Pre-buffered Coco Coir
 

I'm transitioning my houseplants from peat based soils to coco coir mixes. I know this community has discussed in the past the need to rinse or even soak coco husk chips in distilled water to wash off any excess salts and applying cal-mag to reduce the levels of Na and K in the coco.

I've heard of people even soaking and rinsing these 5 or 6 times.

I wonder how reliable "pre-buffered pH adjusted" coco is? For example, I'm eyeing the Mother Earth coco. It says it's pH adjusted (I'm not sure why this is necessary) and pre-buffered.

Is this trustworthy or is it worth soaking the coco coir even if it's allegedly "ready to use?"

I can't address that issue, but the coco fiber I've used is so water-retentive I would not consider using it alone as a growing medium for any plant, other than perhaps bog and water plants.

I know people talk about rinsing it, but the compressed bricks I’ve dealt with had a texture that makes me wonder how people can soak and drain it without making an absolute mess.

We're talking houseplants here, so maybe the tendency to retain water is OK. I stopped using coco husk chips... some years back it was highly regarded for Cymbidiums, but over time not only did some of the batches have a lot of salt, but even the clean stuff broke down very fast. When it first came on the scene, it would outlast bark by several years. More recently, it breaks down faster than the cheapest bark - quality is really poor.

I would never use coconut products without a day long soak in pure water first, no matter what the label claims.

The "pre-buffered pH adjusted" verbiage sounds like marketing fluff to me. Problems with coco products don't have anything to do with pH, bur rather salt-retention. If the coconut was floating in the ocean, it is going to have a high salt level that washing is unlikely to remedy in any reasonable time. There is no way of knowing the history of what is in the package - it's a byproduct. So maybe a given batch is OK and maybe it is not OK. Maybe if you test by leaching in pure water and then determine the TDS of the leach water. Is it worth the trouble and potential risk? You decide...

Lot of risk.

I have used Coir in mixes for some herbs, geraniums and Ficus carica (Coir is 6-7pH) and did not rinse it...just soaked it so it would expand. These plants have all done well. Not sure if it is because they are tough and a little salt is fine or if it is because the coir was already plant-ready when sold.

Most of what I collect plant-wise requires a lower pH so I make my mixtures with peat as the base (peat = lower pH). For that reason, I do not have much experience with coir.

Coir-based “soils”, are made from the same husk fiber (aka “gorilla hair”) used by some for orchids. Husk chips are from the pith that surrounds the fiber-covered shells.

The first is being used a great deal in commercial nurseries, as are other wood fiber products, and I doubt they would come to market without a lot of testing.

I have tried soaking the fibers and never had a great deal of anything extracted, except tannins. Husk chips are an entirely different critter.

That was my thinking as well. For conservation reasons most European nurseries have transitioned from peat based media to coir, so I would assume the labels are fairly reliable.

The product I was looking into, from Mother Earth, doesn't provide an analysis, but I would assume the "pH" adjustment wording might be in relation to pH alterations caused by the process of buffering it with Calcium and Magnesium. Not sure.

And yes. Definitely haven't tried to soak it yet, but it does look like a potential mess. A mess I would like to avoid.

I found the product:

Coco | Mother Earth

It looks ready to use from the bag. My experience was with cheap bricks that came free with self-watering pots. This stuff looks nice. I bet that if you had any questions, you could contact them and they would be very helpful. Good luck!

I'm experimenting with coconut fibers. Not the compressed stuff that comes in bricks but the actual long fibers that they use to make loosely knit matts to lay inside large wire hanging baskets.

What I'm tinkering with is using it for a liner in my plastic hanging net pots. I like use a mix of small bark, charcoal, perlite mixed with a few sprigs of sphag. for those baskets but always scratched my head about how to get it to stay in the basket.

So far, it's working perfectly. Has zero impediment to post watering drying and by the time roots get near it any salt residue will have long ago leached out.

I also use the coconut husk fibers at the bottom of baskets and it works great. I've also used it at the bottom of regular pots for house plants so the soil doesn't fall off the drainage hole.