While we can’t always see it, the soil below is literally what powers our garden. It’s the engine that provides structure, stability, food, water, and is home to every single complementary function to the photosynthesis above. To say that our gardens and our crops would be nothing without good healthy soil is a massive understatement. And while amending our soils for nutrition sees a mind-blowing amount of options to choose from, adding to our garden and potting mixes in terms of base structure sees only two peat moss and coconut fiber.
Today, let’s look at all the benefits of using coconut choir in the garden as well as how to use it to build your soils. And stay tuned to the end where we use it to build an ultimate potting mix far better and far cheaper than anything at the store.
The most active soils in our garden, particularly top soils, potting soils, and seeding soils, all have specific properties to function properly. They’re light, loose, airy, drain well, but are particularly good at holding moisture, pH balanced, and have a relatively high cation exchange capacity, which is simply the soil’s ability to grab and hold onto nutrients.
The addition of rehydrated coconut fiber to a substrate mix does all of these things, and as a bonus, it does all of this as a byproduct of agriculture, not as an extracted resource from sensitive ecosystems like peat moss. Like the name implies, coconut fiber or choir comes from the fibrous husk of a ripe coconut.
In years past, the coconuts would be stripped of that outer husk, packed for shipping or sale, with everything else discarded. But it was quickly found out that when shredded, both coarsely and fine, that the husk had amazing soil-like properties, and thus a new industry was born.
As is normal in the industry, it soaked for a while to break it down somewhat, dried, compressed, and then shipped in bricks like this, making an already economical product even more so. Like we mentioned, coconut fiber is very light, holds moisture but drains relatively well, and is pretty much pH neutral. This makes it a perfect additive for soil, both to incorporate into the topsoil of your garden or raised beds, as well as to make killer potting mixes.
Coconut choir prep is simple as simple can be.
Let me show you how. Literally, you just add water. When you add water to a coconut fiber brick, almost instantly it starts to absorb it, and when it does, it swells up to many times its dry state size. It’s pretty amazing to witness actually, and you can see why gardeners like it so much. Breaking coconut fiber apart in its rehydrated state reveals a light, fluffy, soil-like substrate. Now, if you’re really in a rush, use hot water for this as it’s literally twice as fast as cold water. I use about four liters of water per one pound of coconut brick, but you can always add more if it’s too dry or strain off the excess if you added too much. Once the coconut fiber’s cooled down, it’s ready for use.
Now, some people do wash it at this time as coconut choir in the past used to come with a high salt content, but I’ve never had a problem with salt using this stuff in all the brands that I’ve tried over the years, leading me to believe that the stuff that’s sold now for horticultural purposes has already been washed. Incorporate the rehydrated coconut choir directly into your top soils, potting soils, or even seeding mixes.
Now, do note there’s no inherent nutrition in coconut choir, so wherever you apply it, nutrient levels may be diluted depending on how much you proportionally put in. But really, that’s okay because its function is structure, not fertilizing. Mix some coconut fiber with tough, compacted clay or sandy soils for near-instant results.
On that same note, heavy or cheaper potting soils can really benefit from a 20 to 30 percent ratio of coconut fiber, immediately changing their properties and the growing potential. But the real advantage and next level unlock for coconut choir is to use it to make your own soil blends. Use 50/50 with straight compost, add in about 10 more in the way of clean sand, and you have a fantastic home brew potting mix for a fraction of the cost, especially if you’re using your own compost. Use this mix on your peppers, tomatoes, peas, zucchinis, onions, garlic, cucumbers, beets, lettuce, literally anything you can grow can benefit from this as a potting or topsoil.
I never really store this mix for more than a week or two, but if I do, I simply put it in a tote with a lid or in a plastic-sealed bag to hold in the moisture. This is great and will most certainly be better than any commercial mixes that you have available. But can we take it a step further? Can we make an ultimate potting soil mixture using coconut fiber, compost, and some readily available inexpensive amendments?
No matter what soil I’m making and regardless of the growing goal at hand, my base mix is always the same: 50/50 compost and coconut fiber, with an additional 10% clean sand for added structure and drainage. For longer to germinate seeds and slower-growing seedlings, I stop right there for a seeding mix. But for quick sprouters and growers, you know, say like tomatoes and lettuce, I’ll add in about 5 to 10% alfalfa meal just for a little boost, but nothing more. Top soils and potting soils, however, are a different story. Here is where I supercharge most of my mixes, and it’s why I can get away with so little additional fertilizing throughout the growing season. I have numerous amendments that I use, but the four main ones that make it into every single mix are alfalfa meal, canola meal, rock phosphate, and Epsom salt. Alfalfa and canola meal are both slow-release nitrogen sources, rock phosphate is literally the best source of phosphorus that you can buy, and Epsom salts is composed of two necessary macronutrients, magnesium and sulfur.
At a 10% strength application, it’s going to ensure that the soil is chock full of goodness without any danger of burning or over-fertilizing the plants. Just eyeball the measurements, no need to be precise here.
The mix I’m making here is to transplant some potatoes, and it’s quite moist. Normally, my mixes tend to be slightly drier and much easier to work with, so don’t fret if yours looks a little bit different than this.
In addition to the previous amendments, if my goal is also a pH adjustment, I’ll add either elemental sulfur to lower the pH or dolomite lime to raise it, very small amount, 5% of the total volume or less. Now, if you’re making big batches, you can switch to a wheelbarrow for more space and ease of mixing. Commercial tumblers and soil mixers do exist, but trust me, they ain’t cheap.
A little arm workout once in a while is good for us anyway, right? Coconut coir is an amazing byproduct of an industry that could just as easily throw it away. The sustainability aspect, coupled with its ability to enhance the soil’s growing properties, make coconut fiber an obvious choice when we’re looking to level up our garden.
