Make a Sustainable Hypertufa Trough

This video shows how to make a sustainable hypertufa container. These troughs are typically molded using a mixture of portland cement, perlite, and peat moss, but in this tutorial, I’ll be working with coconut coir as a more sustainable replacement for the peat moss. I’ll also be using a sand mold method to shape my container. This method allows for much variety and experimentation with shapes, since you aren’t restrained to a box or bowl shape, as in other methods.
Prep
To start, you’ll need to break up the compressed coconut coir bricks by rehydrating them with water. It may take more water than you think. You’ll then need to let the coconut dry before mixing the hypertufa.
Sustainable hypertufa recipe
Though a 1:1 ratio is what is recommended for the version of the recipe that uses peat moss, I found that coconut coir doesn’t hold as much water, and so I recommend more of a 1.5:1 ratio of coconut coir and cement to water and perilite.
N95 mask or equivalent
Gloves
Quart container
2 quarts of cement
2 quarts of perlite
3 quarts dry coconut coir
Water (add a little at a time until the consistency of cookie dough is reached)
Tip: You can adjust this mixture depending on the size of the container you are trying to make.
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