How to Sterilize Coco Fiber Coir

How to Sterilize Coco fiber coir – If you love our earth, coco fiber coir may be the suitable growing media for you. This product is just the cast-off clothing from a harvested coconut which is overflow in nature. Using this rather than throwing it away is a win-win solution for environmental responsibility. This product has become popular due to its use as a natural growing medium. You can plant directly in coco fiber coir or mix it with other beneficial amendments and if you plan to reuse your coco fiber coir over multiple crop cycles. But if you want to use it stand alone, you need to consider sterilizing. Because this product doesn’t contain any significant material for your plant growth, you need some fertilizer.

This is important to sterilize your coco fiber coir; it first helps prevent the possibility of spreading disease which harmful to your plants. This process can benefit a variety of substrates, including this product itself. This natural byproduct is also environmentally safe, so you don’t need to worry about using this material. Unlike peat moss that when it is harvested, it will require a thousand years to replenish. The coco fiber coir is overflow in nature, and it is a renewable natural resource. But before you use this material, we will guide you on how to sterilize this product. 

Why sterilize coco fiber coir?

Coco fiber coir is an eco-friendly and all-natural material you can repeatedly use in your garden. Basically, sterilizing this product kills any viruses, fungi, or bacteria that developed and could affect new seedlings’ growth. The moisture and warmth that increase germination also provide the perfect breeding ground for harmful microorganisms that live in it. There are two common ways to sterilize your coco fiber coir which are chemical and heat.

How to chemical sterilization coco fiber coir?

You can use various chemicals to sterilize coco coir between growing seasons, like bleach, hydrogen peroxide, and quaternary ammonium salts. After removing the previous batch of your plants for the bleach, place the coco fiber coir in a large bucket. Then soak it with water and add four teaspoons of bleach for each gallon of water you use to let it for at least one hour. Then stir the coir around to make sure all of it gets exposed by the bleach. It is the same as using hydrogen peroxide and quaternary ammonium salts, but make sure you add the right amount needed.

And if you don’t want to use chemical products and want more eco-friendly options through sterilization, you can consider using a heat source. If you live in a cold place, maybe you need to use the oven to heat coco fiber coir. Oven heated to 180 degrees Fahrenheit, then let it in thirty minutes. This way will effectively eliminate pathogen eggs and larvae as well as harmful fungi. If you don’t have an oven, you can use a microwave oven. Even this will take a long time. It will give the same results. Or, on hot sunny days, you can place moistened coir in a transparent tarp material. You can let it dry for a couple of days until all the pathogen is eliminated.

Reusing this material and sterilizing it in your growing media or hydroponic systems can save a lot of money in the long term. If you interest in buying this product. You can click this Whatsapp link to contact us directly: (Fajar Stevano / Maria Arumingtyas) or email: [email protected] for more information.