Peat vs Coco Coir??

I have been using Ocean Forest soil for the past couple of years but I have been looking into coir based soils as well.

Is there much difference between coir based and peat based soils? Is there a difference in pH I need to maintain, or water less, or flush more often? Any info on the differences between these two types of soil would be much appreciated.

I was also thinking of mixing my own soil. I saw some mixes in high times, but I was a bit confused about the ingredients. It says to use equal parts compost, soiless mix, and coir. I thought the soiless mix would be the coir. Are they talking about perlite as the "soiless" mix?

If I mix my soil I will be adding all my nutes during waterings, I'm not looking for a nute packed soil. I will add beneficial fungi and bacteria to the soil as well so there will be plenty life there. I am just lost to what they mean by a soiless mix.

Do you think equal parts compost, perlite, and peat or coir would be a decent mix if I decide to mix my own? It gets a bit expensive buying 5 bags of ocean forest and lowering my costs would be nice.

Thanks for the help
Bob

Anybody have any input?

I personally use Roots Organics CoCO based soiless mix and find it to be great, good drainage no PH fluctuations.

bongrippinbob said:

Anybody have any input?

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I went to the HD. I bought a bag of peat. I bought a bag of perlite. I bought a box of blood meal, bone meal,and kelp mea. I bought a box of greensand and a bag of azomite and myco. The npk was the peace of mind variety which contains extra bacteria and myco to boot. I also bought a bag of dolomite. I added all this in and placed it in rubbermaids and trash bags to let it "cook". It rocks. THis cost me total under a 100 dollars. I also bought a bag of composted manure. This will give me millions of gallons as all I have to replace is the 10 dollars bag of peat becuase the other ingreds will last a long time. That is soiless and what you have to amend it with to work unless you use hydro chemicals. Peat is soiless. Coir is soiless. Anything that is a substrate by itself that you might use as an amendment in a "soil"=soiless. That was my soil recipe. If you want I can give you tbsp a gallon amounts. It is your lucky day, as this mix rocks! Only add water.

Thanks for the replies. However, if I do mix my own soil I want to be able to water in my nutes so I have more control over them. I use a mix of chem/organic nutes for my grows.

Crazy, have you been having any problems with bugs in your soil? I have seen a lot of people having problems with bugs using the RO soils. I hear they expanded so fast that they store their soils in an open ended wharehouse where bugs can get in. I have never used their soils so I don't have any experience, but this is just what I heard.

ANy body else have any opinions on peat vs coco?

Thanks
Bob