The one time I got a batch of coir that was "nice", it was GREAT. Then the next 3 batches were crummy, and I gave up.
Now I try to screen pine bark to be as much like the structure of coarse, fibrous coir as possible - but of course bark holds much less water. As a hopeless over-waterer, that's what I need.
It's easier to screen bark to be like very coarse Perlite - and much cheaper.
My raised beds appreciate my bark-screening fetish because they get the rejected powder and the big chips. The powder is an amendment I mix into the clay soil before adding it to the beds, and big bark chips are my preferred mulch.
