Coco peat or coir pith alternative for garden soil
Coir is usually is purchased in compressed form. Compression is used for lowering the costs of transporting coir from the main coir belts of the world, most of which are located in Asia, specifically India, and Sri Lanka.
Coconuts that have ripened and fallen from the tree may simply be picked up off the ground. Coconuts are clinging from the 40-100 ft (12-30 m) tall trees and are been harvested by human climbers. If the climber picks the coconut by hand, he can harvest about 25 trees in a day. If the climber uses a bamboo pole with a knife attached to the end to reach through the treetop and cut selected coconuts, he can harvest 250 trees per day. Some countries use trained monkeys to climb trees to pick ripe coconuts as well.
Ripe coconuts are husked immediately, but unripe coconuts may be seasoned for a month by spreading them in a single layer on the ground and keeping them dry. To remove the fruit from the seed, the coconut is impaled on a steel-tipped spike to split the husk. The pulp layer is easily peeled off. A skilled husker can manually split.
Retting is a curing process during which the husks are kept in an environment that encourages the action of naturally occurring microbes. This action partially decomposes the husk's pulp, allowing it to be separated into coir fibers and a residue called coir pith. Freshwater retting is used for fully ripe coconut husks, and saltwater retting is used for green husks.
Hydraulic machinery is used to squeeze the dry coir down to a fraction of its size when dry and loose. Coir “blocks” measure about 12x12x6 inches or 100 x 15 x 12 mm. These blocks are compressed 5 to 1. When water is added these “5kg” blocks will expand to 2 to 2.5 cu ft of growing media, enough to fill a wheelbarrow.
It is easy and fun to expand coir blocks. Place a block in a wheel barrel and slowly add approximately 5 gallons of water. The block will begin to expand as the water is added. As it expands push aside the expanded part to get to the dry parts underneath and just keep adding water and fluffing until the expansion is complete.
Coir “Bricks” are also popular. They look just like a brick, weigh about 1.5 lbs and expand to 2 gallons or more of growing media. Expansion is the same: add water and fluff. Coco coir blocks and bricks are easy to store and use for whatever potting project may arise.
There are coir products that compressed discs for seed starting and grow bags that come prefilled with a compressed brick-sized for the bag. For soil amendment, place bricks or blocks in the area to nurture, hand water or put sprinkles on them until they expand and break apart. Then simply work the expanded coir into the soil.
4M International headquartered in the commercial city, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Company exports Coir products under two brands. CeylonFiber focuses on exporting the raw materials and CeylonBrushTech promotes value-added Coir products. The factory that produces raw material located at the center of the Coconut Triangle of Sri Lanka which produced high quality and a high volume of coconuts. The factory that manufactures value-added products locates inside and outside of the Coconut Triangle of Sri Lanka based on the product specialization.
We are a fully own Sri Lankan company that manufacturing fiber-coir related wider range of eco products. Our priority is to deliver high-quality products. Our employees are our assets capable of producing quality product given time frame.
A young and energetic company, Ceylon Brush Tech was primarily established to introduce environmental and nature-friendly (eco-friendly) products based on the tropical coconut tree following new technologies. We always focus on making the coir business with higher ethics and trustworthy, which will help us build a long-term relationship with our customers, vendors and suppliers. We produce an export quality of coconut fiber products to several countries including China, South Korea, and Pakistan Frequently basis.
4M International (Pvt) Ltd.
No 137 High-level Road, Homagama.
Tel: +94 11 285 5614
Mobile: +94 77 284 0004 (Viraj)+ 94 71 050 4611 (Sanjeewa)
email: [email protected]