Both coco coir coco peat are a great medium for growing plants, and made from the same source material which is coconut husks. But even though they are similar and a lot of people using them interchangeably, there are several key differences between coco coir coco peat.
The Raw Material of Coco Coir Coco Peat
Basically, both coco coir and coco peat are made from the fibrous coconut husks, but the subsequent process will separate them apart. Coco coir is made by grinding and processing the coarse fibers of coconut husks, while coco peat is made by processing the leftover dust after the process of removing the fibers.
To simplify it, coco peat is made from coconut husks and coco coir is made from coconut fibers. The result of these different processes is also visible. Coco coir has a brown color, coarse and fibrous texture while coco peat has a darker brown color, and finer powdery texture.
Nutritional Value
Not only appearance, coco coir and coco peat also have striking difference in nutritional value. Coco coir have natural rooting hormones that will help your plant development even though its nutritional value is relatively low.
On the other hand, coco peat has a higher level of nutritional value that will greatly help your plants such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Both products don’t cancel each other out, and will help each other. That’s why most products you find on the market is a healthy mix of both coco coir coco peat.
There’s also a difference in pH levels between these two materials. The pH level in coco coir is more neutral with 6 to 6.8 while coco peat is more acidic with the pH level of 5.5 to 6.5. When you are dealing with sensitive plants, you need to measure the pH to make sure you don’t over-providing nutrients.
Water Drainage Retention
Coco peat also has better quality in water retention compared to coco coir because it can hold up water to about 8 times of its weight. Mixing coco peat and coco coir will give you’re a great quality of water retention and there is a lot of plants that will thrive in an environment like that.
Meanwhile, coco coir has a better quality in the aspect of water drainage and aeration for the plants. Since coco coir is so fibrous, a mix of coco coir and soil can be really spacious and then increasing water drainage and providing excellent aeration.
You can harness the best of these two planting materials by mixing them since a mix of coco coir and coco peat can both have features. You need to know what kind of intensity you want, so you can mix coco coir coco peat in the correct ratio.There you go, the differences between coco coir coco peat. While having some striking difference in quality, it’s recommended to mix both coco coir coco peat to get the best for your plants.
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