Soft fruit is booming

Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, redcurrants and blueberries are more popular than ever. Healthy eating is the latest trend. A great development that entails challenges for growers too: soft fruit plants are sensitive to changing weather conditions and require strongly acidic soil. The solution? Coco substrates! The pH value of coco is easy to manage. Moreover, our growbags blocks and briquettes are easy to irrigate, so any discrepancies in moisture levels, for example due to sudden weather changes, can immediately be corrected.

NEVER TOO WET, NEVER TOO DRY

Where standard good quality cocopith/cocopeat has an air-% of around 25% at -10 cm, we managed to increase this significantly. We worked over 25 years successfully with our ‘fine dust removed’ pith, and now we make a next step! With coco fibers, crush or chips you can easily increase the air-%, but berries don’t like a too coarse growing medium. Berries need an optimum root contact.

We noticed that growers of strawberries in growbags would like to use the bags for more years, without getting a substrate what is holding too much water the later years. By reuse of coir old roots degenerate and parts are left in the substrate. Best qualities of stable coir decompose very slowly and contribute minimum of losing air.

Growers of raspberries and blackberries like to use the coir as well for several years, so the new OZONE20 suits perfectly. Of course we add this great new structure in our coarse blend for blueberries! These OpenTop Growbags we aim for 10 years use!

With the latest new techniques designed by Dutch Plantin we manufacture a coco coir product with an air-% of 40-45% at -10 cm and holding water to grow well! This gives enough space for the later years reusing the coir. This OZONE20 coir enables the grower to manage the growing perfectly with water-ratio between 45 and 80%.

Sustainable and future-proof

No more need for spraying, because the substrates can generally be irrigated using a drip irrigation system. That’s a better solution for vulnerable plants. Moreover, you save a lot in water, allowing you to prepare for the future: fresh water is becoming scarcer all over the world, so the regulations are becoming stricter. Our coco products are also ideal for greenhouse, tunnel and tray cultivation, which better protect the crops. It is an excellent way of reducing the use of pesticides, which is also high on the political agendas. Curious to find out what else Dutch Plantin does to make the world a better place? Or maybe you’re looking into switching to cultivation on coco substrates? Don’t hesitate to contact us!