What’s the fuss about Groconut?

If you’re an indoor plant parent, you’ve probably heard a lot of buzz about Groconut lately, a plant tonic made from coconut water extract. Here at Gubba we are all about cultivating beautiful indoor jungles, so this was definitely a product that caught our interest right away!

Upon first inspection, Groconut lists some pretty awesome benefits. Vegan, organic, speeds up plant growth without the risk of nutrient burn… and it’s even New Zealand owned! Is it all too good to be true? We decided to investigate further, so we’ve been carrying out our own little experiment. Read on to find out what we did, and how it’s going.

What we did:

A plant whispering staff member here at Gubba kindly provided us with two identical seedlings, grown from seed. We chose Pink Polka Dot plants (Hypoestes Phyllostachya) because they’re so pretty! When we began the experiment our seedlings were tiny, with just a few leaves each.

We potted them in their own pots, found them a sunny spot in the Gubba office and began our experiment. Note: we used the Oslo Small Planter Pots in the colour ‘parchment’, from the fabulous brand Potted. Shop them here.

We water both plants about once a week (or as needed). They are watered at the same time, with the same amount of water. The only difference is that one seedling has been receiving Groconut water, while the other receives plain water! We’ve been documenting the experiment with a series of photos taken one week apart. Check out the first 4 weeks of growth…

Let’s take a look at just a few of the benefits Groconut promises:

• Create vigorous root systems that can absorb more nutrients for bigger, faster growing plants?

So far, we can give this one a big tick! Our Groconut seedling is thus far the bigger of the two plants, with noticeably faster growth from even the first week. This indicates the root system of the Groconut plant has been able to develop faster and absorb more nutrients.

• Build stronger stems that support growth of healthier, more vibrant leaves?

We are also pleased to see more leaves on our Groconut plant. By week 4, our plants were reaching similar heights, but our Groconut plant is noticeably ‘bushier’ (notice the difference from the top angle photo!). It’s not only putting out more leaves, but the leaves are on average larger than the plain water seedling’s leaves. Another tick from us for this benefit. 

A few other benefits of Groconut that we can’t yet confirm through our experiment are… increased resistance to drought and pests, healing plants affected by nutrient burn, and delaying plant death to give you more time to fix under/overwatering issues. We should also note, Groconut is safe to use alongside your normal fertilising routine! We won’t test this one out for the sake of keeping the experiment consistent.

The experiment won’t stop here, we’ll be keeping you updated as we go - our plants still have a lot of growing to do. But 4 weeks in and we are pretty excited at our results so far!