[TREGRAHOW]

During this spell of bad weather I have watched many YouTube videos on soil mixes for raised beds and compost mixes for potting on. Time and again COIR is mentioned as an alternative to peat. I appreciate using peat is frowned upon nowadays but can coir really do the job?

[rowlandwells]

where I agree with what your saying as an alternative coir for us would be far to expensive to use and until the  compost makers can come up with an alternative at the rite price I'm afraid we will continue using peat based composts

because peat free is a total waste of time as to is some peat based composts containing peat free materials we used 30 bags of M/P compost last year and its quite possible we will use the same this year for any gardener the need  to grow there plants in something they can trust and have been using for years peat based compost  for most gardeners there choice  basically sticking  to the one you know rather than the one you don't

 it was the same with buying diesel cars that we where all encouraged to buy instead of petrol to save the planet now buying diesel cars or making diesel cars is bad news so what to do with all the new diesel cars
and second hand diesel cars being sold scrap them i don't think so

so it back to the original topic if the  compost  companies could come up with a suitable alternative to peat and at the rite price i would be he first to use the it

but untill that happens i will continue buying peat based compost and i hold my hands up i don't do organics im not an organic gardener
 

[mumofstig]

Poundland sell bricks of coir that when soaked make 10l of compost - I don't like to use it as is, but found it is ok mixed in with other stuff or soil for potting on. Like all of the composts nowadays, you do need to water and add nutrients regularly.
Used on its own it is quite difficult to re-wet, once it had dried out completely.

[TREGRAHOW]

So, coir works OK when used in potting mixes but would probably prove too expensive, even when mixed, for loading raised beds? MoS mentions coir 10l blocks but, if anyone wants bigger quantities I've found 5 x 70l blocks for £24-75 on e-bay. Still makes it very expensive to load raised beds though.

I'll probably invite 4 others on the site to take advantage of this offer if I decide to try coir in my potting mixes.

[sunshineband]

Coir makes up  a third of the mix I use for sowing and potting on, with vermiculite and mpc. I buy the "bricks" when they are very cheap. It is very light and allows plenty of air to the roots, whilst retaining water without being soggy

I tried adding it to one of the outdoor beds to bulk up the soil, but it did take quite a lot to make a difference, although it did benefit the heavy clay soil.  I don't think that alone it would be suitable. It does of course have no nutrients at all (so I feed plants being grown on in pots or modules) and the actual structure of it used alone with flatten down

Tregahow, a 70l blocks would take  a huge volume of water (warm works better than cold I found) to reconstitute it, and need  a very large container accordingly. Just thought I should say!

re The use of mpc for raised beds: it loses its structure with a year or so, and can also work out very expensive, so buying top soil in bulk may be worth considering

[TREGRAHOW]

I'm quite chuffed about that. I'll take my trusty cinderblock saw and cut the coir block down to workable sized pieces. Then I'll crumble them down some more and add water as and when I'm ready to use it. Shouldn't be too much of a pain, should it? I'm keen to try most things so if I can find 4 other plotholders to join in the purchase of the 70l blocks I'll give it a go.