If you’ve seen my blog posts from last week about potatoes and sweet potatoes, you know I mentioned using coir.  A friend put me onto it a few years ago, and I love it.

            If you’re not familiar with it, coir is simply crushed coconut husks compressed into bricks.  When you immerse the bricks in water, they expand to several times their original size and can be broken down so that it has the feel of brown sugar.  A half pound brick makes 8 quarts of medium.  Since coir is made from coconut husks, it’s renewable.  That should be good news to anyone who might be concerned about depleting sources of peat.

            One of the many reasons I like coir is that it stores conveniently in brick form, unlike trying to keep bags of potting soil.  You can buy it ahead  of time and make it up as you need it during the season.  Coir is great for container gardening or for using in grow bags.  It’s inert, which means you’ll have to add fertilizer to it.  Also, by adding coir to potting soil, you’ll make your soil mix go farther and add some fluffiness to its texture.

            Here’s another good use for coir.  If you’re keeping worms for composting, like I mentioned in a post several days ago on the book Worms Eat My Garbage, you’ll find coir safe and easy to use for keeping those worms.

            Gardener’s Supply has coir.  When you go to their site, type the word Coir in the search box, and a page will come up showing Gardener’s Supply’s products with coir.  I recommend the bricks of coir they’re offering for worm bedding.  Buying at least 12 or 15 bricks would be a great way to add to your stock of survival gardening supplies.