I’ve used the six best coco coir products to change my garden life. Here’s what to look for as you search for coco coir
What is coco coir, and why is it dope for plants?
Coco coir is an excellent option if you are looking for an alternative to peat moss and living soils! Coco coir is a material made from coconut husks. It is popular in gardening and horticulture for its water retention properties and ability to improve soil texture. Coco coir also has beneficial nutrients which can promote plant growth.
How The Best Coco Coir Is Made
Coco coir comes from the husks of coconuts. The husks are processed and spun into a robust and durable fiber for various purposes, including ropes, mats, and nets.
But what about the actual process of making coco coir for plants?
It’s not as complicated as you might think. The coconuts come from the trees. Once collected, the husks are removed and set aside to dry in the sun.
After a few days, the husks will be dry and ready to be processed. They’re chopped up into small pieces and soaked in water. After a few hours, the husks will expand and soften. At this point, it’s easily separated into long fiber strands.
The hard part comes when you need to leach the salts and bacteria from the media, which can get tricky. No worries, companies are helping us gather the best coco coir possible.
How To Use The Best Coco Coir In Your Garden?
You can use only coco coir or a custom blend of other elements. Since there aren’t minerals within the coco coir, you’ll want to use it with an organic media loaded with mycorrhizae, worm castings, and other goodies. Some brands listed below will add beneficial bacteria to make the product unique.
I like to add organic soil to one-third of the container and the rest coco coir.
Coco coir is so versatile you can use it in hydroponics systems. Ebb & flow or drip systems work well with coco and no additives.
In an Autopot system, you can damn near set it and forget it. I call that the lazy man grow, but it works and is very helpful if you have a busy schedule. Using coco coir in Autopots or auto-feeding systems gives you automated growth with reliable feeding to the media.
No matter how you grow with coco coir, you can ensure the plants’ growth, taste, and size grow in the media of love.
Cartier Crops’ Best Coco Coir For Cannabis
If you’re thinking of growing cannabis indoors, you’ll need to invest in top-quality coco coir products.
Remember these terms:
- RHP Certified
- Buffered
- Washed
- Salt-Free
- Added Mychorizae or Trichoderma
Product #1: Char Coir 100% RHP Certified Coco Coir
The Char Coir coco coir is second to none when discussing the best of the best. Triple-washed to flush out salts, buffered, pH stabilized at 6-6.5%, and an EC of .6, making this blend worth every penny.
Good Lawd! Growth is ridiculous, the roots enjoy playing in Char Coir media, and it shows in the fruit. You can always buy the bricks if you are still looking for this product in your town and can’t find them. More on that later.
What’s RHP certified? The RHP certification guarantees that the substrate meets the quality requirements for water absorption, air content, pH, and nutrients. It also provides more certainty that the substrate is clean and pure and can be used safely without risks to the crop.
• 100% RHP certified coco coir
• Buffered
• EC less than 0.6
• Triple washed to remove salts
• pH stabilized at 6%-6.5%
• High cation exchange capacity
• RHP certified for horticulture
• 50 liter / 1.75 cu ft
Product #2: Sunshine Advanced Ultra Coir
Another great product with a twist from Sunshine is Advanced Ultra Coir. Sunshine added peat moss to the recipe helping to media retain more moisture for optimal plant growth. The part I like about the media is the endo-mycorrhizae added to help keep the roots clean and get the party started.
It does have perlite added as well as an organic wetting agent. I tell you, products are getting better more and more each day, and Sunshine hit a home run with this blend.
Product #3: Mother Earth Coco + Perlite
The Mother Earth Coco mix brings you closer to the perfect growing medium. Mixing coco coir with perlite creates an aerated, lightweight, and well-draining planting environment that is perfect for your plants.
What’s dope about Mother Earth is the added amendments to give the media a lift. Be careful with a blend like this when using nutrients. You want to supplement nutrients at a half rate until otherwise. Mother Earth is a great product for those just starting with coco coir since the failure rate is very low.
Product #4: Char Coir Cloud Coir
Char coir Cloud Coir is the same as the Char Coir coco coir products except for the added perlite. It’s a 50/50 cut, meaning 50 percent coco coir and 50 percent perlite. The perlite adds more air pockets for the roots to breathe. Cloud Coir comes buffered and ready out of the bag. Again, if you need coco shipped in, we have an alternative coming up.
Product #5: CocoGro™
CocoGro™ is a premium coir fiber because it is thoroughly rinsed and contains a very low salt content. CocoGro™ is made with 3/4″ double-sieved, long fibers to give ample air space to plant roots. Gardeners will experience an optimal air-to-water ratio versus conventional potting soils.
CocoGro™ is ecologically responsible and derived from a replenishable resource, unlike other grow media’s peat moss. Cocogro™ is unique because it is fully composted and not chemically buffered like most other coir fiber products.
Product #6 Char Coir BioPot, 8L
When it comes down to it, reaching for the 8L Char Coir BioPot is a good idea and the way to go if you need to buy your coco from a distant source. The Char Coir comes in a brick style and turns into a container as it expands.
• 100% coco coir
• RHP certified
• Buffered
• Very low EC, less than 0.6
• Free of pathogens
• Stabilized for proper PH 6.0-6.5
• High cation exchange capacity (CEC) for optimum nutrient uptake
The downside, I found them only in 8L pots. Thats 2 gallons of coco coir. The other is no amendments inside the media for added growth and health. You can always add SimPro Formula to the mix three times a week to help the plants excel.
Again, if you’re needing your coco coir shipped, using Char Coir Biopots can help you save money and time. Plus, the free container makes it all worth it. Excellent for hydroponic growers, by the way.
Things to Remember When Choosing The Best Coco Coir
- Even thorough the best coco coir comes washed, I still like to clean the coco coir before use. Washing will remove any dust or debris that may be present. That’s if you bought a brand that’s not RHP-certified.
- Coco coir can hold a lot of water, so be careful not to overwater your plants, even though overwatering coco coir is hard to do. You want to maintain the nutrients your plants provide and not flush them out from excessive watering.
- The quality of the coco coir you choose will significantly impact your plants. Make sure to get high-quality coco coir that is free of contaminants.
- If you plan to get your coco coir shipped in, you want to buy the Char Coir bricks to save you on shipping costs.
- Some coco coir products don’t add amendments like worm castings, dolomite, etc., so you will want to supplement your coco coir with food like SimPro to help throughout the vegetation and flowering stages.
- You can always add organic soil to the media for more microbial activity.
Conclusion
If your local hydro store has any of the products you’ve seen above, grab a bag and get busy. Coco Coir is very different from soil or other media as it acts like hydroponics thats treated like soil with amendments and other ingredients.
If you don’t live near a hydro store, ordering Char Coir bricks will be the way to go for savings and a fast start. Keep in mind not all coco coir is the same, and make sure the product you use is RHP certified, or you can run into problems.
There are so many ways to get coco coir in bricks shipped. Save this article for added help on your next coco coir purchase.
Peace,
Cartier
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