Coconut coir is earning a place in many gardeners’ hearts. It has a wide variety of benefits and can be used in many ways. This versatile, all-natural material can even be used in your garden as a mulch. 

The Benefits of Mulch
Mulching your garden is beneficial for several reasons. By mulching your garden beds, you provide them with nutrients that help only the plants you want growing there. Mulch acts as a natural weed barrier. While it won’t keep weeds away permanently, with it you won’t have to pull weeds as frequently. Mulch also helps keep pests away from your plants. Common garden pests such as slugs aren’t going to be able to get to your plants because of the surrounding mulch.

Mulch is also a great way to get more out of your regular watering routine. It helps keep the moisture in your soil, as it creates a barrier that retains the water rather than allowing it to evaporate quickly. This effect can often lead to water savings and lower water bills.

Tips for Using Coconut Coir Mulch

These tips for using coconut coir mulch will help you get the most out of it when gardening.

• Take time to soak the coir bricks before applying them to your garden beds. Coir will expand once the water has soaked into it, and this will make it easier to spread out where you want it. You should give the bricks about 15 minutes or more of soaking. Make sure you soak the coir in a container that’s large enough to accommodate it as it expands.
• You’ll want to put down about 2 to 3 inches of coconut coir mulch in the same manner as you would any other mulch.
• If you have a weed problem, either use a thicker layer of coconut coir mulch or add a weed cloth barrier beneath the mulch to prevent weeds from growing.
• At the end or beginning of the growing season, you can plow the old mulch into the garden to allow its nutrients back into the soil.

Coco Peat is a byproduct of coconut fibre and is in high demand among Garden Centers and Horticulture Nurseries. This is used as a growing medium which provides faster germination and quicker seeding rotations, increases air porosity, retains water and helps with irrigation.

Properties of Cocopeat:

• Cocopeat is light, easy to handle and can even be reused for up to 4 years. The physical and biochemical properties of cocopeat make it resistant to bacterial and fungal growth.
• Cocopeat disintegrates slowly. It only begins to break down when it is ten years old, thus providing long-term benefits.
• It has pH of 5.2 to 6.8 which is neutral to slightly acidic. This makes it great to be mixed with alkaline garden soil. Read about soil pH & its effect on plant growth.
• Cocopeat can store and release nutrients to plants for extended periods of time.
• It has great oxygenation properties which are important for healthy root development.
• Cocopeat can be combined with any of the usual ingredients like soil and manure to be used as a mixture or a stand-alone product.
• Cocopeat is available at affordable price for a quality product with an environmentally sustainable future.
• Cocopeat is perfect soil conditioner, and it can retain moisture up to eight times of its volume. It is entirely organic.
• Cocopeat is consistent and uniform in texture, and easy to handle. Unlike soil, it does not form any mud.

Where to use cocopeat?
Cocopeat is a fantastic sowing medium. It is used to sow the seeds of vegetables and seasonal flowers in seedling trays.
Cocopeat is a perfect rooting medium. Stem cuttings are inserted in the cocopeat for root induction.
Cocopeat is very good for soilless gardening and hydroponic farming.
Cocopeat is an essential ingredient of various potting media like pot-o-mix and organic veggie-mix.
Potting mixture with added cocopeat is suitable for indoor plants, cacti and succulents, dish gardens, terrariums and hanging baskets.