Coconut milk for plant growth usage

Hi all

One evening, during my meandering trough the web, I came across this:

“In 1943, Johannes "The Moobze" van Overbeek discovered that coconut milk actively encourages plant growth. This was later discovered to be due to a number of factors, but predominantly the existence in the milk of a cytokinin known as zeatin. The addition of 10% coconut milk to the substrate in which wheat is grown has shown substantial improvements in yield...”
from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_milk

I found quite a few other refs to it, mainly by orchid growers and tissue culturests(?!).

I have to wonder, could this not be one of the reasons for almost excessive root growth when using coco coir as growth medium? Maybe some of the good stuff still in there?

Has anybody has tried using coconut milk on their plants?

Never tried the milk, but I am sure that the coco itself has no nutritional value from the milk.

The enhanced growth from coco is because the medium is so light and easy for the roots to group together very tightly in a small space, but still be comfortable instead of getting root bound.

Maybe not nutrients, but a wee bit of hormones - almost homoeopathic style.

I'm gonna agree with caligreen here and say it's the lightness- it's available oxygen in the root zone that is super good for growth. But yes, coconut milk is used in microprop for shoot growth as I recall.

Coconut Milk and Coconut Juice are 2 very different things, I bet people here are confusing the 2.
Coconut "juice" or "water" is a sterile water-like substance inside a coconut that nourishes the coconut sprout when it is born, this is what people drink when they cut open a coconut. Coconut milk is what is extracted from pressing coconut meat in a grinder/press, and is a very different thing, this is a milky white cream used in cocktails and desserts. So this is the first question that needs to be adressed, what exactly are we talking about?.
That being said, I'm sure the coconut "water" that surrounds the nut is what is nutritious as it is sterile, has a neutral ph, and probably has enzymes that are nutritious to a baby plant like the hormone mentioned in the article, I doubt though, that coco coir has anything to do with coconut water because coco coir is just the husk around the nut. The coconut water is actually inside the nut, not touching the coir...aeration as stated above, is the real reason for plant success in coco coir IMO.

Yes, as I understand, the 'coconut water' is used - not the extracted stuff used in puddings.

And I can believe the aeration of the coir contributes to very good root growth, but still - someting zingy in the coir - like plasenta - some animals eat it after birth for extra oomph...

Apparently coir takes more than 10 years to break down, yet some advise to only re-use it 3 times for short crops...all the assumed goodies used up by then?

I think I am going to buy a coconut, and experiment