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You may or may not have heard of coco peat before. Its been growing in popularity in the gardening industry as a form of growing medium, or addition to soil mixes. Today we’re covering what coco peat is, and the different uses and benefits of using coco peat in gardening.
Coco peat is a type of coco coir, and is a natural biproduct of coconuts. Its made from the pith inside a coconut husk, which is in between the outside fibers of a coconut shell and the white meat inside.
Coco peat typically comes in vacuum sealed bricks, but before you use it you should soak in water and break up into a light and airy growing medium.
You can get coco peat at most gardening stores, or order it online. We like this brand on Amazon, but there are many options to pick from that do basically the same job.
Coco peat is often used in gardening, which is the primary use we’re going to discuss in this article. However, there are other applications of coco peat too. For example, coco peat can be used as a component in insulation during construction projects.
In gardening, it can be used in a variety of ways. It can be used in hydroponic gardening as a growing medium. It can also be mixed into potting soil to provide nutrients and drainage for potted plants. You can also use it by itself as a growing medium for potted plants.
One of the main reasons we love using coco peat as a growing medium in gardening is that you can reuse it. While we dont recommend reusing potting soil season after season, with proper care coco peat can be reused time and time again.
To reuse coco peat season after season you need to rinse it in between use. Simply rinse the coco peat and let air dry before putting away for safekeeping or reusing again.
Coco peat is naturally rich in nutrients that will help boost plant growth. Nutrients like potassium, zinc, iron, and manganese are all present naturally in coco peat.
If you’re using coco peat as a growing medium by itself, you’ll still want to use a fertilizer to supplement all these naturally occurring nutrients. However, adding coco peat as a mix into potting soil can help give your plants the extra vitamin boost it needs to thrive.
One of the main uses for coco peat is to mix into potting soil to give soil both drainage and aeration. Lack of drainage is a common problem for both house plants and in container gardening.
Coco peat is a light and airy medium, which helps prevent soil from getting too compacted and retaining too much moisture after watering your plants. This helps prevent root rot and a myriad of other issues that comes with perpetually moist roots.
The lightness of coco peat also helps bring air to the roots of your plants, which may not sound like a good thing, but it is. This aeration is healthy for roots and will help them thrive!
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Learning how to create drainage for plants is an essential skill to have when you’re dealing with potted plants. Sometimes it seems like an unwritten rule that the best plant pots have zero drainage holes.
This means that you have to get creative and find other ways of getting drainage for plants in your home. We’re covering our top ways to do that today!
When gardening in containers, your plants are susceptible to a number of pitfalls that you don’t run into when creating an in ground garden.
One of the most common pitfalls of new container gardeners (or even seasoned ones) is not getting enough drainage for plants in their garden. Without proper drainage your plants will end up sitting in containers that are saturated with water. This exposes your plants to the potential for root rot, which is a disease where your roots rot and decay from the excess moisture.
Our first method of creating drainage for plants is to select a growing medium that will work with you, not against you. Leca is a good example of a medium that will enhance drainage for your plant.
Often potting soil over time can get compacted and dense, making it more likely that your plant will end up with sitting water at the bottom of the pot. This exposes it to all of the nasty side effects mentioned earlier like root rot, fungal gnats, and more.
Leca is a grow medium that will provide both aeration for your plant and drainage. Leca is made up of balls of clay that actually expand and soak up water as you water your plant. It then acts somewhat like a sponge and lets your plant pull water from the clay as its thirsty.
If you’re interested in a full guide on how to use leca, check out our beginners guide here.
Lets say you’re not into leca as a grow medium. Another method to create drainage for plants is to mix your potting soil with materials like perlite or coco peat.
Perlite is an ingredient you often see mixed into potting soil already. Perlite is a naturally occurring material made up of volcanic glass. It adds drainage and creates more aeration in the soil, which your plant’s roots will love.
Coco peat is a little less common to see mixed into potting soil, but we like it just as much as (if not more than) perlite. Coco peat is made from coconut husks. You’ll sometimes see this in high quality soil mixes, but its not as common as other materials. Coco peat provides aeration and drainage in the same way perlite does. For a full scoop on the pro’s and con’s of coco peat, check out our coco peat guide.
One of the more straightforward ways of creating drainage for plants is to add a layer of pebbles to the bottom of the pot. By adding a layer of pebbles before you add soil or your plant, it will allow the water to drain from the soil over time.
This will prevent your plants from sitting in water every time you water them. This excess moisture is what causes root rot in plants, and can lead to a bunch of other negative side effects for your plant.
A DIY way to create drainage is to save the plastic temporary planter that your plant comes in when you purchase it. Take this planter, turn it upside down and place it in your pot. then fill your pot as normal with soil and your plant.
