Sponsored Post: Product Review - Coco Peat

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I was contacted a few weeks ago to ask if I would like to trial some Coco Peat from Coco & Coir.  I happily agreed to do this.  I do need to be clear that I have been paid to write this post, but as usual as I hope you would expect, I would not agree to do so if I thought that the product was not worthy of trialling.

The Coco-peat arrived as a compact 5 litre block.  I particularly wanted to trial this product as I was setting up a new raised vegetable bed.  The soil in my garden is thick heavy clay and I hoped that the addition of this Coco peat would add texture and improve drainage.  I placed the block of Coco Peat in the wheelbarrow.  The instructions say to add 25 litres of water.  My watering can holds around 5 litres so I added 5 cans full and stood back to see it that was enough.  The block starts to absorb the water really quickly.  After about fifteen minutes, after a bit of poking at the block with a trowel, I could see that a small part of the core of the block was still very dry.  I added another watering can full of water and that did the trick.  You can tell when it is ready as there are no dry pieces in the mix and it is light and fluffy.  

It looks a bit impossible when you first start it off, but it absorbed the water well and turned into lovely compost.  I did not add anything to it at this point, but once it is in the raised bed I will be digging in some manure.  It was then ready to be used.

As I had thought ahead and mixed it in the wheelbarrow all I needed to do then was take it to the new raised bed I wanted to add it into and tip it in.  A little light digging later and the bed was ready to go.  Coco & Coir often use their blog to educate gardeners about different uses for coco peat. I found their article on how to grow veg in coco coir to be particularly handy for what I was doing.

The bed is 1.25m square and is to replace a previous raised bed that was in this space.  The edges had collapsed so I needed to rebuild.  I will be growing kale in this raised bed, this is a new venture for me as I have not grown this vegetable before.  I am hoping that it grows well.  Last year this area was used for growing sweet peas, I vary what I grow in the different areas of this part of the garden and there is a usually a mix of vegetables and cutting flowers.

The compost can be used for a variety of things, it can be a potting medium, used in terrariums as well as providing aeration and good drainage generally.  Coco peat is sustainable and a good alternative to peat - based products.  I was impressed at how easy it was to receive through the post, how manageable it was to hydrate and also just how well it dug into the soil.  I will be planting out in to the bed shortly and I will let you know how it goes.

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