When it comes to how much it costs to grow in coconut coir, wed say that it costs about $0.80 per tray in general. Moreover, coconut coir is both sustainable, reusable, and recyclable making it a great long-term use product. Hopefully that changes. Home Microgreens is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As the coco coir absorbs the water, add more water until its fully saturated. Coconut coir bricks will save you money on shipping. Coir rope was used extensively for sailing in the 11th century, and in the first half of the 19th century was used in the UK for floor coverings. We have wasted coco coir from bricks because of improper handling. Finely ground coconut coir is soft and fluffy and has no bad odors. It comes in a finely ground form that is good for starting seeds and doesnt carry the risk of soil-born disease that potting soil and compost do. These enzymes act as catalysts that break down the molecules of the nutrients fed to the plants into forms that are easy for the plant to absorb and use. These bricks from Plantonix are 100% natural and organic. Minute soil has tremendous water retention capabilities that both save water and gives you added flexibility in watering frequency. But as mentioned, we will show those results in future articles and add those costs to the ones shown below. The process will be similar to hydrating the coir in the first place, except it wont be in a brick. Some coconut fibers are soaked in saltwater as part of the processing. (A mulch is a layer of material applied to the surface of the soil for healthier growths and to resist drought). The product listing should contain the size of the bricks. You will have a better idea of the cost differences. For this reason, you may want to add some fertilizer when using this medium as a stand-alone. Therefore the coco coir brick expanded 7.4 times its size. It used to be that you could choose to purchase 1.4-pound coco coir blocks in any quantity from 2 to 50. Either the HDX brand or Rubbermaid brand. Todd is the founder of Home Microgreens & the Home Microgreens store. So the extra coconut coir will need to be stored, and if it holds too much water, mold will quickly grow on the coir. Since the 10-pound brick is 0.57 times as dense, I'd use 815-mL per pound of coir. However, with additives, there is nothing better, according to my tests. Place the coir in a container with small holes in the bottom to drain out the excess water. Still, it is tough to judge without comparing it to a known top performer and a control tray. Soak your coconut coir in a solution containing the nutrients the coir naturally attracts and retains that we mentioned earlier(calciumand magnesium). I have run dozens of trials, most of them documented on this website. But know they sell them in 5-packs. Some seed-starting mediums compact too easily, making it difficult for the tiny roots to take hold. Growing your own food brings joy and even more when you quickly see them grow into superfood! Coconut coir soilless medium is fluffy, soft, and soil-like once hydrated and is easy to use. Smaller seeds do not need to be soaked. This is of debatable significance to the environment, but in case it is important to you to use a product that will eventually break down, there is that consideration. We stock complete microgreen kits, trays, professional potting soil, miscellaneous equipment and of course microgreens seeds. Microgreen kits make great gifts, home school or rainy day projects, and are fun for the whole family. The value we recommend below is a value we've been searching for for a long time. Are They Different From Sprouts? To dry it out, I placed the container in front of a fan (not so close the coir flew out) and let some of the water evaporate. The coir should separate into chunks using a knife. All rights reserved. Over wet coconut coir will not store well and, in most cases, will grow mold. Click the button to sign-up for new article notifications. Over wet or saturated coco coir will still mold if you're not careful. We can also determine if it's wiser to buy more small bricks or larger bricks. A soilless medium can be a great alternative choice. There is only one ingredient listed for this product: Coconut Coir Pith. Check the moisture of your seed trays every day and mist them at least once a day. Therefore, we won't touch on those topics. Tightly sealed & dry - much less chance of fungus gnat infestation. (And What To Do), How Long Do Peace Lily Flowers Last (5 Tips For Longevity). if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'microgreenscorner_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_5',144,'0','0'])};if(typeof __ez_fad_position!='undefined'){__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-microgreenscorner_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0')};RELATED: Should You Reuse Microgreen Soil? A brick does expand to 8.25-quarts, so a quart will cost 48-cents. Expand the bricks slowly, adding a little water at a time. