# Exo-Terra Plantation Soil vs Exo-terra Coco Husk



## saeed.kad90 (Nov 29, 2012)

Hi, 

I recently got a 5 month old baby Sulcata that I currently keep indoors due to colder weather in Toronto during winter. I am currently experimenting to make the perfect enclosure and have come accross some confusion (even after browsing the internet). There are two products (both manufactured by exo terra) that I found which can be used as a substrate: Plantation Soil, and Coco Husk. I am a little confused on the difference between these two products. The only difference I can tell is plantation soil seems more fine. But besides that they both are coco husk products, and both come as a brick, thus both should ideally absorb humidity.
I used plantation soil for the first week, next im gonna try a 50/50 coco husk and repti-bark substrate mix.
Any tips/info on the difference between the two? Or if using plantation is better than the 50/50 mix?
Thanks!


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## Yvonne G (Nov 29, 2012)

Hi saeed.kad90, and welcome to the Forum!


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## mattgrizzlybear (Nov 29, 2012)

You don't have to buy stuff from pet stores it is just over priced things. Plantation soil is just soil and you can buy a lot of things at Home Depot/lowes. Welcome to the forum!


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## saeed.kad90 (Nov 30, 2012)

Thanks for the welcome guys! And yeah for later on I will definitely go with DIY stuff rather than the more expensive pet store stuff.

Just thought i'd give an update on my experiment for any new tortoise owners that might be wondering/looking for this question. I found that the my 5 month old sulcata, Benjamin Franklin (DJ Benji for short), finds it really hard to walk on the 50/50 coco husk-reptibark mix. Might be okay for when he grows bigger, but for now he's struggling to get around. It's also a lot more fiberous than plantation soil (i think that's coco coir). THe only advantage I see is that it doesn't get stuck on his food/face like the other stuff, but that's about it.
He doesn't seem to be liking it in the least, he can't even burrow in it with his tiny paws.
I'm going to go back to plantation soil for thew time being, after only a day of that coco husk stuff.

Hope this helps someone!


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