Cocopeat is a natural, and renewable resource produced from coconut husks. When coconut husks are being processed, two type of products are being extracted:
Cocopeat is a natural, and renewable resource produced from coconut husks. When coconut husks are being processed, two type of products are being extracted:
1. Coconut fibres to be used in matresses, etc.
2. Cocopeat to be used in the professional horticultural industry.
Dutch Plantin® has a factory in India where we actually make the cocospeat suitable for horticultural usage. In its natural form, Cocopeat needs some changes before it can be used in the horticultural sector.
We first wash the Cocopeat, dry it, screen it and grade before being processed into various Cocopeat products for Horticultural and Agricultural applications.
Cocopeat is a multi-purpose soil conditioner and growing medium. It is consistent and uniform in texture. It is a completely homogenous material composed of millions of capillary micro-sponges, that absorb and hold up to eight times it’s own weight in water. The natural pH of 5.7 to 6.5, plus an unusually high Cation Exchange Capacity . Easily Available Water assures that Cocopeat will hold and release nutrients in solution over extended periods without rewatering.
Roots develop very easily in cocopeat. For strawberry cultivation, it is important that the cocopeat is buffered. Buffering is a treatment of the cocospewith calcium to balance the nutrients in the raw material. After balancing the nutrients we wash the redundant salts out of the cocopeat. For a strawberry plant it is imortant that the start Conductivity of the cocopeat is below 0.5 mS/cm to avoid an early bloom setting.
This buffering is done under supervision of the Dutch RHP (Commerical potting soil regulation).
For the strawberry horticultural industry we produce growbags, i.e. UV-treated plastic bags of 40 cm lenght with about 22 liter Cocopeat in it. However, other sizes are also available. The roots of upto 6 strawberry plants can grow in such a growbag. Many strawberry growers also grow their plants in buckets or trafts filled with Cocopeat.
For more information using cocopeat in strawberry growing, we would like to advise you to email us: info@dutchplantin.com