When it comes to producing growbags as a substrate for soft fruits, Dutch Plantin is the most experienced manufacturer in the world. For many years we have been providing strawberry growers all across the globe with two types of high quality cocopeat. First of all, there’s Dutch Plantin cocopeat as a loose product (awarded with a RHP label) which is distributed through potting soil companies in the Netherlands en the surrounding countries. Furthermore, we produce compressed cocopeat, which is preferred when transport costs are of the essence.
Cocopeat for raspberries and blackberries
For many years, raspberries and blackberries are being grown in pots. The last five years though, a large number of growers switched from coarse peat mixtures to Dutch Plantin cocopeat, because of several convincing advantages.
* Cocopeat is a very uniform and easy to process substrate.
* Dutch Plantin cocopeat allows excellent moistening, even after drying out.
* Cocopeat maintains its structure for multiple years, which makes it ideal for multiannual crops like raspberries and strawberries.
* After being used as a substrate, cocopeat is an excellent product to enhance the structure of any soil.
Advantages
Following the success of our (compressed) growbags in growing strawberries, we developed the idea to use these substrates for growing raspberries and blackberries. In that way, growers profit from a substrate with:
* a lower weed pressure;
* a protected root environment, with uniform moisture conditions;
* less ground shoots, while the few that develop are easy to remove;
* (lasting) excellent draining possibilities when used with coco chips;
* a clean start every time, so there is no possibility of recontamination with, for instance, the phytophthora fungus.
Tested
At Dutch Plantin we thoroughly examine our products before we introduce them to our customers. Therefore we have created several test settings at the KICK (Knowledge and Innovation Centre for Soft Fruits), with the help of DLV Plant b.v. If we take all possible factors into the equation, we can conclude that when it comes to both costs and crop results, our cocopeat growbags are an excellent substitute for growing raspberries and blackberries in peat filled pots.
