Soil or Coco: Which One Should You Use?
One of the most important decisions you’ll make when growing plants is deciding what type of growing media you should use. This is important because each type of media has its benefits and its negatives and can impact a plants growth rate. In this blog post, we’ll talk about the benefits of two of the most popular growing mediums – Soil and Coco.
What Are The Benefits Of Using Soil To Grow Plants?
Soil has been one of the main growing media for gardeners for centuries and is still as popular today.
Soil is the perfect growing media for beginner gardeners as it already contains nutrients and beneficial microbes. These nutrients and microbes help maintain plants health and wards off diseases. Furthermore, as the plants roots are submerged in soil, air temperature has less of an impact on the plant’s roots. This can reduce the likelihood of stunted and deformed root growth. In addition, due to the density of soil, there is no need to apply nutrients as much. This is because soil is better at retaining nutrients than other media’s.
One of the main problems beginner gardeners encounter when first growing plants is the need to monitor media pH levels. If the pH levels aren’t kept to a certain level, plants won’t grow healthy and could even die. When using soil there is no need to monitor pH levels. This is because the microbes and organic matter present in soil have the ability to modify the pH range, and allow plants to absorb nutrient effectively.
Finally, if you’re looking to grow organically, soil is the best method for you as most organic nutrients enhance the benefits of microbes already in the soil.
What Are The Benefits Of Using Coco To Grow Plants?
Used by beginner and intermediate gardeners as a growing media, Coco contains 100% natural ingredients. This is because it derives from the fibrous material between the outer husk of a coconut and the actual coconut.
Unlike soil, Coco is light and airy meaning that plants can grow larger, healthier root systems. However, unlike soil, Coco contains little to no nutrients or beneficial microbes. This allows gardeners to have greater control over what levels of nutrient goes into their plants. This means that a greater growth rate can be achieved, however, it does also mean that pH levels will have to be monitored.
Just like with soil, since the plant roots are submerged they are resistant to temperature variations.
If you want to achieve better results than soil, but aren’t confident enough to move onto growing plants hydroponically, Coco is the media for you.
So to summarise:
- Soil is ideal for beginner gardeners as it doesn’t need its pH levels monitoring
- Coco can be used by beginner gardeners but needs to be monitored more
- Soil and coco is perfect for insulating plants roots and reducing the impact temperature has on their development
- Soil media is ideal for organic gardening
- Coco gives gardeners more control over nutrient levels
- Soil retains nutrients better
If you want to buy soil or coco, we offer a wide range of both and they are available here
