Buying coir is easier once you think in quarts and cubic feet. Here is how to work out what a raised bed or a set of containers needs, and how many Kokkonut bricks or blocks that comes to.
The quick numbers
- 1 cubic foot is about 30 quarts, or 7.5 gallons
- 1 coco peat brick (650 g) makes about 10 quarts
- 1 coco chips brick (500 g) makes about 0.25 cubic feet, roughly 7.5 quarts
- 1 coco peat block (5 kg) makes about 59 quarts, roughly 2 cubic feet
- 1 coco chips block (4.5 kg) makes about 50 quarts
Raised beds
Work out the bed's volume first: length x width x depth, all in feet. A 4 x 8 ft bed filled 12 inches deep holds 4 x 8 x 1 = 32 cubic feet.
Most gardeners don't fill a bed with coir alone. A popular mix is one third coir, one third compost and one third topsoil. Coir keeps the bed light and holds water, compost feeds the plants, and topsoil adds body.
| Bed size (12 in deep) | Total mix | Coir share (one third) | Kokkonut to buy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 x 4 ft | 8 cu ft | about 80 quarts | 2 coco peat blocks |
| 4 x 4 ft | 16 cu ft | about 160 quarts | 3 blocks, or 1 Raised Bed Starter Kit |
| 4 x 8 ft | 32 cu ft | about 320 quarts | 6 blocks, or 2 Raised Bed Starter Kits |
| 4 x 12 ft | 48 cu ft | about 480 quarts | 9 blocks, or 3 Raised Bed Starter Kits |
Topping up an existing bed? 2 to 3 inches of coir worked into the top layer each season keeps the soil loose. A 5 kg block covers about 4 x 3 ft at 2 inches deep.
Pots, containers and grow bags
For containers, half coir and half compost or potting soil is a good, free-draining mix. One gallon of pot space is 4 quarts of mix.
| Pot size | Mix per pot | Coir per pot (half) | One 5 kg block fills |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 gallon | 4 quarts | 2 quarts | about 29 pots |
| 3 gallon | 12 quarts | 6 quarts | about 10 pots |
| 5 gallon | 20 quarts | 10 quarts (1 brick) | about 6 pots |
| 10 gallon | 40 quarts | 20 quarts | about 3 pots |
Seed starting
- A 72-cell tray takes one 30 mm coir pellet per cell. A pack of 50 pellets starts 50 plants.
- Each 60 mm coir disc makes about 120 ml of loose coir, enough to pot up one or two seedlings.
- One 650 g brick fills about 20 four-inch pots.
Let the calculator do it
Enter your bed or pot sizes in our coir calculator and it will tell you how many bricks, blocks or kits to order. Filling beds for a farm, school or community garden? Ask about pallet pricing.
