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Lately we have been having some torrential rains; for example, 3 1/2' in less than an hour. This has happened several times recently and all of a sudden I have noticed that the soil in containers with coir mixed in and the flats of seedlings I had growing in coir are badly compacted. On the container mix I was using four parts good potting mix to one part coir. Under normal conditions this worked very well for my climate and I had excellent water retention and drainage.
It appears that the weight of the water coming down that fast just packed that coir down solid. I watered one pot yesterday, that had been planted about a month ago, then noticed the water just sitting on top; it did not penetrate the soil at all. I had no problems with older containers where coir had not been incorporated.
I'll continue to use coir as these weird rains are usually rare but I'll I think I will use less or add some Perma til. Today I will have to go out and unpot a lot of things and loosen the soil.
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