kSIST FprEN 17732:2026

• Abstract:

  This document specifies terminology for soil improvers and growing media.; Annex A contains an overview of all terms defined in this document in alphabetical order.

• Status: Not Published
• Public Enquiry End Date: 01-Feb-2026
• ICS: 01.040.65 - Agriculture (Vocabularies)
• ICS: 65.080 - Fertilizers
• Technical Committee: KAT - Soil quality
• Current Stage: 5020 - Formal vote (FV) (Adopted Project)
• Start Date: 29-Sep-2026
• Due Date: 17-Nov-2026
• Directive: 2019/1009 - Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 laying down rules on the making available on the market of EU fertilising products and amending Regulations (EC) No 1069/2009 and (EC) No 1107/2009 and repealing Regulation (EC) No 2003/2003 (Text with EEA relevance)
• Mandate: M/564 - Fertilising products in support of Regulation (EU) 2019/1009
• Mandate: M/564 AMD 1 - amending Implementing Decision C(2020) 612 as regards certain harmonised standards and standardisation deliverables, deadlines for their adoption and the duration of the validity of the standardisation request
• Mandate: M/564 AMD 2 - Commission Implementing decision amending Implementing Decision C(2020)612 as regards harmonised standards, the deadlines for the adoption of those standards and the duration of the validity of the standardisation request to the European Committee for Standardisation as regards the EU fertilising products in support of Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 of the European Parliament and of the Council
• Ref Project: FprEN 17732 - Soil improvers and growing media - Terminology

• Referred By: SIST EN 16202:2026 - Compost and digestate - Determination of the content of macroscopic impurities and stones
• Effective Date: 16-Sep-2026
• Referred By: SIST EN ISO 17665:2024 - Sterilization of health care products - Moist heat - Requirements for the development, validation and routine control of a sterilization process for medical devices (ISO 17665:2024)
• Effective Date: 28-Jan-2026
• Referred By: SIST-TS CEN ISO/TS 16775:2022 - Packaging for terminally sterilized medical devices - Guidance on the application of ISO 11607-1 and ISO 11607-2 (ISO/TS 16775:2021)
• Effective Date: 28-Jan-2026
• Referred By: SIST EN ISO 20695:2020 - Enteral feeding systems - Design and testing (ISO 20695:2020)
• Effective Date: 28-Jan-2026
• Referred By: SIST EN ISO 8637-2:2024 - Extracorporeal systems for blood purification - Part 2: Extracorporeal blood and fluid circuits for haemodialysers, haemodiafilters, haemofilters and haemoconcentrators (ISO 8637-2:2024)
• Effective Date: 28-Jan-2026
• Referred By: SIST EN ISO 7199:2024 - Cardiovascular implants and artificial organs - Blood-gas exchangers (oxygenators) (ISO 7199:2024)
• Effective Date: 28-Jan-2026
• Referred By: SIST EN ISO 14630:2025 - Non-active surgical implants - General requirements (ISO 14630:2024)
• Effective Date: 28-Jan-2026
• Referred By: SIST EN ISO 5840-1:2021 - Cardiovascular implants - Cardiac valve prostheses - Part 1: General requirements (ISO 5840-1:2021)
• Effective Date: 28-Jan-2026
• Referred By: SIST EN ISO 16061:2021 - Instruments for use in association with non-active surgical implants - General requirements (ISO 16061:2021)
• Effective Date: 28-Jan-2026
• Referred By: SIST EN ISO 11607-1:2020 - Packaging for terminally sterilized medical devices - Part 1: Requirements for materials, sterile barrier systems and packaging systems (ISO 11607-1:2019)
• Effective Date: 28-Jan-2026
• Revises: SIST-TS CEN/TS 17732:2022 - Soil improvers and growing media - Terminology
• Effective Date: 01-Jan-2026

kSIST FprEN 17732:2026 is a SIST draft European standard for terminology used with soil improvers and growing media. It specifies common terms for products, components, processing, sampling, properties, biological status and safety, so manufacturers, laboratories, specifiers and buyers can use the same meanings in documents, tests and labels.

What does kSIST FprEN 17732:2026 specify?

kSIST FprEN 17732:2026 specifies terminology for soil improvers and growing media. It is a vocabulary document, so its purpose is shared language rather than product limits or test methods.

The document is organized into a short front matter, Clause 1 on scope, Clause 2 on normative references, Clause 3 on terms and definitions, Annex A with the terms in alphabetical order, and a bibliography.

