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At Char Coir, we know that a clean, high-quality medium is essential for optimal plant growth. Char Coir comes from the highest grade coco available. Our coco is sourced from one farm, ensuring consistency and quality. Each batch comes with a chemical analysis available to the client.
Explore our Material Safety Data Sheet, Metal Analysis, and CharCoir Coco Analysis.
Coco coir is an organic product derived from processing coconut husks from coconut trees grown in tropical and subtropical areas. The processing of coco husks to obtain coco coir involves a series of steps, including aging, washing, rinsing, buffering, drying, grinding, grading, and compressing. These steps are necessary to change the physical and chemical characteristics of coco coir to be suitable for growing plants.
Before any treatment, coco coir’s cation exchange complex is naturally saturated with sodium due to the coconut tree’s natural proximity to coastal areas and a high tolerance for salt (sodium chloride). Coco coir’s initial salt content, measured by the electrical conductivity (EC), can range between 2 and 6 mS/cm – excessive for plant growth. Coco coir’s cation exchange complex also naturally contains large amounts of potassium, which competes with magnesium and calcium for uptake. Char Coir coco is abundantly washed with fresh water until reaching an EC below 1.0mS/cm (based on 1:1.5 extraction method). Even after washing, coco coir still contains residual sodium and potassium left in the complex, leading to nutrient lockup later. To stabilize the cation exchange complex and avoid nutrient deficiencies during the crop season, adequate buffering of coco coir is essential.
Washing and buffering are different processes that accomplish different goals. While washing removes only elements that are soluble in water, buffering also removes elements that are naturally bound to the cation exchange complex.
During the buffering process, Char Coir’s coco cation exchange complex is saturated with a solution of calcium nitrate for an extended period. The absorbed calcium displaces the residual potassium and sodium in the complex, which is washed away. According to Dutch RHP Certification Standards, for coco substrates, buffered coco coir should contain less than 1 mmol sodium and less than 2 mmol potassium. The buffering process also reduces problems with nitrogen draw-down that would occur in non-buffered coco peat.
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