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. If I tried to expand the 10-pound brick referenced above, I would normalize the water amount to a pound of coir and multiply by the density difference. This is why I'm so concerned with finding the perfect amount of water! These mini veggies are full of wonderful flavors, and they pack quite the punch with nutrients. If you're using all of the coconut coir from a brick, moisture isn't a problem. If your coir is dry these are easily pulled out. Use a strainer with a very fine mesh to retain the longer strands of coir. From then on, all Hell breaks out. Which medium to grow your microgreens in is an important choice. It's built into the cost. Believe it or not, coconut coir can help with two seemingly opposing properties. Coconut coir has taken the gardening world by storm and its popular for its use as a medium to grow microgreens. What I have now is a beautiful container of coco coir that smells like earth and not mold. Coconut coir can be used as a stand-alone medium or mixed in with other mediums such as soil or perlite. Copyright 2022 - microgreenscorner.com. As a general rule, you can expect a half-pound of coconut coir to expand to about a half-gallon, 1.5 lbs will expand to about 2.5 gallons, and 11 lbs will expand to about 16 to 20 gallons in size. This post's actual purpose is to set up a series of articles using a variety of additives and fertilizers with pure coco coir to see how well it performs. Instead, we will concentrate on managing coco coir bricks and how much loose coir is contained in a brick. The mats hold moisture great and roots grow through the coir mats easily. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'microgreenscorner_com-leader-1','ezslot_3',141,'0','0'])};if(typeof __ez_fad_position!='undefined'){__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-microgreenscorner_com-leader-1-0')};Now when you know what coconut coir is and why its a great medium to chose for growing microgreens, well share some factors to consider and which can help you find the best product. Mist more often if needed to keep the trays evenly moist. Best Lights For Microgreens The Home Grower, Sunflower Microgreens Nutrition: Including 5 Awesome Health Benefits, Growing Cilantro From Seed to Soak or Not to Soak the Seed, Microgreens Seed Calculator Find the Perfect Seeding Density. If you dont want to buy a bigger lot, this is an excellent choice. The normalized value would be 2-liter (2,000-mL) divided by 1.4 or about 1,430-mL per pound. After logging in you can close it and return to this page. This abundant, renewable resource is a great addition to the soil to improve water retention, makes an excellent substitute for peat, and last but not least its a hydroponic support medium. Brick is a convenient shape - easy to stack and store. This also is the type used to make brushes and floor mats. These fibers form between the outer cover and the hard, internal shell around the meat of the coconut. Coir from bricks is completely wet. AMAZON ASSOCIATES DISCLOSUREMicrogreens Corner is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Check out the distributor of the brand of coconut coir you are thinking about purchasing and find out how their coconut fiber is processed. Microgreens Humidity And Temperature (Complete Guide), The Beginners Guide to DWC Hydroponics (Complete Guide), How Do You Use Rockwool In Hydroponics (A Complete Guide), How To Grow Asparagus Hydroponically (Complete Guide), How To Grow Strawberries Hydroponically (COMPLETE GUIDE), How To Grow Hydroponic Habanero Peppers (Complete Guide), advantage of the soil-amending benefits of the coconut peat, 6 Advantages And 5 Disadvantages Of Coco Peat, Everything You Need To Know When Growing Vegetables In Coco Coir, How To Deadhead Sunflowers (And Should You), 5 Reasons Your Aloe Vera Is Turning Yellow, Why Are Your Mint Leaves Turning White? Youll be feeding your plants by mixing fertilizer into the water you are misting them with. However, in most cases, when planting microgreens, you only need a small amount of coir compared to how much a brick will expand into (more on this later). Place the coir in a bucket or wheelbarrow sufficient to contain its expanded form. To estimate how much you should use for other blocks, find your brick's density and divide it by 0.022. The compressed nature of the bricks makes them much more ideal for shipping than loose soil. From this, you can compare the costs with your favorite microgreen soil. 792 divided by 10 is 79.2 cubic inches per pound. What better way to do What is a herb garden without dill! We are Janette & Jesper, and we love microgreens. It also makes for a cleaner harvest, not clinging to the seedlings in the same way that soil does. Because of its high lignin content, coconut fibers are long-lasting and can be reused multiple times. You should be able to use my numbers with other brands of coco coir bricks. The type that is used to grow plants in is the brown coir. According to reviewers the product is low in salt (so you dont have to rinse it yourself) and has a neutral pH. Learn how your comment data is processed. Well take you through the steps to grow using