Coir users?

Does anyone here use coir in their seed starting mix? I am looking for "recipes" using coir. I have tried coir and perlite in the past (80% coir., 20% perlite) without much success. However, maybe I overwet the coir. How much water do you add to each (1/3 cu ft) brick?
Thanks
Doug

Hey Doug. I don't think coir would be very useful for seed starting. It's great for things like tropicals that need super well drained soil but it seems to me it would be too coarse to use for any but the largest seeds. Since it drains so well, you could continue to add water until it is standing in a puddle and it will be the same as if you were oh, so careful with the amount you added. I let it soak in warm water for a couple of hours before draining it so the maximum amount of water is absorbed, but it doesn't act like spagnum peat which I treat the same. The spagnum grabs and holds water like a sponge and gets really sloppy, the coir allows the water to flow past while keeping only its surface moist, not sopping wet and releases the water very slowly.Just how were you using it? Jessamine

I've been using a starter mix called Garden Solutions that I get from Gurney's. It uses coir, perlite and worm castings. The advantage over bricks, of course, is that it's already shredded so it takes water a little better. It's still slow, but better than peat. It expands to about half again in volume. I've had good results and like the fact that it comes from a readily renewable resource. I'm planning to experiment with hypertufa, and want to use coir rather than peat.

Thanks for the replies.
Jessamine, I was using it simply for seed starting.

for a experimant i took my coco coir and put some on a inverted
plastic lid from a storage container. i would say it was like 2 inches
deep. sprinkled some catnip seeds, chili pepper seeds, carnation
seeds in rows just like was was planing in the garden.
every other day i would spray it all down with a spray bottle of water
till the coir was wet again. everything germinated. then i mixed up
some hydropoinc nutes with the water and continued spraying
every few days till the seedlings got big enough to pluck from the
coir and replant.

I'm certainly not going to say you couldn't start seeds in coir. I expect you can start seeds in any number of things you wouldn't ordinarily think of, including jello. (Yes, I have and yes, it works.) I guess my main objection is the cost. I put out a lot of flats and that much coir would break the bank in a hurry. I guess I'll have to save it for my tropicals. Jessamine

I use coir with my cuttings of succulents. I cut them and wait until I see new roots coming, then plant them about a week.
I noticed that I get faster root growth, and more. We did comparison testing. There was big difference between the reg. cactus mix, and the coir plants. This test was done by a major grower. He wanted to ship his plants faster, he wanted a mix that wouldn't dry out too fast and get hard like Peat moss , he also wanted a mix that he could water down, and it would absorb it immediately , he also wanted something light because of shipping cost. Coir is reusable. Crasulady2

I have volunteered at the Huntington Gardens for the past 13 years, I have been trained in propagation. Some things I know and others I don't have the foggiest. I have two green thumbs that go all the way up to my elbows. I can only tell you the way it is done at the Huntington Gardens. Every thing must be clean, very clean, the soil very light, and the seeds often are just tossed in on the top, the put the 4" pots with at least 50 seeds under hot/cool florescent lights. The soil and been put in a microwave for at leat 5 minutes on high. Once we see anything green, we start to fertilize with a very mild fertilizer for the first year after we water first. Watering consists of spraying with a mister, the seeds are kept damp. We also use a #5 gravel, bird gravel, to help hold down the mold/moss that comes from too much light, we want the seeds to get the light and not the green moss. We do not transplant until they are beging to get out of the pot.
I hope I have given you some ideas here. You may contact me at Crasulady2@adelphia.net

Thanks for the replies.
Doug