Coir

I've started using coir and really like it. Questions...

Does anyone here use it?
Do you hydrate an entire brick at one time?
If so, how do you store left-over, wet coir?

I made the mistake of putting the left over coir in a washed plastic kitty litter bucket with the lid on and it turned black like it was mildewing. Now I'm afraid to use it and I am wondering if I should just try to break pieces off of my remaining block?

Coir... it's used for something else, isn't it? Like for orchid growing or something? Seems like it would be awfully expensive to use in a large quantity ...?

Anywho, I don't think things get quite as funky once they're in the ground - you could always stick a little Hydrogen Peroxide or even bleach into your water if it's really a big problem - did it smell like mildew or bad in any sort of way? Maybe it was just wet too long, or maybe that's just what wet coir looks like?

Pagancat - I'm not sure... the top layer of coir was a dark black color, whereas just under the top layer was a rich brown color. I left it in an enclosed bucket without squeezing out the excess water... probably should have done that. I'm still using it, but I'm just not sure it's great for my plants LOL! I can't tell about the smell because even though I washed the kitty litter bucket out, that's all I can seem to smell! (it was only clean kitty litter!!)

Coir bricks cost under $3 each here at a local nursery. I can't tell you how much one brick makes, but it's a lot. I use it for seed starting... I like it! I also mix it with soil for added moisture and aeration. It doesn't stay real soggy and when it dries out, it rewets immediately... not like peat or seed starter soil which seems to me to be hard to moisten quickly.

I'll try storing it in a dryer state and see what happens. Thanks for your input!!!!!!!

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful, best of luck!

Pagancat... but you WERE helpful... you didn't say something like "NOOOOO, don't do that!" LOL!! :-)

But maybe I SHOULD have!!!

Noooooooooooooo.... heehee LOL

There is a thread somewhere here about using coir for rose propagation (Seedpicker, I believe). She points out that coir is not sterile unless you are buying sterilized coir. She recommends putting the moistened coir in an oven baking bag and cooking to 170 degrees. Check with an oven thermometer stuck into the coir through the oven bag. This will sterilize it for cuttings and seed germination use.

Thanks gloria!

We used coir instead of peat in the raised garden bed. We bought a large brick of the dried, pressed coir. My DH broke off a chunk of it, which we through in a 5 gallon bucket with some water. Egads! it expanded so much it twisted the bucket!
Once rehydrated, it's been great in the garden, and as bedding for the worm bin.

Sounds like potent stuff!

LOL! It's kind of like those dried sponges that are tiny little slivers when you buy them, and then expand to a large oval. I like the coir. I tried using composted horse manure for the worm bedding last time and now have a big knot of horse bot larvae that I'm going to have to sift out and feed to the crows.

gm: I have visions of you out there forking out those worms and feeding the crows in your pareo. Edgar Allan Poe- esque.

LOL!

tee hee!

It was certainly hot enough to warrant wearing a pareo. Doubtful DH would let me out of the house in it. Probably not the best attire for the city center where the community garden is located anyway.

I sifted out all the trays in the worm bin, recovered as many worms as I could and put them in fresh bedding of rehydrated coir and wet shredded newpaper. They should be happy now. I through some of the grubs out on the asphalt parking lot. It's amazing how fast they can move! Whatever the crows and jays don't eat, the local possum will probably take care of. Here's a picture of some of the grubs. You'll have to enlarge it to really see them.

Strangely enough, my Dalmatians think grubs are a super-special treat. Works for me!

With ordinary grubs, I'd agree. These are the grubs of a horse parasite called a horse bot:
http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ansci/horse/eb55-3.htm#horse

Yeah - I get to shave the eggs off my horses legs - it's amazing how stubbornly they stick, drives me nuts. Although I have to scratch my head at how ingenious they are in getting into their host's system.

A friend of mine has horses and was telling me about some kind of "bot". She has a block of something that looks like lava rock and stinks (I think?)... is that the same kind of bot?

A bot is just another fly - they unfortunately use horses and other equids to raise their young by depositing the eggs where the horse grooms itself. The warmth of their mouth causes the bot to hatch and usually attach themselves on the inside of the horse's mouth or intestine - & where it causes decline in the horse's nutritional status. Nasty little creatures.

Sounds like your friend is using one of the rocks to remove the bots from the hair of her horse, much the same as I use the 'bot knife'. That, and dewormers usually nuke the little you-know-whats!

I hadn't realized that the bot fly eggs were as tough as they are. Apparently they can lie dormant in the composted manure for a long time. They wait for moisture to hatch.
It's not a problem in the garden bed where the crows, jays and 'possums can finish them off. It was very startling to find them in my worm bin. Nasty looking larvae. They remind of the weird creature that Ricardo Montalban put in Chekovs ear in the Star Treck movie "Wrath of Khan". They definitely look like space alien creatures.
LOL!

Thanks Pagancat! :-)

Oh sure. May you never have to find out yourself!