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Discuss water requirements, "soil" (growing media) and suitable planting containers

Moderator: Matt

By dark5tar
Posts:  36
Joined:  Sat Jan 22, 2011 6:28 am
#85768
Alright, I was planning to go get some peat today, but it seems like its just to early in the season for anywhere to carry anything but the standard miracle grow or huge bails of pro-mix ( which I am not against, but I dont need that much ) ... anyway, I found this stuff

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... =202020506

But it looks like its a CoCo and Peat combo, I really want to get my CPS out of that stupid cube and into their own containers and need some soil ASAP, so will that stuff posted at the link work?

thanks
By dmagnan
Posts:  608
Joined:  Sun Apr 18, 2010 6:37 pm
#85779
It looks like it's pure coconut coir (and advertised as an alternative to peat).

Probably a bad idea, without a bit of work first. This is a quote from Steve in a different post, he uses coconut coir:
Steve_D wrote:As Veronis mentioned, coir (coconut husk pith) is usually very high in soluble mineral salts that can easily damage or kill Venus Flytraps. The coir needs to be repeatedly soaked for 8-12 hours at a time, and drained between each soak, perhaps 10 or more times in total to bring the TDS (total dissolved solids) in the water drained from the coir down to below 50 ppm (parts per million).

I'm soaking some coir right now. The first water I drained from it, after soaking for over 8 hours, measured over 760 ppm, almost 4 times as mineral-laden as our very hard tap water here in eastern New Mexico.

Coir is a good ingredient for a growing medium and a good alternative to sphagnum peat moss, which is being harvested much faster than it can grow, while coconuts are a year-round tropical crop that is virtually endlessly renewable, since it uses the fruit and seed of the plant rather than the plant itself. However, coir really does need to be carefully treated and desalinated before use, as much of it is processed with very salty ocean water.
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