Coir

[pruna]

HI,
      Anyone knows which Garden center sells "COIR" or Coco Fiber potting compost?  I have read it is replacing Peat and it is a better product.

[officer]

Hi Pruna,

Sory to reply so late - just happened to see your post. Coir  is a waste product of the coconut industry - shredded coconut husk. It is an excellent product for us gardeners. I use coir mixed with sand to germinate all my tree seeds and the results are always great. When using coir instead of peat we are giving a helping hand to our environment since contrary to peat, coir is renewable product.

Anyway, I always get my coir, in compressed form from F.Zammit Gardens.

Hope this helps. Regards, Officer

[pruna]

             Thanks for your reply. You are 100% right about COIR.
           
              When I asked Zammit Garden  centre about coir  he told me
     
               that WINDMILL compost is made out of coir, but since you

               mentioned Compressed Coir, I think I prefer  the blocks.

               I will check with zammit.

                     Thanks better late than never.

[MG]

Not sure if off topic - but if you are looking for economical but very decent general purpose compost, Kekkila from Agri Co Op fits the bill. I did try alternatives at that price range and most of them seem to be rather fibrous, only usable for large plants or mixing.

MG

[composter]

Hi officer,

I am not so sure about your statement that when using coir you are helping the environment!  If you think about how many kilometers coir has to travel to reach our island than you come to the conclusion that you are not helping the environment at all! This product is excellent when used in virmiculture as bedding for worms but is being boycotted by people who are environment conscious. If you want an excellent compost and help the environment make your own compost out of kitchen scrap and organic waste.

[officer]

Hellp compostor,

My sweeping statement meant using coir instead of peat. As you know, peat is an unsustainable product as opposed to coir. Since we have to import both products, transport costs do not figure in the equation. As regards vermiculture. Homemade compost is great as a soil conditioner, but I will never use it for potting up plants or propagation purposes. Unless sterilised, composts WILL contain a lot of pathogens and other harmful biota. This on top of the fact that 'homemade' composts are much too fertile for potting up and /or propagating.

Regards, Officer

[composter]

You  will get pathogens in your compost if you are not selective in what ingredients you put in it. Further more by refining the compost by Virmiculture, pathogens if they exist, are removed because when the food  passes through the worm gut, they secrete an enzime which nuetralises the pathogen. But as you said you cannot garantee a compost to be pathogen free unless it has been sterilized.
There have been studies with worm compost, there is a possability that it can prevent some plant diseases, and that worms remove most of the harmful pathogens found in soil.
I have been keeping worms for the last four years and so far I had no mishaps.  At the moment my orange tree is laden with fruit the size of grapefruits. The reason for this is that I keep my wormery underneath it!

[officer]

Dear compostor,

Please do not get me wrong. I have nothing against vermiculture, so much so that I actually compost all weeds and prunings generated on my land - and I have an area of nearly 4 tumoli under about 800 shrubs/trees so you can imagine the volume involved.
I simply do not think that the resulting compost should be used for potting up and/or propagation purposes. I have actually found out that if homemade compost is utilised as a mulch in flower beds and trees, it even surpasses the benefits obtained from farm manure. In the meantime I wish you luck and 'happy worming'.

Regards, Officer

[composter]

In fact if you use farm manure to feed worms the resultant compost is approx 8 times more fertile than the dried manure! Some facts about worms are not fully understood by science.
I usually top dress mature plants by adding pure worm compost on top. This has the effect of a slow release fertilizer.  For propagation and repotting you cannot use pure worm compost on its own because plants grow very leggy  in this and tend to bend over, so I mix it: 10-15 % wormcompost and soil or other medium. Growing them in a more richer mixture does not seem to make a difference so it is a waste of worm compost. An other product of virmiculture is the leachtate and this can be mixed with water and used to water plants as liquid fertilizer.
I am happy that you re-use your gardening waste to make compost and hope that other people in Malta do the same!