mats, bricks, and mixed in with soil. So now when we know all the awesomeness around coconut coir, let us take you through the growing process step-by-step. Using a growing mat you may consider it for smaller seeds such as broccoli and radish. So, from the 1.4-pound brick, we can calculate that we will get 340 cubic inches of coir for each pound of compress coir. We will calculate how many square inches are in a pound of compressed coconut coir to normalize the bricks. The material, while made of natural minerals, is not compostable i.e. We go deep into the numbers later in the article to figure out the best way to buy coconut coir. To remove excess salt and make the coir safe to use for your microgreens, rinse the coir in fresh water several times until the water runs clear. We will link the articles here once they have been published. Growing Microgreens is easy if you follow the simple steps in this colorful 39-page guide. As a mixin with soil, coconut coir is commonly replacing peat moss and the great benefit is that its cheaper and more sustainable with higher water retention. The fibers differ in texture and durability and have different uses. While coconut coir is nearly neutral in pH its a good idea to check the pH periodically if you are reusing the medium to make sure it is staying in the neutral/very slightly acidic range. (Make a solution following the instructions on your cal/mag fertilizer container (some suggest a 150% solution) and soak the coir for at least 8 hours.). Some of the great things about using coconut coir for growing microgreens are: Summing up the above, you can see that coconut coir has so many benefits. So, dont munch on them. So for the 10-pound brick, I'd start with 8-liters of water and see how it goes. Coconut coir for microgreens will keep the seeds damp, yet allow for excellent air circulation, preventing rot. Microgreens Podcast Episode 025. Once your coir has soaked up all the water it can and has achieved a fluffy, soil-like texture, now its ready to use. Pure coconut coir needs additives for best plant growth. I dont have the room to soak a whole bag. These are often used as a mulch or topper. Brown coir, harvested from ripe coconuts, contains less cellulose and more lignin than other plant fibers such as cotton and flax, making it less flexible, but stronger. Growing Microgreens Without Soil is it a Good Idea? If you are buying your coconut coir online, the most economical option is to go for bricks. Which Soil Is Best For Slow-growing Microgreens? The second includes access the microgreen vault, a database containing more varieties and information with images taken throughout the stages of growth. This can save you a lot of headaches later on. Growing your own microgreens is fun and rewarding. Saltwater conductivity will also make it difficult for the plant to absorb nutrients. I recommend the Coco Bliss brand because it's certified organic and one of the larger companies. Coconut coir is an excellent soilless medium for growing things, including the many varieties of microgreens available. Beet Microgreens Does Soaking the Seeds Improve Germination? Other brands might be as good, but we have no experience with them. We will discuss each of these in more detail later in the article. This unique mix incorporates 70% of the finest coconut pith and fiber blend. There are two varieties of coconut coir: Brown, from ripe coconuts, and white, from green coconuts. You buy normally the mats in rolls and cut them in the size to fit your trays. We may earn a small commission from the companies mentioned in this post at no additional cost to you. Follow the recommendations in this guide and you'll be eating microgreens in as few as 7-days! As an amazon associate we earn from qualifying purchases. You will find that the medium is very granulated. Not all links are connected to affiliate companies. How to prepare the growing mat for microgreens. The login page will open in a new tab. At the same time, the coir breaks down very slowly and the long fibers create air pockets in the soil, allowing water to drain away from the plants roots, helping prevent root rot. Coconut coir expands up to ten times its own weight. Potting soil or other soil-based seed starter medium may seem like the easiest way to go, but that might not be the case for a couple of reasons. Our kit and seed prices are very competitive if not the lowest on the internet. We hope that their quality control is top-notch. I had intentions of fast-forwarding through much of this, but I brought up some good points throughout the video. It's possible to earn a few hundred to thousands of dollars a month. It makes an ideal medium for tiny seedlings to establish healthy root growth in. Coco Bliss now also offers 250-gram bricks (~1/2-pound). Perfect for growing your own microgreens. The Grow for Profit Video Course shows you what is involved to set up a microgreens business, how to setup your grow area, and instructions on how to grow many different varieties. As mentioned, I've thrown out quite a bit of coir when I was messing around with hydroponics. Of