cocopeat?!!!!

[sunyboy]

hi
no sphagnum peat is available around. If I use
cocopeat, what are the guidelines. If I can't find cocopeat,
what are other alternatives?

 

[SerMuncherIV]

Depending on what you're growing, coco peat should be fine, but make sure that the bag says "exposed to rain from three monsoon seasons" or something like that, because unwashed coco fibers tend to have sea salts that kill CPs faster than Miracle-Gro potting soil. If you can't find coco peat, decomposed pine needles are a good acidic alternative, but those are very light and airy, so you'll probably want to find something to make the soil heavier. Don't use sedge peat unless you're growing Aldrovanda or certain species of Utricularia, it's usually too high in nutrients.

 

[Brolloks]

I have tried using cocopeat as well but found it a real pain to remove all the minerals from the peat. Ended up boiling the peat after rinsing it for many days in RO water, replacing the RO water after 24hours each time.
Boiling the peat shot the TDS reading up again but repeatedly boiling it in RO water lowered the TDS reading again, but I had to boil it quite a few times to get it at a reading of about 18-25 TDS.