I don't think it's the answer either. I have used it as I was given a brick and it was fine for houseplants but I don't like the idea of it being shipped halfway around the world, I'm not convinced it won't lead to vast coconut plantations and it's so dusty I can't see it being good for respiratory health longterm.
I don't see why we need peat or coir. We can easily make suitable compost at home and it can be very moisture retentive. I don't see why household garden waste wouldn't create decent compost and since I think lots of companies make their compost out of it, why do they necessarily need added coir or peat. I think they use them as bulking agents.
You can compost far more than most of us expect and we have an abundance of many things that I don't think are used much, like wool and cardboard.
Both sides are very interesting, @Lyn, but I'm really more interested in how to use it for growing given the bad press it seems to have. Things to mix with coir, watering, what NOT to grow in it. Alternatives to non-peat compost and coir too.
When there's always biscuits in the tin, where's the fun in biscuits ?
I’ve never used coir so I can’t comment on that but I did make the point in another thread that current peat free compost was being sold too young and needs a longer period of de-composition to make it an effective solution. People are saying they use their own home made compost mixed with perlite etc so I see no reason why manufacturers can’t replicate this but a lot more efficiently. It’ll cost more of course due to time and consequent loss of volume but maybe it’s not too cynical to suggest that’s what we’re being set up for.
Thing is, @thevictorian , take my next door neighbours. They like to grow plants in pots, they're very good at it, but don't have a garden, just a small yard. They and people who do the same have neither the room, the resources, nor the inclination to do home composting....excellent idea as that is. So, if peat-free compost is not always up to much, coir is environmentally a catastrophe (or is it ?), and possession of peat will soon carry a mandatory life sentence, then what are they to do ?
When there's always biscuits in the tin, where's the fun in biscuits ?
It takes about 500l of water to process 1m3 of coir, leaving a highly polluting residue. Water is already a very scarce resource in India, the main source of coir. We are just replacing one bad thing, with another equally bad thing.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
You don't have to use compost at all, you can grow plants direct in the soil without any improvement whatsoever and you will get a flower or a vegetable. But you will get a bigger flower or vegetable with compost or fertiliser. This also goes for pots you can just use garden soil (might be a bit hard in a flat I'll grant).
I won't touch coir because of the amount of water and the shipping that goes into it. I don't buy the waste product mantra either, it should be composted down at the plantation and returned to the soil there, or used as fuel. Shipping it here is just stealing important nutrients and organic matter and then trying to make it "green".
It's very much the same as rewilding our farmland and importing food grown on someone elses farm land, out of sight out of mind.
I agree with what you write, @Skandi, but what about the people in flats, people like my neighbours, agronomists (is that a word or did I just make it up ?) who need to grow those bigger plants. Do they just give up and whistle ? Do night time raids for soil on local parks ? Meet their local 'soil' dealer at the back of the pub ? 😁
When there's always biscuits in the tin, where's the fun in biscuits ?
@Winston_The_Gravity_Man. The Agronomist goes round the farms advising the farmers what to grow, when my OH was farming he was told to grow Flax, OH said it wouldn’t be any good on that particular piece of land, the weather down here is no good for ripening, he said that didn’t matter, it was an EU scheme and he’d get the money anyway! The crop went mouldy, not the right weather, he got the money, yay! Useful people these agronomists.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Thanks, @Lyn, very interesting and it appears to be a well researched piece. So, if not coir then what?
@KT53, take a look at @Lyn 's very interesting link, above. Looks like the peat we've been using travels half way around the world from Canada and Russia anyway ....and it weighs a lot more than coir !
I didn't know that about peat. It would be ridiculous to ban the extraction of peat in the UK but to effectively say it's OK to destroy other peat areas. Maybe extraction of Canadian and Russian peat doesn't do any harm!
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I don't see why we need peat or coir. We can easily make suitable compost at home and it can be very moisture retentive. I don't see why household garden waste wouldn't create decent compost and since I think lots of companies make their compost out of it, why do they necessarily need added coir or peat. I think they use them as bulking agents.
You can compost far more than most of us expect and we have an abundance of many things that I don't think are used much, like wool and cardboard.
Occam’s Razor? Surely not?🤔
We are just replacing one bad thing, with another equally bad thing.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Useful people these agronomists.
I didn't know that about peat. It would be ridiculous to ban the extraction of peat in the UK but to effectively say it's OK to destroy other peat areas. Maybe extraction of Canadian and Russian peat doesn't do any harm!