How to Use Coconut Coir When Gardening | 7 Easy Steps

Coconut coir can be used to grow seeds, improve your garden soil or to make your own potting soil at home. Rehydrate the coconut not coir in a bucket or bowl, add it to a pot and plant your seed the same depth as the width of the seed. Water the seed well and keep the coconut coir moist until the seed sprouts.

Using coconut coir to grow seeds

My favorite way to use coconut coir is to grow seeds.  It is the perfect thing to plant your seeds straight into because it is easy to make and is low in nutrients.  This will encourage your seeds to send their roots straight down.  Here is my step by step guide to growing seeds in coconut coir.

Safety First: Remember to wear gloves or wash your hands straight after gardening. It is suggested to wear a mask when dealing with soil ingredients.

What you will need:

  • Small watering can
  • Coconut coir pellets
  • Small bowl
  • Seed tape or seed packets of your favorite vegetables
  • Biodegradable pots or seed trays

Step 1: Place your coconut pellet into a small bowl

Step 2: Add 3 tablespoons of water to the bowl

Step 3: Wait for the coconut pellet to absorb the water and grow to full size

Step 4: Place almost all of the soil from your coconut pellet into your pot.

Keep a small amount aside to place on top of the seeds.

Step 5: Place your seed tape or seeds on top of the coconut coir

Make sure you leave a small gap at the top to cover with a small amount of coir.

Leave a small gap at the top of the pot to fit extra soil.

Step 6: Top with the remaining coconut coir and label

Step 7: Keep seeds moist until you see the seed sprouting

Take care of your seeds by placing them in a spot that has afternoon shade. Once the seed has grown its second set of leaves, plant them out in your garden straight in the pot.

The biodegradable pot will break down over time and the plant will grow nice and strong.  Using biodegradable pots mean that you won’t disturb the roots when you plant it out.

Using coconut coir to make a super potting mix

You can make an amazing potting mix by mixing a few simple ingredients and you can have an organic mix ready to add to your pots. Add this to your raised garden beds or even add straight to your garden to improve the soil.

We will use the 1-1-1 seed raising mix with a secret added extra which will give your plants long lasting nutrients. My potting mix recipe is below:

How to make my potting soil mix

  1. Hydrate the coconut coir brick in a bucket of water
  2. Mix all of the ingredients together
  3. Use this to plant your seeds, add to pots or your garden beds.

Is coconut coir good for garden beds?

Add coconut coir to your garden bed to add extra bulk. Coconut coir has almost no nutrients and on its own it can become a little compacted.  I wouldn’t add more than 1 hydrated brick to a 4ftx2ft garden bed.

Add pellet chicken manure and a few handfuls of perlite.  The chicken pellets will add nitrogen and a range of nutrients while the perlite will add air and help to hold moisture.

How to prepare coconut coir

Preparing coconut coir is as simple as placing the brick in a large bucket and adding the amount of water that the instructions say on the coir.  If you have a single brick this will be around a 9 Liter bucket or 2.4 gallons.

Throw the coir brick into a bucket and fill it almost to the top with water.

Coconut Coir pellets vs Peat pellets

Often people will get confused between coconut coir pellets and peat pellets.  Coconut coir pellets are the eco friendly option compared to peat pellets. Coconut coir is basically a waste product as it is the outside husk of coconuts. 

I hope you enjoyed this blog post about using coconut coir in your garden. I will be using this more and more to plant my seeds ready for winter planting.

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