occur like calcium def for users not feeding with a coco designed nute regiment.
I am not uploiading pics to any server anymore so others will have to fill in with pictures.
Peace
J
Peace coco nuts and ty for taking up the cause.