Annex	What it covers
Annex A	All terms defined in the document, listed alphabetically

What are the key requirements of kSIST FprEN 17732:2026?

kSIST FprEN 17732:2026 mainly standardizes what words mean in this field. That matters because product descriptions, sampling plans, laboratory reports and safety documents only work well when everyone uses the same vocabulary.

• Clause 3.2 - product terms: The standard defines growing medium, growing medium component, pre-shaped growing medium, soil improver and soil improver component. In practice, this helps separate a finished material from an ingredient and avoids confusion when buying, formulating or labelling products.

• Clause 3.3 - component materials: It defines materials such as compost, digestate, fresh crop digestate, digestate other than fresh crop digestate, peat, coir, biochar, wood fibre, ash, lignite, leonardite and virgin material. This matters when a specification needs to name exactly what the product is made from.

• Clause 3.4 - processing and manufacture: The document defines anaerobic digestion, composting, drying, extraction, fiberization, frost treatment, milling, pyrolysis, sanitation and sieving, plus hydraulic retention time (HRT). These terms describe how the material is produced or treated, which is important for quality control and process documentation.

• Clause 3.5 - sampling terms: It sets the meanings of batch, lot, consignment, bulk material, sampled portion, incremental sample, combined sample, final sample, laboratory sample, test sample, test portion and sampling point. This is the language needed to take representative samples and to record what was actually tested.

• Clause 3.6 - chemical terms: The standard defines CAT, bioavailability, soluble element and soluble nutrient. In practice, these terms support nutrient extraction and interpretation of what may be available to plants.

• Clause 3.7 - physical and physico-chemical properties: It defines bulk density, laboratory bulk density, electrical conductivity, particle size distribution, stability, oxygen uptake rate, residual biogas potential, total carbon (TC), total inorganic carbon (TIC) and total organic carbon (TOC), among others. These terms are used in test reports and quality specifications.

• Clause 3.8 and 3.9 - biological and safety terms: The document defines specific pathogens, colony forming unit (cfu), sterilization, contaminant, pollutant, potentially toxic element, hazard, harm, risk, reasonably foreseeable misuse and safety. These terms help users discuss hygiene and risk in a consistent way.

What terms does kSIST FprEN 17732:2026 define?

• CAT (CaCl2/DTPA) is the extraction solution used for soluble nutrients and for interpreting bioavailability.
• HRT (hydraulic retention time) is the average time material stays in a digester vessel.
• cfu (colony forming unit) is the visible colony growth used to express microbiological counts.
• TC (total carbon) is the total carbon present in a sample as organic, inorganic and elemental carbon.
• TIC (total inorganic carbon) is the carbon released as carbon dioxide by acid treatment.
• TOC (total organic carbon) is the carbon converted to carbon dioxide by combustion but not released by acid treatment.
• bioavailability means the fraction of elements extracted by CAT and interpreted as plant available.

Who uses kSIST FprEN 17732:2026?

kSIST FprEN 17732:2026 is useful for producers of soil improvers and growing media, suppliers of components such as compost, peat, coir, biochar and digestates, and laboratories that test chemical, physical and biological properties. It also helps quality managers, technical writers, regulators, buyers and procurement teams write specifications, compare products and interpret test reports using the same terms.

What changed in kSIST FprEN 17732:2026 from the previous edition?

kSIST FprEN 17732:2026 supersedes CEN/TS 17732:2022.

• Redundant information was removed from the Introduction.
• Several definitions in Clause 3 were updated.

What does the kSIST FprEN 17732:2026 document contain?

kSIST FprEN 17732:2026 contains a structured glossary grouped by subject: general terms, product terms, component terms, processing and manufacture, sampling, chemical properties, physical and physico-chemical properties, biological properties and safety. Annex A repeats all defined terms in alphabetical order, which makes the vocabulary easy to search and cite.

The bibliography lists related references and background material, including ISO 4880, ISO 13833, ISO 19867-1, ISO/IEC Guide 51, Regulation (EU) 2019/1009 and other domain publications. For readers, that means the document is a terminology reference for writing, testing, labelling and technical discussion rather than a product test standard.

