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What is Coir?

Coco Tree

Cocopeat is also known as coir pith, coir fibre and coir dust, or simply COIR.

Coir primarily comes from Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia and is produced from coconut husks-the outside layers which surround the coconut.

Coir comes from a renewable source making it environmentally friendly and sustainable.

Coir Fibre

As a natural product coir provides an alternative to peat and therefore helps to reduce the levels of peat extraction from environmentally sensitive sites - an initiative currently supported in the UK by the 'Growing Media Initiative'.

Coconut husks are first processed for their long fibres which are made into such things as ropes and mats. It is the smaller fibres and particles which are graded to make horticultural growing media.

Coir Cocopeat

The lightweight pre-fertilized compressed compost block will make approximately 30 litres of growing medium when it has been re-hydrated with water. In its compressed form it weighs as little a 2.5 kilos, so is easy, clean and dry to carry home.


  • Good quality coir for horticultural use needs to be well sourced and properly washed to remove unwanted salts.
  • Horticultural coir is usually compressed into blocks ready for re-hydration.
  • Compressed coir blocks are lightweight and dry and are therefore very easy to carry.
  • Compressed coir is easy to wet up with water and swells within minutes as it rehydrates.
  • A single litre of compressed coir can expand to make as much as 12 litres of moist compost.
  • Coir has a very open texture which encourages plants to root more quickly than in peat.
  • The PH of coir is almost neutral, so unlike peat,which is initially very acid, it does not need liming before use.
  • Coir can be reused as long as it has not had diseased plants growing in it.

    • Higrow compressed coir blocks have an added fertilizer mixed with the coir to support plant growth for approximately 4 weeks. After this time, plants should be fed regularly to continue to encourage optimum growth.

    2009 has been designated INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF NATURAL FIBRES in order to raise awareness of the sustainability and environmentally friendly nature of natural fibre industries such as coir production.