100% Natural Flower Foam

There has been a demand in the market for years: fully biodegradable floral foam! Sido Fokkema, director of the company Agra Wool International seems to be able to close this gap in the market! He has marketed the product "100% Natural Floral Foam". Sido paid a visit to the FloraPodium and told us everything about this future-oriented product.

Agra Wool International is a company that supplies natural substrates (and related products) to the agricultural sector worldwide. Where the current floral foam blocks are made on an oil basis and are therefore not completely biodegradable, the 100% Natural Floral Foam blocks that Agra Wool International produces are made from basalt and a kind of sucrose (cane or beet sugar). Both completely natural products. The blocks can be torn into little pieces and put in the compost bin after use. Over time, the material decays and only basalt flour remains.

How to use
The foam blocks are available in two sizes: 23x10x7.5 cm and larger plates of 59.5x40x6 from which you can cut your own shapes. The blocks absorb water quickly (by submerging or pouring water on them) and hold it well.

It is best to use the 100% Natural Floral blocks with the ribbed side up. This side is the strongest and by using this side the water stays in the material much longer. If you work with very small and delicate stems, you can consider using the block on the side. This way you will be sticking the flowers between the "layers". This won’t work for heavy flowers; they will fall out. But in general we prefer to stick the finer stems into the ribbed side as well, you can prick holes in advance to allow them to enter the block without being damaged. The blocks are slightly spongier than the usual floral foam blocks. Pricking it 'wrong' once is therefore not a problem, you can easily put the flower in the same hole again. The florists who have worked with the blocks are actually all very positive.

Following the trends of today, a lot of work is done with dried flowers. The Natural Floral blocks are also very suitable for that. Ideal for florists, who only want to have one type of blocks in stock.

Potting soil replacement
Not just the material is durable, but the blocks are also durable in use. The "leftovers" of the blocks do not have to be thrown away. The pieces can very well be used as a replacement for (potting) soil in beautiful plant arrangements. The "foam" is a lightweight material, so it is also much less heavy than potting soil. And thanks to the nutritious composition of basalt flour, all plants tend to flourish on it. Agra Wool International has filled auction boxes with the blocks, after which they can be used to grow fruit and vegetables. Ideal for terrace or balcony. The used blocks, which have held flowers before, can also be reused in this way.

Compost
If the material is no longer (re)used, it can be deposited in small pieces in the compost bin. The blocks can also be used for funeral work. The blocks can be shredded together with the flowers and then deposited in the compost heap (in Scandinavia this already happens at cemeteries). Basalt flour is a very good soil improver, every garden will improve with it. The shredded parts will eventually decay into basalt flour within a certain time, depending on circumstances such as heat, cold, moisture, drought and other weather conditions. This is comparable to fine sand.

Testing 100% Natural Floral Foam

Agra Wool Floral Foam Fresh Flowers

Agra Wool International

How were the blocks created?
In 2012, Agra Wool International started to produce stone wool substrates and related products that are made with 70% less energy than regular yellow stone wool. The company has now fully specialized in producing products with Earthwool® as a basic material. This is a completely natural and environmentally friendly stone wool, made from volcanic rock (basalt). These products are intended for hydroponics as a replacement for, among other things, cultivated soil and are purchased worldwide in the professional agricultural industry. Local flower designers soon asked whether Sido could also make floral foam blocks from this natural stone wool. Especially for sustainable designers with an ecological vision, this would be a very welcome product.

What’s inside the 100% Natural Floral Foam?
In 2017, the product 100% Natural Floral Foam was made from high-density rock wool. In the first place to see if there was a demand for these completely environmentally friendly plug blocks. No petrochemical or other chemical substances have been added to the blocks and they do not leave harmful micro plastics in the water. The rock wool binder is also free of formaldehyde and made from a type of sucrose. This also ensures a small nutritional value with an EC of 0.8 / 0.9. The rock wool is PH neutral (Ph 7.0). The basalt flour, of which the blocks largely consist, contains a lot of silicon, trace elements and minerals. Basalt flour is specially intended for changing and improving clay soil; plants have proven to flourish on it. Another advantage of using basalt flour is that nitrogen is fixed. Many growers use this natural product to strengthen the natural resistance of crops.

Worldwide demand
Due to other projects taking preference in the company, not much attention was paid to the 100% Natural Floral Foam at first. Until Agra Wool International was at the Trendz fair in 2020! In the meantime, orders are coming from all over the world and Sido is proud to be able to contribute to a cleaner and greener world!

Name for the future
The name 100% Natural Floral Foam is about to change. Foam is not very appropriate, because the blocks are in fact not made of foam and it will give the wrong idea. The name was initially used to make the product recognizable for the sector. In the future, the product will be delivered under the name 100% Natural FloralBase.

Collaboration with other parties
Agra Wool International is open to collaboration with multiple parties to strengthen the sector in this way. For example, Sido works together with Federico Piva. Federico will be responsible for part of the distribution of the 100% Natural Floral Foam. Federico also supplies "The Solution Cut Flower", a completely organic cut flower food, made from tree bark. In combination with this product, Agra Wool International can offer sample packages with both products as a fully environmentally friendly combination.

FloraPodium, 21 January 2020

FloraPodium Test

We created four small flower arrangements on the FloraPodium. Different types of floral foam have been used for comparison. We took pictures of the arrangements on January 12th, January 14th and January 18th. In terms of shelf life of the flowers, the 100% Natural Floral Foam is absolutely not inferior to other types of floral foam. We had to top up water more regularly, is this a sign that the flowers are absorbing more water? We dare not answer that after one test. Sticking in the blocks takes some getting used to, it is slightly stiffer than the regular floral foam. But if you just prick (especially for the thin stems), you can easily process the stems afterwards. We used The Solution cut flower food for one of the arrangements, and Chrysal Clear for the other packages. We saw little difference in this. We do not have enough information for now to go into more detail about this.

We have sent some boxes of 100% Natural Floral Foam to different florists in different countries. As soon as we have feedback on that, we will of course share it on this page.