Growing Solutions Compost Tea Blog

Growing Solutions President Michael Alms reports in from Austin, TX

“The Soil and Water Connection, the 20th Annual US Composting Council Conference theme, certainly brought Compost Tea to mind as a cost effective tool to support water holding capacity in soil,” Growing Solutions President and USCC member Michael Alms commented  while in Austin, TX. (We’ll go deeper into the subject of water holding capacity and Compost Tea in future posts.)

In other Council news, new Executive Director Michael Virga gave an excellent plenary speech outlining many new directions for USCC. Virga announced the relocation of USCC headquarters to Bethesda, MD in April 2012, allowing a more strategic proximity to Capitol Hill and key decision makers that will lift compost awareness on a national level.

“Presenters and attendees discussed establishing vermicompost as a distinct and viable new frontier,” Michael noted as the conference ended. ”Growing Solutions is looking forward to new projects implementing the use of vermicompost and Compost Tea throughout Mexico in 2012 with a new strategic partnership,” he added.

“Our continued participation in Compost Tea research was evident in a compelling presentation by Dr. Fatih Büyüksönmez, Associate Professor at San Diego State University,” Michael explained. He is researching the use of Compost Tea for bioremediation of contaminated soils, utilizing a Growing Solutions System10 and Compost Tea Catalyst. With the help of a graduate student, Dr. Büyüksönmez intends to provide further details of the research at next year’s USCC annual meeting in Orlando, FL. More details forthcoming on this subject in future posts.

Compost tea brewed on site with Sonoma Valley Worm Farm's vermicompost was a popular item at the conference. More than 80 quarts were given away to master gardeners.

Growing Solutions and Sonoma Valley Worm Farm teamed up to bring the full systems approach—pre-composting, vermicomposting and compost tea—to the California Master Gardeners Conference this week in Santa Rosa, CA. The sold out event brought 500 master gardeners from 43 California counties to learn “More Lessons in Sustainability,” the focus of the four days of presentations and exhibits. Both companies brought their professionally engineered equipment designed for performance and safety to an extremely enthusiastic crowd, eager to learn more about compost tea. SVWF featured their pre-composting bins and GSI displayed the System10, the clear tank System10, and a working System25. The companies gave away more than 80 quarts of premium vermicompost tea brewed during the conference using SVWF’s vermicompost in the System25. Growing Solutions President Michael Alms reported, “Everyone was very receptive to how the SVWF Vermicompost and GSI Compost Tea systems go together, and how the overall process integrates with their mission as master gardeners.”

Eight countries were represented at the recent “Compost Tea in Practice” seminar and workshop held at the Laverstoke Park Education Center. Growing Solutions President Michael Alms was one of four guest speakers at this day long event organized by western European distributor Martin Lishman. Attendees from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, Italy, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States participated in this overview of compost tea production in the agricultural, horticultural, landscaping, nursery and municipal sectors.

Growing Solutions President Michael Alms emphasizes the critical factors that determine the level of quality in compost tea production.

Michael Alms and Joel Reiten, Director of Seed Production for Seeds of Change, let the Compost Tea System100 do all the work during the field portion of the seminar.

Dave Hutchinson, UK compost tea consultant, chaired the event which included field production of compost tea and a tour of the Laverstoke Park Laboratory. Seeds of Change Director of Seed Production Joel Reiten and Symbio Ltd. Managing Director Martin Ward detailed their experiences with large scale compost tea production and application equipment. Critical factors for producing high quality compost tea were a key focus of the day, with Laverstoke Park microbiologist Vinodh Krishnamurthy leading the tour of the lab’s soil, compost and food analysis equipment and processes.

“Quality was the key word of the day,” Michael explained. “Across the board—from the type of compost to the method of application—there was consensus that using quality ingredients and equipment are the foundation of realizing the greatest cost benefits of compost tea in any sector.”

“Even though the use of compost tea is relatively new, we continue to see more and more segments of the agricultural and horticultural sectors finding success with tea applications,” Joel commented. A 15-year veteran of the compost tea industry, Joel was enthusiastic about the results of the day adding, “It’s exciting for me to see the evolution of the use of compost tea. The attendees, from across the globe, brought new and dynamic ideas to this growing industry.”

Ralph Montana, San Francisco Recreation and Parks Director of Integrated Pest Management, and GSI President Michael Alms.

Our time spent at the US Composting Council‘s Conference and Trade Show in San Jose has come to a resoundingly successful conclusion. Growing Solutions President Michael Alms and Director of Logistics and Client Services Susan Kelly Mitchell met with conference attendees from all over the United States, and Australia, South Africa, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Nigeria, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Egypt and Brazil. More than 1,100 people attended the 2011 conference, the largest turnout in the Council’s history. Growing Solutions partnered with Sonoma Valley Worm Farm in a large exhibit that featured new product introductions from both companies.

Plenty of interest at our USCC booth where we debuted our newest product, the Solar PV System150.

