coir as an alternative to perlite?

[the gnome]

at my local garden store and they are niow carrying coco bricks,
as I was picking up bags of FF OF and a king sized bag of perlite they said the coco would do the same as the perlite and do it much cheaper
I told them it also retains water so how does it also lighten the mix and let more air in?

has anyone ever used coir to lighten the soil and aireate it?
FF OF it too heavy by its self so i cut it 3:1 with perlite.

 

[jm420]

i just met a guy thats using half FF, half coco his feed program is the same as soil and he has some killer smoke

 

[the gnome]

I'd love to be able to cut a bag of OF 50:50 with something as cheap as this stuff!

 

[cyat]

its different

 

[stonedar]

buy the perlite and the coco and forget the FFOF

 

[señorsloth]

fox farm soils are already mixed to their optimum levels for maximum water retention and drainage, as most decent soils are. when people add perlite to the mixture they increase drainage because the perlite is an inert substance that basically takes place of water/nutrients in a soil. in effect adding 25% perlite with 75% fox farm soil in a one gallon pot is pretty equal to growing in a 3/4 gallon pot with the same size plant but just the 3/4th gallon of soil, water drains/gets used up faster, ph swings easier, nutrient levels are more delicate... it's not entirely bad for the plant if you can keep it under control but your basically moving more and more toward a transition of hydro/soil like pure coco users or pure vermiculite growers, part of the point of soil growing in my opinion is to water less...to each their own i guess but ive been growing with straight happy frog forever and it suits just fine. thats just my opinion, you can water it down to save money though obviously if you want but if you are going to do that you might as well pick a quality cheaper soil and not water it down. imo

as for coco it's totally different than perlite. coco holds water much more and adding it to the soil is different...i think it would be the same as adding a bale of peet to it...just basically mixing cheep soil with expensive soil... it drains more than fox farm soils because fox farm soil has other ingredients in it, worm castings and stuff, it's not totally innert like coco, but it doesn't drain as much as perlite so it will add to drainage but not as much as perlite. it will also allow for more nutrients/water to be held in play than perlite will.

neither one of those ingredients will specifically give you "good smoke" . you can get good smoke growing in all kinds of junk, and neither of those things are necessary to get results, you just need to pick a style that suits you and a strain you like and practice a lot...i believe coco is cheaper by a lot than ocean forest, which is 20 bucks a bag where i live, so i could see maybe doing it to save money but i can't think of anything it would really do to help it. it would dilute the nutrients in the ocean forest, because coco has no nutrients, and maybe suck up some of the calcium, and would probably make your resulting soil drain more...these are not necessarily terrible things because fox farm soil doesn't have much nutrients in it anyway, about a 2 week supply, but still it's not great, and i don't think it would really be beneficial to your plant in any way really...maybe your wallet but eh i guess i am trying to say, coco is not good or bad, soil is not good or bad, mixing them is not good or bad, it's all up to you but i think for the most part that would be just personal preference and your plants may not even notice the difference...the main thing it will effect is how long your soil takes to drain and how much nutrients you have to add to your water...

 

[Marlo]

I've been growing in a 50/50 mix of FFOF/COCO for years. Love it.

 

[eloquentsoution]

you do it to provide extraordinaire aeration, water retention, drying capacity....oh and then there is the savings.

i run 50/50 with great results.

 

[the gnome]

thanks for everyones replies,
Ive never messed with coco and wanted to make sure I wasn't going to be posting in the infirmary in 2 weeks

i'm going to take stonedars cue and evenually try the hempy bucket with coir

 

[the gnome]

double post.... oops!

 

[the gnome]

another Q,
I bought what they had at the garden store, the coco brand is plantsbest and the name is beats peat.
has anyone here used this brand?

I ive read somewhere some coco brands should be avoided and some are top notch to use

 

[supermanlives]

i am using about 15 percent in my mix now. i am gonna go to 25 percent next run. working good so far

 

[bayareablue]

I have definitely tried the mix with good results. Sunshine mix has done well too if you dont wanna go with coco

60/40 soil/coco was my ratio.

Happy experimenting!

 

[BCMaster]

another Q,
I bought what they had at the garden store, the coco brand is plantsbest and the name is beats peat.
has anyone here used this brand?

I ive read somewhere some coco brands should be avoided and some are top notch to use

Return it. Beats peat is no good. I tried it and its a nightmare with ph.

Get yourself some Botanicare, Bcuzz, Canna, or Gold Label

 

[heatherlonglee]

Coco may hold more water at first but it also allows more aeration, and will dry out faster than peat, much faster. The coco will do the same but will allow for more root mass because the rocks just take up space more so than the coco.

 

[skull and roses]

ONLY problem is the coco bricks. i have been growing in coco for 5 years and have never found the brick coco to be very good.

 

[skull and roses]

ONLY problem is the coco bricks. i have been growing in coco for 5 years and have never found the brick coco to be very good. But coco as a substitution for perlite? No. If u add perlite to your fox farm and have it down that way, it will be completely different to add coco. As folks have said it can work great, but u will have to alter things, there will be a learning curve. how often u water and such.

 

[odogyouknow]

Coco may hold more water at first but it also allows more aeration, and will dry out faster than peat, much faster. The coco will do the same but will allow for more root mass because the rocks just take up space more so than the coco.

I think I would have to agree with heather. I have wondered if I could use coco instead of perlite in big containers outdoors. Alot of people say no no no it will hold too much water but I'm not sure. Fisher15 used coco in ALL of his huge smarties and grew bigger trees than most. Not all coco, but just added some into his mix. Aeration and faster wet dry cycles would just make your plants blow up.