There is http://www.suncityhydroponics.com/ a hydroponic gardening place on Whitten Rd. just a block or two away from Bumpus Harley Davidson. If they dont; have it I'm sure they can get it.. they seem to be the only folks that have a steady supply of vermiculite.

Personally, I use a bale of Peat Moss, mixed w/ 2 bags of Black Kow sterilized manure, and a 5 gal pail full of used coffee grounds from Starbucks... my blueberries love this stuff!

Many pet stores sell coir (more common name for cocopeat). It's used in reptile bedding.

Ah thanks for the responses and suggestion of a place to start looking for it locally. I will check out the hydroponic gardening place for sure and maybe call around a couple pet supply places asking about the coir for reptiles, I hadn't thought of that.

Great resource, I'm glad I started researching with Gardenweb again!

=)

-jules

Pls note that coir used for pet is not good for growing plants.
Go to our website at www.densuventures.com and click on the reseach tab. There you would find results of a study by the University of Florida.
Let me know it I maybe of further assistance to you.
Jake

Good sales pitch, but that's about it for most of the claims. Not having to soak is actually a disadvantage. Why pay for all the extra shipping, and how hard is it to throw a brick of this in a bucket of water anyway? Who's ever head of having to grind the stuff? This doesn't apply to anything I've seen for sale. Often the coir for sale at pet stores is the same stuff that most nurseries sell (even same packaging). Most have a fairly low salt content. I have seen some that even states that it has been prewashed for agricultural use. If there is one good point in all the stuff on that website, it would be the salt issue. It is a good idea to rinse coir to eliminate possible salt buildup if the package doesn't indicate that it's already been done. I've done this most of the times I used coir. I have never seen a problem yet. If you want to be on the safe side, spend an extra couple of minutes and rinse the product before using it. Densu-Coir may be wonderful stuff, but it certainly doesn't have the market cornered.

Oddly enough I could not find find any, zero, nada ordering information at the website. So if it was a troll it was pretty self defeating ;-)

I was talking about the sales pitch on the website, not Jake's post. There is contact info on the Densu Ventures website. I will post it below so you can contact them if you'd like. Maybe they mostly sell to growers?

Densu Ventures Inc.
336 Main Street West
Hamilton, Ontario
Canada L8P 1J9
Tel 1-905-525-7110
Email jkabutey@msn.com