Tips for Growing Tomatoes Using Coir

Growing tomatoes with coir may help produce more abundant crops.  One effective method is to cultivate seed starters in coir pots and another is known as hydroponic gardening.

Coco coir stays moist and sustains any nutrients added to the medium, while oxygenating plant roots. Tomatoes are prone to garden pests and rot. However, since it is naturally resistant to insects, growing tomatoes with coir discourages infestation and external issues that cause decomposition. Furthermore, the addition of coir to a tomato garden has been shown to produce a more prolific tomato harvest.

How to Grow Seed Starters

For seed starters, coco coir pots are a good choice. By eliminating the need to transplant, they save time and are root friendly because they may be planted directly into a garden or even into a larger container. When deciding into which size container to plant coir pots, choose one that will accommodate the size of tomato being grown. For example, beefsteak tomatoes do better in larger containers in which the tomatoes will not make the plant top heavy. A roomier container will also give the plant room to grow. 

To avoid root rot, it is important to keep the soil moist without drenching it, while irregular watering may cause what is known as blossom end rot, which is difficult to detect as the symptoms show up not in the leaves or stems, but as rotten-looking areas in the blossom-end of the tomatoes. This problem arises when the plant is either grown in calcium-deficient soil or where the plant is receiving irregular watering, which can hinder the plant’s ability to absorb calcium. Growing tomatoes with coir helps to maintain proper hydration.

Hydroponic Gardening

Hydroponic gardening is defined as growing plants in containers of nutrient solutions along with an inert ingredient to support root structure. Growing tomatoes with coir is a productive way to grow abundant tomato crops, and hydroponic gardening can be a faster way of stimulating crop growth by avoiding the need for roots to work at gathering nutrients. Hydroponic gardens also need less water monitoring than gardens growing in soil or in soil mixtures.

The benefits of using coco coir include the ability to maintain the appropriate quantity of water while keeping air flowing through the root system. Growing tomatoes with coir also helps with nutrient storage and resists deterioration.

Certain studies have shown that growing tomatoes with coir boosts positive results. For instance, in one study involving cherry tomatoes, the most successful results as far as tomato production resulted from those plants grown in coco coir.

Growing tomatoes with coir may also be done by planting into a potting soil mixture that includes coir or by planting seedlings in coir bags. Whichever method of growing tomatoes is followed, tomatoes need anywhere from eight to ten hours — or with some varieties, even more — of bright light under growing lights or of sunlight every day, an area in which coir’s importance is emphasized as it won’t dry out as quickly as regular soil.