Peat vs. Coir

I would use peat personally. I think it's a better home for microbial life and holds moisture better. But I really don't have a ton of experience with coir so I'm curious to hear what everyone else says.

 

In my area, the con of coir is that it's very expensive. You can get quality spaghnum peat at nearly any big box or farm supply store.

 

While Coco coir may be (and often is) used in a soil mix to assist in drainage in your base soil, it will often contain Trichoderma spores which research has shown to degrade Endomycorrhizae fungus.

Coco Coir holds a lower CeC (Cation Exchange Capacity) value than Sphagnum Peat. To read a brief explanation of CeC, go here - How does cation exchange capacity affect soil fertiliy

Something else I just learned - today, as a matter of fact, from a Smart Person *lol* - but is very pertinent to this discussion:

Coconut coir does not contain Sulfur which explains why coir growers are always complaining about the lack of taste or punch - Sulfur is a main player in the creation of Secondary Metabolites which include Terpenes & Terpenoids specifically. THC falls into this category.

That's about all I personally know offhand, but these appear to be some fairly useful facts to help you decide whether or not Coir will make its way into your soil mix, and if so, at what percentage. I absolutely am not against the use of Coir by any means - in fact I have used it very effectively in the past. It's up to the gardener to get the facts and make his own educated decisions.

Hth

J

 

Excellent info Jerry. Never heard about the trichoderma thing.

 

I'd love to hear MM chime in on that one myself Poppy...

 

From the New Phytogist Volume 105, No. 3 JSTOR: An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie

Ten microfungal isolates from the rhizosphere of mycorrhiza of black spruce were tested for their ability to inhibit formation of mycorrhiza by Laccaria bicolor (Maire) Orton on axenically cultivated black spruce seedlings. Two Trichoderma species, T. viride Pers. and T. polysporum (Link ex Pers.) Rifai, were strongly antagonistic towards mycorrhizal colonization.

I've just taken a quick peek online regarding this - it appears to be fairly well documented.

J

 

Terpenes - Terpene - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And Terpenoids! Terpenoid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you're feeling really up to it, take a read through this article - Secondary Metabolites in Plants - Biology Encyclopedia - body, function, animal, organisms, DNA, hormone, used, specific, structure, role, major

Secondary Metabolites have everything to do with flavor and aroma - great article!

J

 

I'm curious where this discussion goes, I've read that it's more "environmentally friendly" to use coir because it's a byproduct of an existing industry, and peat is harvested just for soils.

I am concerned with CEC and secondary metabolites as j mentioned though.

Any further thoughts ?


Boro

 

http://www.organicmechanicsoil.com/

This guy is making hand over fist in the soil industry and have been meaning to bring this up here so we can pick his recipes apart, I do it here because he uses coir instead of peat and explains why on his site. Originally found an article about him in entrepreneur magazine, praising him and his business model.

http://m.entrepreneur.com/article/220681

Okay organic freaks, go forth, dissect!

Boro

 

I can see that this mix could be okay (did not see price) based on how much compost, vermicompost is included and if the pine bark fines are properly aged. If there is a lot of the compost materials (at least 50%) then it may be okay. Why don't they say upfront how much of what is in it?

Coco comes from coconuts, Sphagnum peatmoss comes from the ground. You don't need to be Sherlock to know which one has soil microbes and the better CEC. The coco manufacturers know this (maybe) which may be why they add Trichoderma to the mix. [duh! - talk about following AN's lead]

The whole ecologically unsustainable thing around peatmoss harvest has been exagerrated and promoted by the coco industry. It is mostly BS. Peatmoss restores itself rapidly. Peat Moss and the Environment - FAQ