Home & Garden
Learn How to Use Coconut Coir Products in the Garden
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Reputable manufacturers often treat their products to inhibit weeds, pests, and disease. They also buffer it to counteract potassium and sodium, elements that may inhibit the uptake of essential magnesium and calcium. And, some go so far as to add micronutrients such as copper and iron.
An Array of Options
Garden centers are well-stocked with coco products like these:
Coco Peat
This is the form most people mean when they say “coir.”
It’s a spongy, soilless growing medium that may be added to soil or potting media to increase moisture retention, drainage, and aeration, much like peat moss, perlite, or vermiculite.
In addition, coco peat supports strong root growth and is often used to start seeds and grow hydroponically.
Garden Coir by Burpee is available in 8-quart bags directly from Burpee.
It contains 100% coconut coir in a crumbly form like peat, and holds up to 150% of its weight in water.
Seed Starter Discs
Coco peat is packed into discs for use as a seed starting medium.
This soilless medium supports healthy root growth while retaining moisture, draining well, and providing good air circulation. Start seeds indoors or out, and place directly into the ground when seedlings are ready.
Netted Coir Pellets are available from Burpee in 36- and 42-millimeter sizes, and various quantities of each.
These pots contain coir and potting soil. Just add your seeds, a little water, and bam! – they grow into 2-inch pots.
Compressed Bricks
Small fibers and dust are compacted into hard bricks that require soaking before use as a soilless growing medium or soil amendment. Sizes and shapes vary from large rectangles to small discs.
Compressed Coco Coir Fiber Grow Medium
They require hydration. When water is added, they expand, absorbing approximately nine times their weight in water.
At maximum saturation, you have a crumbly, peat-like mixture that’s ready for containers or gardens.
Mountain Valley Seed Company’s Minute Soil Compressed Coco Coir Fiber Grow Medium is available from True Leaf Market.
Package and puck sizes vary, but 3 of the large bricks will provide you with a total of 4.5 gallons of potting medium.
Mulch Chips
Other products are coarser in texture. Mulch chips looked like cubed husks. Use them in the garden to increase moisture retention, inhibit weed growth, and provide an aesthetically pleasing appearance.
Chips are also used as support for the roots of tropical plants like orchids, because they drain well and allow for ample air circulation.
FibreDust CoCo Mulch via Amazon
Mulch chips like the ones pictured above are available though eCommerce channels such as Amazon, but it’s probably better to search your local garden center or big-box store for a similar product if you need it in large quantities.
Unless you need to fill just a few containers, shipping is going to be prohibitively expensive or the product will likely be marked up high enough to cover shipping costs.
Planter Liners
Planter liners are also on the coarse side, with a fibrous, woven texture, rather than a spongy, peat-like one.
14-Inch Round Coco Fiber Liners (2 Pack) via Amazon
They come in sheets, by the roll, or pre-shaped to fit containers of various sizes, like window boxes and wire planters.
Another option, Gray Bunny’s 14-inch hanging planter baskets, comes with with coco coir liners.
Gray Bunny Hanging Planter Baskets
These are better than most other offerings as they are extra deep. Many of the competitors are fairly shallow and your plants can dry out quickly.
These are sold in quantities of two and four on Amazon.
Molded Pots
Like peat pots, the coir variety is made of fibers that have been pressed into flower pot shapes. They are useful containers for starting plants because they retain moisture, drain well, and allow air to circulate.
Envelor Coco Coir Plant Pots via Amazon
Put them directly into the ground when you’re ready – they biodegrade.
You may also use coir pots as inserts for ceramic pots. Their water retention counteracts the rapid drying out typical of terra cotta and other porous containers, especially during hot weather.
A set of three self-watering planter pots with coconut coir fiber are available from Amazon.
7-Inch Self Watering Planter Pots with Coconut Coir Fiber Potting Soil
Choose between the set shown above with one each of blue, green, and orange pots, or choose an all white option. A water level indicator in each pot lets you conveniently monitor moisture.
Climbing Poles
Vines and climbers often need support when grown in containers. Coco poles consist of twine-wrapped fibers on a stick.
When placed in planters, vines readily cling and benefit from the extra moisture in their environment.
What’s Not to Love?
By now you’re probably saying, “Okay, so I can substitute coco peat for peat moss and coco chips for wood mulch. But why should I?” Let’s find out!
The Upside of Coir
Unlike peat, it’s a renewable resource that doesn’t take a century to form in a bog.
Adding it to soil is an excellent way to increase aeration, drainage, and water retention.
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Nan Schiller
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