Comparison
Coco peat or sphagnum peat.
Sphagnum peat is mined from bogs and has been the default horticultural substrate for decades. Coco peat is a by-product of coconut husk processing, renewable, and behaves differently on water and nutrition. The switch is being driven by policy as much as by agronomy.
Side by side.
| Criterion | Coco peat | Sphagnum peat |
|---|---|---|
| Renewability | A by-product of a crop harvested continuously. Nothing is extracted that was not going to exist anyway. | Mined from bogs that took millennia to form, which is the reason for the policy pressure against it. |
| pH | Close to neutral, so less correction is needed in the mix. | Acidic, and normally limed to bring it into range. |
| Water behaviour | Holds a great deal of water and rewets easily after drying out. | Holds water well and is difficult to rewet once it has dried, which is a real problem in production. |
| Salt | The weakness. Coconut husk carries sodium and potassium, and washing or buffering is what removes them. | Not an issue. This is the main reason growers are cautious about switching. |
| Shipping economics | Compressed to a fraction of its expanded volume, which is what makes it economic to move from Indonesia. | Bulky, and usually produced closer to the grower. |
| What to specify | Electrical conductivity, whether it is washed or buffered, particle mix and expansion ratio. | Grade, fraction and lime addition. |
Which to choose.
- You are under pressure to move off mined peat
- Coco peat, buffered, with an EC maximum in the contract.
- Rewetting after dry-down is a production problem
- Coco peat. This is where it genuinely outperforms.
- You have never handled coir before
- Trial it on part of a crop first. The salt question is real and it is manageable.
- An offer does not mention washing or buffering
- Neither. That offer is unwashed material with a price attached.
Questions buyers ask.
Why do growers worry about coco peat?
Salt. Coconut husk naturally carries sodium and potassium, and material that was rinsed rather than properly washed releases them into the root zone over a season. It is a solved problem with washed and buffered product, and the damage from unwashed material is what gave the category its reputation.
What is buffering?
Treatment with a calcium solution that displaces sodium held on the exchange sites, which plain washing does not reach. Growers running long high-value crops generally specify buffered. For short propagation cycles washed is often enough.
How do I compare prices?
Per expanded litre with the EC specification attached. A price per block means nothing until you know the expansion ratio and the salt level, and those two are exactly what separates a cheap offer from a usable one.
Still deciding?
Tell us the application and the market. We will say which one your specification actually needs, and quote both if it is genuinely close.