Description
The original Horticultural Coconut
100% pure freeze dried young coconut water powder. No maltodextrin, no starch, no anti-caking agent, no fillers of any kind. Open the bag and the only thing in it is coconut water with the water taken out.
Growers have been using coconut water in the garden since Clackamas Coot started talking about it around 2010. We were the first to make it a real product, and fifteen years later growers still swear by it.
Why growers use it
Coconut water is the liquid endosperm of a young coconut. Biologically, it is the nutrient solution a seed built for itself to grow an entire tree out of. That is a very different thing from a nutrient someone mixed in a factory.
It is nature’s original sprouted seed tea
Clackamas Coot invented sprouted seed teas: soak and sprout a seed, then feed your plants the water. The reason it works is that a germinating seed floods its surroundings with enzymes, hormones and growth compounds. Coconut water is that same principle at enormous scale. It is a giant sprouted seed tea, already made and already concentrated.
Its most famous component is cytokinin, the phytohormone group associated with cell division and lateral branching. This is not folklore. Coconut water has been used as a standard growth supplement in plant tissue culture and micropropagation for decades, precisely because of its phytohormone content. Alongside the cytokinins you get sugars, minerals, vitamins and amino acids, all in a form plants and soil biology can use immediately.
It works as a foliar spray, as a soil drench, and at acreage scale through drip. Growers run it through both veg and flower.
Reference: Yong, Ge, Ng and Tan. The Chemical Composition and Biological Properties of Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) Water. Read the full paper (PDF)
Why freeze dried, not spray dried
Spray drying blasts the liquid through hot air. It is fast, it is cheap, and it is what almost everyone else does. It also has a problem: pure coconut water is too sticky and too hygroscopic to spray dry on its own, which is why spray dried products almost always need a carrier like maltodextrin added before drying. The carrier is not a bonus ingredient. It is a processing crutch.
Freeze drying removes the water without heat. The enzymes, hormones and nutrients survive intact, and no carrier is required, which is how we end up with a product that is genuinely one ingredient. It costs more to make. It is worth it.
How to use it
per gallonUse through both veg and flower. Start at 1/2 tsp and work up.
50 gallonsOr 1 pound per 150 gallons. Same rate, bigger tank.
per acre1/2 pound per acre foliar, 1 pound per acre through drip.
Mix into your water, give it a few minutes to go into solution, then stir. It contains no preservatives, so mix what you need and use it fresh.
Which size bag do I need?
| Bag size | Covers | At |
|---|---|---|
| 8 ounce | 113 gallons | 1/2 tsp per gallon |
| 1 pound | 226 gallons | 1/2 tsp per gallon |
| 44 pound | 9,944 gallons | 1/2 tsp per gallon |
Conversions: 1 teaspoon weighs 4 grams. 1 tablespoon weighs 12 grams. 1 cup weighs about 6.75 ounces. Half a pound of powder is roughly 19 tablespoons.
What makes ours different
The coconut water powder market is a mess. Here is what to look out for, and where we stand on each of it.
- 01
Filler ingredients
Beware: Many products are cut with starch, maltodextrin or minerals, which dilute the purity and the effectiveness. You pay for coconut water and you get a bag that is partly something else.
BuildASoil: No fillers. 100 percent pure freeze dried coconut water powder, and nothing else.
- 02
Anti-caking agents and hidden carriers
Beware: Most coconut water powder is spray dried with maltodextrin, dextrin or gum blended in specifically to keep it free flowing. A powder that never clumps is usually a powder with starch in it.
BuildASoil: We add nothing at all, so ours can develop soft clumps. Those clumps dissolve completely, and they are your proof there is no filler in the bag.
- 03
Inferior drying methods
Beware: Spray drying uses heat, and heat degrades the enzymes and hormones that make coconut water worth using in the first place.
BuildASoil: Freeze dried, which removes water without heat and preserves the nutritional integrity of the coconut water.
- 04
Low quality imports
Beware: A lot of what is on the market is bought off Alibaba, and some of it is not genuine coconut water powder at all.
BuildASoil: Sourced from organically grown coconuts, direct from the farm. No middleman distributors.
- 05
Lack of transparency
Beware: Most companies will not tell you where it came from, how it was dried, or what else is in the bag.
BuildASoil: You just read all three, in detail, including the parts that are inconvenient for us.
- 06
Natural batch variation
Beware: Nobody wants to admit that an agricultural product changes with the season. So when the color or the smell shifts, customers assume something is wrong.
BuildASoil: Because ours is pure, with no stabilizers evening things out, weather and harvest timing will shift the color and aroma a little. That is what a real agricultural product does. It does not affect quality or performance.