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
oSIST prEN 17732:2026
01-januar-2026
Izboljševalci tal in rastni substrati - Terminologija
Soil improvers and growing media - Terminology
Bodenverbesserungsmittel und Kultursubstrate - Vokabular und Kennzeichnung
Amendements du sol et supports de culture - Terminologie
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: prEN 17732
ICS:
01.040.65 Kmetijstvo (Slovarji) Agriculture (Vocabularies)
65.080 Gnojila Fertilizers
oSIST prEN 17732:2026 en,fr,de
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

oSIST prEN 17732:2026
oSIST prEN 17732:2026
DRAFT
EUROPEAN STANDARD
prEN 17732
NORME EUROPÉENNE
EUROPÄISCHE NORM
December 2025
ICS 01.040.65; 65.080 Will supersede CEN/TS 17732:2022
English Version
Soil improvers and growing media - Terminology
Amendements du sol et supports de culture - Bodenverbesserungsmittel und Kultursubstrate -
Terminologie Vokabular und Kennzeichnung
This draft European Standard is submitted to CEN members for enquiry. It has been drawn up by the Technical Committee
CEN/TC 223.
If this draft becomes a European Standard, CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations
which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration.

This draft European Standard was established by CEN in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other
language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC
Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and
United Kingdom.
Recipients of this draft are invited to submit, with their comments, notification of any relevant patent rights of which they are
aware and to provide supporting documentation.

Warning : This document is not a European Standard. It is distributed for review and comments. It is subject to change without
notice and shall not be referred to as a European Standard.

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION

EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG

CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels
© 2025 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. prEN 17732:2025 E
worldwide for CEN national Members.

oSIST prEN 17732:2026
prEN 17732:2025 (E)
Contents Page
European foreword . 3
Introduction . 4
1 Scope . 5
2 Normative references . 5
3 Terms and definitions . 5
3.1 General terms . 5
3.2 Terms relating to products . 6
3.3 Terms relating to components . 6
3.4 Terms relating to processing and manufacture . 8
3.5 Terms relating to sampling . 9
3.6 Terms relating to chemical properties . 10
3.7 Terms relating to physical and physico-chemical properties . 10
3.8 Terms relating to biological properties . 13
3.9 Terms relating to safety . 13
Annex A (informative) All terms defined in this document in alphabetical order . 15
Bibliography . 17