You may need to trim your plastic planter down a little bit to ensure it fits. This method also reduces the space inside your pot so you’ll want to monitor and make sure your plant has room for its roots to grow.
The last method is probably the most obvious. If you want to create drainage in a pot that does not have drainage holes, you can simply drill them into the bottom of your planter.
This method can be problematic for a couple of reasons. Depending on what type of material your pot is, it can crack or break under the pressure of drilling.
Another potential issue is if you’re keeping your plants indoors, a drainage hole can allow water to leak onto your floor. If you’re dealing with indoor plants, we recommend another method to keep your floors protected from excess water runoff.
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The best potting mix for vegetable container gardening can be tricky to find.
Think of soil you use for your plants is the investment you make up front to get high quality harvests later on in the season. If you skimp on your potting mix, your plants won’t thrive or produce as much throughout the season.
A high quality potting mix for vegetable container gardening is an essential consideration when creating a garden either indoors or on a balcony. Keep reading to learn more about what your best options are for potting mixes, and what you should consider when selecting the best potting mix for you.
Depending on which vegetable specifically you’re looking at planting, you can tailor your selection even more. For example, if you’re planting container garden tomatoes, you’ll want to specifically look at pH of the soil.
These recommendations are meant to be a general guideline for your container garden. They’ll generally work with most vegetables and are full of rich nutrients that will help your garden thrive.
Happy Frog Potting mix from Fox Farm is our top pick for balancing high quality nutrients for your plants with a cost effective price.
This potting mix is specifically designed and mixed with potted plants in mind. The soil is nutrient rich, and full of soil microbes that can “help improve root efficiency and encourage nutrient uptake”. This mix is also organic.
This is not the cheapest option for soil out there, but at under $50 for a 51 quart bag its a competitive price for a high quality soil mix. It also has over 1800 reviews and an average 4.7 star rating.
If you’re trying to find the best of the best, Mother Earth’s Coco Plus Perlite mix is one of the most premium soil mixes out there for container gardening. Its full of ingredients like coco coir, which is a great ingredient for potted plants. Aeration is key when container gardening or planting in indoor pots. Ingredients like coco coir and perlite help provide both aeration for your soil and drainage, which will help prevent against root rot.
Mother Earth is a brand known for their high quality soil mixes, and this one is the perfect one when container gardening. It’s very highly reviewed too, with over 2500 reviews and a 4.7 star rating out of 5 on Amazon.
If you want a more budget friendly option, Miracle Gro has a potting mix that gives the premium options a run for its money.
Miracle Grow is a brand that is well known in the gardening industry for providing solid products at an affordable price. This mix in particular boasts a fertilizer mix specific for the needs of potted plants, either indoor or outdoor.
If you’re looking for a general use potting mix at a good price, Miracle Gro is one of the best options.
If you’re specifically looking for an organic mix at a relatively affordable price, Espoma potting mix is a good option.
Many brands are sneaky when it comes to organic potting mix. They’ll often put verbiage on the label that would lead you to believe that your mix is organic, but in reality it only contains a few organic components. Espoma is a fully organic potting mix with a lot of high quality ingredients to help your plants thrive.
The differences between garden soil and potting soil can be confusing. Often, when new gardeners see the price difference between the two they’ll opt for garden soil to save some money.
However, this is the last thing you want to do in container gardening. Garden soil is intended for in ground gardening, and will not have the same balance of nutrients and materials for aeration that potting mixes will have.
Potting mixes are developed specifically for container gardening and potted plants. Potting mixes are full of ingredients and nutrients that are easily absorbable for your potted plants, helping them thrive in containers.
Not all potting mixes are created equal. When considering different mixes, you’ll want to look for a mix with high quality ingredients. Coco coir, peat moss, perlite, and more are all good ingredients to provide aeration and drainage. Both aeration and drainage are especially important in container gardening because potted plants can often get cramped in their pot, and will suffer from root rot as a result.
When creating an in ground garden, whatever you plant will extend its roots and take in nutrients from the soil.
In container gardening, your plants don’t have this same option. Whatever soil you plant it in will be the only source of nutrients that the plant will get. This means that first, you’ll want a high quality soil with lots of good nutrients and materials mixed in.
Second, you’ll also want to consider adding fertilizer either upfront or a few months into planting. This will help supplement the plant’s growth. Think of it as giving your plant a vitamin, a lot of the nutrients will come from their soil diet, but you want to supplement to make sure that they’re getting absolutely all the nutrients they need.
Interested in more information on container gardening? Check out either our beginner gardening guides or our container gardening section.
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