course, we will be comparing how the additives do our own Home Microgreens potting mix and pure coir. So why all the fuzz about coconut coir? The electrical conductivity of saltwater can deter or prevent plants roots from effectively taking up the water. Please log in again. When the top dried out and was light brown, I mixed it up again to let the dry coir absorb some of the wetness and bring some of the moisture up to let the fan dry it. In about three to seven days youll see your seeds begin to sprout. Coconut coir is fluffy and soft and doesnt compact easily. Let us explain the difference between the three varieties: Coco peat/coir This looks similar to peat moss. Discuss how well pure coco coir grows microgreens. New and skilled microgreen farmers look for new and easy additions to their farms. *but you have buy 20hopefully they will offer less bricks. Coconut coir has a neutral pH. 5. Evenly cover the seeds with a very thin layer of coir. You can get the coconut material in different textures and shapes; as a mat, dried and pressed into bricks which expands when water is added or bagged up as organic mulch. That's because the pot has holes in the bottom, and any excess water will drain out. It has been used for long by growers in countries where coconut grows naturally. Coconut coir is susceptible to infection with Leucocoprinus birnbaumii. You can, of course, leave the top off the container and allow the water to evaporate and the coir to dry out. We present the tests, and you can make up your own mind on how you want to grow microgreens. Make sure you dont miss any dry spots in the middle of the brick. But first, let's expand a brick of coconut coir! So adding enough water to the brick without over-saturating the coconut coir is the trick we need to learn. Below are the top sellers on Amazon. Home Microgreens is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Our thoughts on coconut coir bricks and their usage (in no particular order). Also, you must make sure to regularly feed your plants nutrients that coir does not contain, but the same is true for any soilless medium. You can also reuse the coir as mulch, or to amend difficult soils such as clay or other hard soils. Here are some points to consider when deciding if you want to use and expand coco coir bricks to grow microgreens. This little yellow mushroom grows in moist, tropical conditions, such as greenhouses. When watered the coir will release this salt into the water. The smaller 1.4-pound coco coir brick is 1.7 times as dense as the 10-pound brick. Episode 006 The Microgreen Trays We Use, What Are Microgreens? It also breaks down much more quickly than coconut coir and cannot be reused so more of it is needed for gardening purposes. As you saw in the Instagram video (@myviewfromthewoods), I just poured water into the nursery pot indiscriminately. Even the fluffy coconut coir in the video not only dripped water, but it flowed out in a steady stream. You sure can! The package will usually indicate how much water you can expect to use. Most videos or articles say to add water and dump in a random amount. Since microgreens prefer very slightly acidic soil and water, almost neutral, starting with a neutral medium will help keep them at the correct pH levels. So a 250-gram brick should produce about 3.2 quarts of expanded coconut coir. Step-by-step video instructions are included for the most commonly grown microgreen varieties. We use about two-thirds of a gallon of water (about 2.4-liters) with the 1.4-pound brick. One way that beneficial bacteria do this is with specialized proteins known as extracellular enzymes that they release into the soil or soilless medium. These show that with the correct additives, coco coir outperforms peat moss based potting mixes and for sure any fiber mat. I'm not going to compare all of the brands, but you can compare how much coir you will get out of any coconut coir brick from the example above. If you dont want the mushrooms in your microgreens trays you can remove them as they pop up. Coconut coir is quite high in potassium which means that calcium and magnesium will be particularly important to add to balance the potassium contained in the coir. 64 divided by 1.4 is 45.7 cubic inches per pound. This is a readymade mix of coconut coir and perlite. Peat Moss vs Coconut Coir The Reason to Hate One & Love the Other, Episode 007 My 4 Most Frequently Asked Questions About Microgreens. Ancient peoples of South Asia and southern India made rope and other cordage from the coconut fibers and used them in the building of their houses and boats as well as for daily tasks. Instructions are included as well as email support. A brick should expand to 3.2-quarts, so a quart will cost about 75-cents. Sorry to switch between units here, but for liquid measure, liters are easier, and all measuring cups also have liter measurements on them. Find their density and compare it to the 1.4-pound Coco Bliss brick and go from there. Larger seeds like sunflowers may have the challenge to settle into the medium.
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