oSIST prEN 17732:2026
prEN 17732:2025 (E)
European foreword
This document (prEN 17732:2025) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 223 “Soil
improvers and growing media”, the secretariat of which is held by NEN.
This document is currently submitted to the CEN Enquiry.
This document will supersede CEN/TS 17732:2022.
prEN 17732:2025 includes the following significant technical changes with respect to
CEN/TS 17732:2022:
— Redundant information has been removed from the Introduction;
— Several definitions have been updated in Clause 3, Terms and definitions.
This document has been prepared under a Standardization Request given to CEN by the European
Commission and the European Free Trade Association.
oSIST prEN 17732:2026
prEN 17732:2025 (E)
Introduction
Standards requested in Standardization Request M/564 related to soil improvers and growing media use
common terminology. For ease of reference, to simplify standardization work and to avoid unnecessary
repetitions such common terminology is included in this document. In this way, any document where the
relevant terminology is used could refer to this document.
oSIST prEN 17732:2026
prEN 17732:2025 (E)
1 Scope
This document specifies terminology for soil improvers and growing media.
Annex A contains an overview of all terms defined in this document in alphabetical order.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp/
— IEC Electropedia: available at https://www.electropedia.org/
3.1 General terms
3.1.1
additional labelling
information which can be shown on the package, label or on the accompanying documents
3.1.2
container
receptacle or vessel in which material is delivered, including a lorry, ship, boat and packaging
3.1.3
intended use
application of a product, process or service in accordance with information provided by the supplier
3.1.4
labelling requirements
information which is shown on the package, label or on the accompanying documents
3.1.5
package
container and materials contained therein which are delivered and where the packaging remains with
the material after delivery
Note 1 to entry: A package may be a loose-filled sack, a big bale or a compressed block in packaging.
3.1.6
strike
transparent sheet of flat material, for instance toughened glass or acrylic glass which is easily large
enough to cover the top of the measuring cylinder
Note 1 to entry: Used to calibrate measuring cylinder.
3.1.7
user
anybody applying the product, including professional and non-professional (amateur) persons
oSIST prEN 17732:2026
prEN 17732:2025 (E)
3.2 Terms relating to products
3.2.1
growing medium
material, other than soil in situ, in which plants or mushrooms are grown
3.2.2
growing medium component
material which is suitable as an ingredient of growing media
3.2.3
pre-shaped growing medium
solid, regular shaped, stable growing medium, which is ready for use as a growing medium, where the
dimensions are stable, including mineral wool and polyurethane products
3.2.4
soil improver
material added to soil in situ primarily to maintain, improve or protect the physical or chemical
properties, the structure or the biological activity of the soil
3.2.5
soil improver component
material which is suitable as an ingredient of soil improvers
3.3 Terms relating to components
3.3.1
ash
residual mineral matter remaining after the destruction of organic matter/material by controlled burning
Note 1 to entry: Such residues may be used as fertilizers, for example, plant ash and animal ash, containing mainly
potassium salts and phosphates.
3.3.2
biochar
porous, carbonaceous material that is produced by pyrolysis of organic material
3.3.3
coir
fibrous husk (mesocarp) of the coconut (Cocos nucifera), underlying the smooth outermost layer
(exocarp), surrounding the hard woody layer (endocarp)
Note 1 to entry: Coir consists of fibres and pith.
3.3.4
compost
solid particulate material that is the result of a thermophilic aerobic composting of biodegradable matter
by microorganisms, which has been sanitised and stabilised
3.3.5
digestate
solid or liquid product that is the result of anaerobic digestion of biodegradable materials by
microorganisms
oSIST prEN 17732:2026
prEN 17732:2025 (E)
3.3.6
digestate other than fresh crop digestate
component material designated as CMC 5
Note 1 to entry: Further information can be found in the Regulation (EU) 2019/1009.
3.3.7
fresh crop digestate
component material designated as CMC 4
Note 1 to entry: Further information can be found in the Regulation (EU) 2019/1009.
3.3.8
industrial sludge
semi-liquid residue or slurry that remains after the treatment of industrial water and wastewater
3.3.9
leonardite
soft waxy, black or brown, shiny, vitreous mineraloid
Note 1 to entry: Leonardite is an oxidation product of lignite, associated with near-surface mining.
3.3.10
lignite
fossil, soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed organic material in
the absence of oxygen (coalification)
Note 1 to entry: Lignite is often referred to as brown coal.
3.3.11
organic material
material of plant and/or animal origin
3.3.12
peat
weakly to strongly decomposed (humified) plant material consisting of non-fossil organic matter that has
sedentarily accumulated in a water-saturated environment (mire) in the absence of oxygen
3.3.13
Sphagnum
plant genus of peat mosses
Note 1 to entry: The division Bryophyta, comprising the family Sphagnaceae contains one genus, Sphagnum, to
which 292 (worldwide) known species of peat mosses are assigned to.
3.3.14
virgin material
raw material that has been mined, extracted or harvested and has never been previously used, developed,
or processed
3.3.15
wood fibre
fiberized wood chips to which, if necessary, conditioning agents are added during the mechanical-thermal
or steam-treatment fiberization process to stabilize the nitrogen imbalance or to dye the fibres
oSIST prEN 17732:2026
prEN 17732:2025 (E)
3.4 Terms relating to processing and manufacture
3.4.1
anaerobic digestion
controlled decomposition of biodegradable materials which is predominately anaerobic and at
temperatures suitable for mesophilic or thermophilic bacteria
3.4.2
composting
controlled decomposition of biodegradable materials, which is predominantly aerobic and which allows
the development of temperatures suitable for thermophilic bacteria as a result of biologically produced
heat
3.4.3
drying
process to dry a material in order to reduce its moisture content, which can be achieved under natural
conditions (e.g. drying of extracted peat or coir by wind and sun) or thermally (e.g. in a drying oven)
3.4.4
extraction
process of removing inorganic raw material (e.g. perlite, diabas) or organic raw material (e.g. peat) from
its natural deposit for further processing
3.4.5
fiberization
mechanical-thermal extrusion or steam treatment of wood chips, the purpose of which is to generate high
pressure and high temperatures up to 150 °C or higher, breaking the wood chips into wood fibres which
are used as a growing media component
3.4.6
frost treatment
natural, in the field freezing through of extracted strongly decomposed peat to improve its physical
properties (water capacity and air capacity) as a growing media component
3.4.7
hydraulic retention time
HRT
average residence time of the material in the digester vessel, determined by the loading rate and
operational digester capacity
Note 1 to entry: The hydraulic retention time can be calculated by dividing the digester working volume (in m ) by
the rate of flow of input materials into the digester (in m per day).
3.4.8
milling
process of grinding, cutting, pressing or crushing a material in a mill or by using a milling machine
3.4.9
pyrolysis
chemical decomposition of organic mate
...