How to Prep Your Soil with Coir

No matter what you plant in your garden, for it to thrive, you need good quality soil. Not all dirt is created equal, and even the best earth can benefit from some amendments. One amendment that more gardeners are starting to use is coco coir. These coir soil prep tips will help you get the most out of your soil to grow big beautiful vegetables and blooms. 

Why Use Coir Soil Prep in Your Gardening Efforts?

Coir offers a lot of benefits no matter what you’re growing. The way that it interacts with water is a favorite for many gardeners. Coconut coir will absorb water and help release it at a leisurely pace. Coir in the soil helps to prevent it from drying out quickly. Those that grow in raised beds or containers know that your soil can dry out much quicker than in conventional gardens. Coir helps to prevent this and keep your plants hydrated.

For gardeners familiar with using peat as an amendment, you’ll find that you can similarly use coir. Coir is often preferred over peat because it’s easy to re-wet it in case you’ve allowed your soil to dry out completely.

Tips on Using Coir in Your Soil

• You’ll want to start by preparing your coir. Coir soil prep will require you to soak the coir that you’ve purchased. It typically comes in a brick, bale, or another shape. You’ll want to put it in a container of water for about 15 minutes.

• Be sure that the container you use is much larger than the coir shape you soak. Your brick will get about five to seven times larger than it was when you started. So, for a regular sized block, you’ll want to use a drywall bucket. The larger the item, like a bale, the larger the container. You may find a plastic child’s pool useful if you plan to use a bale for your soil amendments.

• After the coir brick has softened, you’ll want to start mixing it with your potting mix or soil. Similar to peat, you can divide the coir and soil about 40 percent coir and 60 percent soil. As coir doesn’t add a lot of nutrients to the soil, it’s not advisable to go with a larger percentage.

• If you plan to amend a large area, it can be helpful to mix the soil and amendments in another container and then pour that into your intended growing spot. That way you can mix up a large batch and fill up all of your pots or raised beds.

• If you add coir to your overall garden, sprinkle an ample amount over the desired area. Then, take a spade or garden fork to turn the dirt and mix it adequately. As coir is suitable for drainage and keeping soil airy, it can be useful for dealing with clay or other drainage issues.

Following these coir soil prep tips is an excellent way to enrich your growing medium. You’ll get all of the benefits of growing in soil along with what coir offers.