I heard coco peat can be harmful to plants. Is that true?
Yes, there are numerous carnivorous plant growers that have killed plants with coco peat. However, this can be avoided. Depending on the source of the coco peat it can contain high amounts of salt and tannines, which can be flushed out by repeated washing. More rarely if it is not completely decomposed, it is also known to compete with plants for nitrogen, which is the main reason to never attempt to grow a plant in fresh sawdust. Having said this, those plant-killing-experiences are mostly from people using fresh coco peat in a closed setup like a terrarium, where excess water can not drain. Since we recommend growing your plants outdoors in drained pots with daily rain exposure the negative effects of coco peat won’t affect you. To be safe of course prepare those pots way before arrival of your plants and water them often (if it’s not raining ).
To put some positive light on coco peat:
- It is readily available in the Philippines, even in the province (do-it-yourself from old coconuts!)
- It can be sustainably produced. Real-peat production is quite damaging to wetland habitats.
- Often it harbors Trichoderma, a natural anti-fungus police in your media.
- Very high air levels.
- Not very soggy, hard to over-water.
- pH 5.5-6.5 which is quite good for carnivorous plants.
- Low nutrient, which is also preferred for CP.
- No health hazards for humans – careful with Perlite (dust).
- It’s anti-bacterial.
- It’s high potassium.
Can I use coco saw dust instead of coco peat?
No way, saw dust can be very harmful to plants, especially the fresh one. It might look similar like coco dust, but again: no, you don’t want to try.
Can I use coco fibers instead of coco peat?
If your coco peat looks like the shavings of a Barbie Doll then you have Coco fibers. Coco fibers are long fibers that can not be used for these plants. Coco peat is dust like and is usually sold in dried hard bricks. Coco peat is synonymous with Coco coir or coir pith.
I can’t find any coco peat in my area. What should I do?
Coco peat is most commonly found at Ace Hardware (occasionally out of stock, just try other branches), sometimes also at Zoo-shops, or big garden centers(in Manila try Quezon circle Garden 2000 and Cedar Hills Garden center), Ramgo brand seems common. Another source recommended to us is contacting cocotechcorp@gmail.com that caters sizes up to 30 kg. You can also try to find it online (Shopee, Marketplace). If you can’t find commercial coco peat, you can make your own. Look for some very brown, aged coco nut husk and make sure it is not found near the beach (salt!). Then take pliers and pull the fibers apart. While you pull you will notice some dust falling down -that’s the coco peat! You will also notice that most of the husk is coco fibers and not peat, so it is a bit of work. You can also mix in the fibers, but you have to cut them to 1 cm pieces, so the air pockets in the media don’t get too big (it would dry out too quickly then). Once you are done, soak and wash your new media and keep it in the rain and allow it to get wet every day. Let the water drain away, no saucers! We did this strenuous procedure ourselves for several years when we still had “only” hundreds of Nepenthes. Nowadays we drive 2 x 100 km to Tagoloan near Cagayan de Oro to get it from a Coconut processing factory, as no-one sells coco peat in our town either. Sacrifices have to be made And no, quarantine does not allow us to ship coco peat. And no, we won’t give you our blessing to use alternative media, except real peat, which is even harder to find in our country. PS: If you know of whole sale sources for coco peat, please let us know, so we can share it here.
How to wash coco peat?
Assuming you are buying the standard Ace-Hardware coco peat block – sometimes you can buy it uncompressed in large sacks for very little money – just put it in a bucket with at least 8 times the volume of rain water, make sure it submerges and leave it for an hour or so and then drain the water. You can repeat this a couple of times and keep it wet at all times. Then put the coco peat in pots and leave them to the rain. If no rain, then water them as often as you can. For us we never have plants dying in fresh cocopeat, but sometimes delicate plants like VFT or sundew become smaller initially, while later increasing in size as the media neutralizes. For seeds I prefer old (black), but healthy looking (no mosses etc.) coco peat.
I have read that sand is a good add-on for the coco peat. Can I use river or beach sand?
Some plants like Venus Flytrap or Sundew do enjoy some (up to 50%) sand in the media. However you have to be careful, because only coarse Silica Quartz sand is suitable for the task. Silica sand consist of small Quartz crystals – they are transparent – look closely, when you check. The other sand varieties like river or beach sand have minerals in them that will dissolve due to the elevated acidity in the growing media. And those plants don’t want those dissolved minerals. Silica sand is not so easy to find, you can try pet stores, or buisnesses that deal with water filtration. If you can’t find any silica sand, just use coco peat alone – no worries.
What kind of container do you recommend?
We prefer regular plastic flower pots, while some people even use ice cream containers or the like. Since carnivorous plants are kept rather moist, clay pots tend to turn ugly after a while and could harbor microorganisms that might return to the media, even after an exchange of media – some clays even leach minerals which are harmful for carnivorous plants. Yoghurt cups, ice cream containers and the like can be used, if you put some drainage holes in the bottom. However they usually break very quickly, if exposed to the sun. If you don’t monitor your plants regularly the media might be washed away and the plant can be harmed. Watch also out that your pot/soil doesn’t get too hot in the sun, if so try to shade it with a 2nd pot, or other obstacles.
Terrariums or aquariums create stagnant conditions, plus more importantly the waste waters can not flow away, which is very critical with (coco or regular) peat soils. You can see nice images of terrariums with plants online, but usually people who use these live in temperate climates, where humidity needs to be increased. In the Philippines increasing humidity is not really needed and esp. temperate plants like VFT, Sarracenia and Butterworth might not enjoy it at all (keyword: root rot, fungus). For indoor growers it might be an option, but make sure they have enough lights or even ventilation and a drainage option.
Should I use Sphagnum?
Pitcher in Sphagnum
Life Sphagnum is a nice add-on, although I would recommend mixing it with either coco peat, Pumice, Perlite or Charcoal, or better yet, all of them. Be careful, when you buy it locally, there are LOTS of garden stores that collect Java moss, put it in a plastic bag and write ‘Sphagnum’ on it. Look very closely at the picture here to see how real Sphagnum should look like. But the Java moss does definitely more harm than good as it creates dryish top layers on your pots that kill small plants. You should also clean any moss growing on your older pots, or replace the soil.
I find pure dried Sphagnum (sold as LFS, long fibered Sphagnum) pretty weird for growing plants. It usually is extremely wet (doesn’t give the roots a chance to breathe), turns dark green after a few weeks because of an algae that seems to grow inside it and is decomposing rather quickly. If ever your pots run dry, the termites will eat it quickly. Advice would be to mix it with other media, where it will turn to peat quickly.
We are shifting to grow our pitcher plants in life Sphagnum, not because it is superior to coco peat, but out of convenience, because our coco peat source is 100km away from our farm. We are now selling it, after having propagated it for many years. Otherwise for small plants like Utricularia, Drosera, Dionaea and sometimes even Sarracenia, I don’t like it as it tends to overgrow them, or in the case of young Sarracenia keeps the rhizomes too wet/buried.