12 NOV 2021
WHAT IS COIR COMPOST?
Made from the husks of coconuts, coir compost is one of the most environmentally friendly composts you can buy. When it comes to this hairy fruit, nothing goes to waste. The white centre is used for food or cosmetics, the long fibres of the husk are turned into ropes, brushes or matting and the shorter fibres are used for compost. These fibres are collectively called coir. Coir compost performs so well due to its superb absorption properties, making it very efficient at retaining nutrients vital for a plant’s growth.
Using coir instead of traditional peat compost has many advantages. First of all, peat bogs are an essential part of our natural ecosystem. Digging peat out of these bogs not only harms plant and animal species that have adapted over time to live there, it also releases vast quantities of carbon dioxide safely trapped in bogs, thus adding to global warming. We created the brand For Peat’s Sake to draw attention to this peat problem and provide a sustainable alternative – coir compost. Best of all, coir is renewable (as it grows on trees) unlike peat which takes hundreds of years to form in bogs and marshes.
The coir that For Peat’s Sake uses is made from 100% coconut fibres. It’s washed and buffered, using the industry's first state-of-the-art wastewater recycling facility, to remove unwanted salts that occur naturally. After production, the coir compost is compressed to the correct size and packaged. All the grower needs to do on receipt is add water and start planting.
The benefits of coir compost are obvious
1. It’s lightweight and can be ordered online so there’s no need to lug heavy bags back from the garden centre.
2. It’s clean. Pop a dry brick of For Peat’s Sake in a container, add water and watch it expand before your eyes. Gone is the mess associated with traditional peat!
3. It’s great for the planet by keeping CO2 in peat bogs where it belongs.
4. As a growing substrate you can’t beat coir compost. It’s the first choice worldwide of professional fruit and vegetable growers.
5. Being able to order For Peat’s Sake online as one would a book from Amazon makes it so much easier for apartment-dwellers, for example, to grow a range of house plants that experts now believe contribute considerably to our well-being.