Coir vs compost

T O enoster@hotmail.com
Thu, 15 Jan 2015 06:44:22 PST
Eric-

Compost can be a good alt. for coir for the water retention, but this could also greatly depend on the compost. The "compost" some cities offer by recycling green waste they pick up is definitely not the same as my compost pile. Not sure if this is the same everywhere, but the local municipal compost contains incinerated human waste, and some degree of heavy metals.

The method you use to make the compost may make a difference too. Hot composting involves using a lot of green material at once, creating so much biological activity it generates enough heat to burn your hand, and must be turned over occasionally. Cold composting entails piling on compostable material over time as it becomes available. Hot composting will kill weed seeds by effectively cooking them, while cold composting will not, in my experience.

My cold compost pile has tons of worms, and a large portion of it is basically just worm castings, which is what I use in all my soil mixes for starting seeds or otherwise with good results.

-Travis Owen
Rogue River, OR



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