Should we be using peat moss as gardeners? What about coco coir, the ‘new’ amendment that is being used to replace it? We brought in our new grower, Chris up in Vancouver, to discuss the pros and cons of both peat moss and coconut coir.
00:00 – Intro
00:49 – Chris Intro
01:16 – Lulu Bog
02:11 – What is Peat?
02:27 – Peat Layer Destruction
02:45 – Peat Harvesting Practices
03:29 – Ecosystem Shift
03:57 – Burns Bog
04:40 – Peat Product
05:41 – Peat Canadian Source
06:30 – Peat UK Historical Use
07:30 – Peat Bog Conservation
08:12 – Peat Moss Industry
09:21 – Peat Reliance And Properties
10:22 – Peat Alternative, Coir
11:34 – Coir Properties
12:57 – Coir Considerations
14:18 – Coir Salts From Processing
14:38 – Coir Environmental Impacts
15:46 – Peat Vs Coir Conclusion
16:55 – Outro
Credits:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sVJ3oaNEQk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crFjC1Z8IUU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iud-fYe4LM4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY-GzZivtqY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7l-JuOpfsA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtdIvmjkNLs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z549FVcDMeM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDPzwhh4U7c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i49MvXTV-Cw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmvnNXVPOtg
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Hope you enjoyed this 'Digging Deeper' breakdown of peat vs. coir – going to release a video on a DIY peat-free soil mix soon!
What abt sand? Can that be a viable medium to start seeds and cuttings?
I love this! Can’t wait to see more deep dives! Please make more!!!
I love when people take the time and energy to really break down things for those of us who don't understand as easily
I start seeds in coir, but my germination starts in a plastic bag. All the seeds get water daily, sometimes multiple times a day, but that works for me and i think ive noticed less molding
she is amazing at explaining, i’d love to hear more content from her in the houseplant realm!
The point about shipping distances for coir is kind of bullshit.
Shipping on container ships is by far the cheapest and lowest impact shipping method available for humans. As long as you live reasonably close to the coast in North America, it's at least as ecological if not better to ship coco coir all the way from Asia than it is to ship something that has been manufactured on the other side of the continent.
The idea of peat/coir alternatives is definitely a good one. Hemp straw may be a good alternative too from what I've gathered.
Thanks for the detailed explanation!
Which is better for orchids? How do I repot one? I have one and the flowers are wilting, I know it happens, but I want to take care of it so I can keep it alive.
Not to take away from either peat moss or coconut coir. Both have their advantages. But it's why knowing your soil is key. Plus using the natural plants to compost to use back into your soil will boost your soil. Also knowing your wild plants will help you grow easy and free crops to eat, like dandelions, purslane, chickweed, wood sorrel and many other edible wild plants.
It's a little crazy if you think about it.
Here in Australia, coco coir makes better sense both financially and for the fact that it's available closer to home.
The coir is still a by-product and using it is surely a less impactful way to get a good garden input.
If/once (?) people start actually creating coco coir as the prime product, then things kind of turn on their head.
I'd be interested to find out more about the conifer bark option though.
Fantastic informative video – big thumbs up!
We have to get over this idea that if something isn't perfect, it is bad. peat moss is bad, end of story. Coco coir is not perfect because it requires ' fossil fuels' to get to us, but that is spitting in the ocean.
Interesting. As a gardener that lives in the philippines and started gardening during the pandemic i was introduced to coco peat and coir before even knowing what peat moss is lmao. I really thought coco peat and peat moss is the same. Coco peats are so readily available here and cheap that if i have extras when planting i add them to my compost bin haha. My mom also breeds aquarium fishes so i get my water from her aquariums hahaha
Great video with a lot of good advice
Cheers from Denmark
I have coconuts in my front yard and backyard. we eat/drink them while they're young and just throw the coir in the yard. after 2 or 3 rainy seasons, the coir gets a nice color and breaks down to where i could chop it roughly in a wood chipper and use it in the garden. the wood chipper i have can't make it fine enough to be homogenous though. i just try to work with what i have to reduce costs. if i take the coir from the coconuts after all of that, does it mean i don't have to worry about the salinity issue?
