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Recommendations for coco coir brands & stores

 
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Location: Cary, NC
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I'm considering  coconut coir for soil-less mix in a raised bed.  Anyone have any recommendations for specific brands or retailers?
 
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I’m taking horticulture and I learned a super cool fact. You always want to get peat moss over noir because the peat moss holds onto the fertilizers. Noir does not. Peat moss has these tiny micro craters that hold onto ionized particles. When you water your plants, the salts in the soil ionize in the water. Ions that have a positive charge (cations) will stick to the peat moss. Examples would be K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, and Zn. There are a few more.
Try a few brands in your area. Depending on your specific conditions, you may prefer one brand over the other. I can’t really give you a suggestion on brand. Just about every organic brand of peat I’ve purchased has worked well for me.
 
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Location: Southern Utah
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I know several home stores sell them but let me offer a bit of a warning.  I work at a Home Depot but this problem can happen at any store if the coconut coir is either outside, in a green house or near a door that opens frequently.  At the HD I worked at the mice found the coconut coir to be a very cuddly home to raise their families.  At least in the store I work at, the coconut coir sells very slowly.  Very, very slow.  All the displays and the boxes of product on the shelf ended up full of mice, and mice droppings/urine.  The boss would only occasionally allow tossing one or two bad ones and leaving the rest for unsuspecting customers.  I finally printed out information on disease associated to mouse droppings and made him read it, at which time he said to toss it all, hose down the area, apply repellent, and stock new product from unopened boxes.  Mouse traps were used for a couple months to end the problem, but I no longer work in the garden area and I am told the mice moved back in.

Moral of the story, inspect the coconut coir carefully an if anything looks dirty or poopy don't take it home.

While I am on the topic, same thing goes for bird seed, if the bag has a hole or if there are empty shells and mouse droppings on the shelf near the bags don't buy  it because you will be bringing that stuff into your car and to your home.

Back on topic of the original question, it will work better if you are in a humid environment.  Here in the desert it would need to be watered 2 or 3 times a day or the hanging coconut coir basket of soil will dry out and strain or kill your plants.  That is why it doesn't sell well around here.
 
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