That's a fantastic piece, Chris!
for me the best choice for medium is something that we can get or readily available in our area nife video
I had NO idea about this. What an amazing vid! Thanks
I appreciate the solutions offered here but coir is still flown in on planes burning fuel, packaged in plastic bags, producing huge mono culture coconut farms. Seems to truly have a sustainable medium we have to learn the importance of soil and what it houses, mainly the beneficial microorganisms making the nutrients available to your plants. Peat and coir are organic substrates but not very biologically active without inputs. Bummer about Canadian bogs but even bigger bummer on the less developed third world countries we are getting coir from. Peat is also very accessible to lower income people despite its destructive harvesting practices, I’ve yet to find well priced coir bricks or bags, heck i even shell for the premium Down To Earth stuff but its pricey and scarce. The pitfalls of trying to be a conscious gardener / grower.
I actually live in a former dutch peatlands
The bogs are protected these days since over 90% was destroyed, dug up and dried to use the peat as fuel between 150-100 years ago or so.
The areas hold unique animal and plant species which almost went to extinct.
The area cant be restored anymore. The original bog used to be as large as all of the north of the Netherlands and a huge part of northern Germany, a place where now hundreds of thousands of people live, built their houses where once meters high peat land used to be.
Some farms here started to turn their acres into birch forests around 40-30 years ago, now they are partially broken up to be used as peatland spots to help nature recover in a bit larger area.
Hope other bogs wont be as destroyed as the European ones for our gardening needs
You should go up to Alaska and look up a PBS special on Arctic sinkholes. I view Peat moss as compost because it it so much more than moss. Permafrost is also Peat in a general sense, but it poses a much worse problem when it melts into lakes and destroys forests while it happens. I like coconut coir because it has far less packaging. My other homemade alternative is wood chip compost mixed with good old dirt.
Also what’s interesting is that while i live in a bog, our potting mixes here mostly are made using mostly coconut fibre with some peatmoss.
Its around 70% coconut and 30% peat. Mixed in with perlite and compost and some soil. Bags always mention that they recommend extra fertilizer after a week or 2 no matter for what use it intended
To solve some of the problems with the inconsistencies with coco coir, Especially with seed starting I order a large amount of compressed blocks. Think 6 or 11 and make all of my own potting mix and seed starting mix over the next few years. I use the finer blocks for seed starting mixed with finely screened compost and a little fertilizer just in case. They preform really well in flats plug trays and coil blocks. I use the other much more stringy blocks for homemade potting mix. I have a municipal compost area near me that free if you get it yourself. I get them all from one company who seems to not have been involved with the whole primate fiasco as theirs was always machined. (from what I can tell) This honestly leaves me with amazing products and a store of coir for a couple years. The blocks that I get where about $11 a block a couple years ago but I'm sure they are much more now.
I grow for my own fairly large garden and I also this year am selling plant starts for a few farmers markets and local events. I do a lot of trialing and this has come out the best for me and what's cheaply available for me. Hope this helps someone.
Mushroom compost is a great substitute
„A lot of people turn to peat“☠️
Coconut coir would be better if companies used it better. Most of the time I find a houseplant it's planted almost entirely in coconut coir, which is too dense and too slow to absorb water when dried out.
I'm in Hawaii, so I don't use peat, unless it is in a bagged mix that I buy, which is also rare. I use coconut and mulch.
We have these peat farming places in Finland too and quitting the harvest is an ongoing debate. As with the long winter we have, the growing season in general is short, but up north even shorter, so the renewability of these bogs even to a forest like enviroment is going to take years.
As a pot gardener on balcony (including bonsai), I use dried sphagnum moss a bit, but mostly buy the coir blocks to amend soil (or just grow things). I've had great success with growing tomatoes or other veggies and having houseplants in pure coir.
Thanks Chris, for the video, very informative and well made! <3