The GSI booth featured our new Solar PV System150, designed to provide sun-powered electricity to our Compost Tea System25 for a complete 24-hour production cycle. Besides powering the System25, this photovoltaic system can supply power to a wide range of off-grid applications. More information will be available soon on our website.

SVWF introduced a new aerated composting system that was well received at the show. Cristy Christie of the SLO County Worm Farm made our return trip a bit lighter after she purchased our System25 along with one of SVWF’s new composting systems. We were happy to deliver them to her door in Paso Robles. Cristy makes Black Diamond Vermicompost which she’ll be using to make compost tea in her new System25.

GSI's Susan Kelly Mitchell and SLO County Worm Farm's Cristy Christie

SVWF's Amy Grimes, Lois Chambers, Jack Chambers and Tom Craig with GSI's Susan Kelly Mitchell and Michael Alms.

Bryan Ollier (ERREPPI) and Michael Alms at the Growing Solutions EIMA stand.

Italy’s international agricultural machinery exhibition, EIMA, was declared a success with 166,400 visitors at Bologna’s Trade Fair Center last week. Growing Solutions was represented by GSI President Michael Alms and several GSI international distributors, including South Africa, among the 1,600 total exhibitors during the event.

Compost tea production was a topic of great interest with attendees representing the agriculture, landscape, golf, municipal greenspaces and sports turf market sectors. Growing Solutions found that sustainability, as expected, was a consistent theme in discussions throughout the week.

A topic of keen interest for many was water management practices. “EIMA was a great venue to bring together our international distributors to discuss the cost effective benefits of using compost tea for water conservation,” Michael commented. Stay tuned for more on this developing conversation in upcoming posts.

The GSI European Team.

On behalf of Growing Solutions, Michael Alms and the GSI European Distributors gathered in The Netherlands recently for the 10th annual Horti Fair held in the Amsterdam RAI Center. The Growing Solutions company philosophy and product line integrated well with the Horti Fair 2009 Exhibition theme:  “For a Sustainable Future.” The event, covering six hectares (15 acres) of floor space was home to over 700 exhibitors, attracting attendees from over 100 countries.

The subject of Compost Tea was a hot topic during the fair. The Growing Solutions Team engaged in a multitude of discussions regarding the use of Tea across a broad range of crops as a beneficial and cost effective alternative to conventional methods of plant production.

In addition to supporting the existing Growing Solutions distributor base in Holland, Belgium, Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Switzerland the event attracted business opportunities from over 20 new countries including the regions of Africa, Eastern Europe, South East Asia and The Americas.

“Horti Fair 2009 was clearly a strategic event for our Distributors to attend. The event platform afforded our Team the ability to showcase their Compost Tea products and services, offering solution driven alternatives to the inevitable shift in conventional growing techniques,” according to Michael Alms.

Marc Verhofstede and Urs Hildebrandt, providing in depth detail to attendees from France.

Michael Alms, Urs Hildebrandt and Jitze Peenstra at the 2009 Horti Fair.

Martin Lishman stand at Four Oaks, an exhibition area of 13,000 square metres under glass.

Attendees of the 39th annual Four Oaks commercial horticulture trade show, a 23 acre site in Cheshire, were enthusiastic about the use of compost tea and related products displayed by Martin Lishman, Ltd., distributor in the UK and Ireland for Growing Solutions. Dr. Gavin Lishman and I met with many growers who were familiar with our Systems. “Seeing the quality and simplicity of the Growing Solutions range, as well as hearing of specific benefits such as reduced fungicide and fertiliser use were the key factors that caught hold of people’s imagination,” Dr. Lishman added.

Dr. Gavin Lishman and Michael Alms at Four Oaks 2009.

Specialised compost tea sprayers were also part of the Martin Lishman display, including the Micron Electrafan, able to spray compost tea in difficult situations such as dense canopies and narrow rows. “When demonstrating to our first Electrafan customer on her stand of Clematis plants, the leaf movement (and total compost tea spray coverage) from 2 metres away, met with an instant order!” Dr. Lishman explained. “That’s the kind of response that makes a show worthwhile.”

Break It Down Composting and Growing Solutions at AgQuip 2009.

Growing Solutions Australian distributor Break It Down Composting enjoyed a stellar debut at the 2009 Commonwealth Bank AgQuip, the largest agricultural show in the southern hemisphere. The three field days attracted more than 100,000 visitors to Gunnedah, many making their way to Luke and Melissa Bowman’s display of the entire Growing Solutions Compost Tea System family.

The Growing Solutions Compost Tea System family, including the clear tank System10 providing a birdseye view of fine bubble diffusion.

“After extensive research, we saw Growing Solutions as a leader in the manufacture of quality compost tea systems,” Luke explained. ”AqQuip was very successful with compost tea machine sales, keeping Michael and myself extremely busy with inquiries the entire three days.”

With their country boasting more certified organic acreage than any other in the world, Australians were open and receptive to compost tea as a safe and cost effective alternative to conventional chemical methods.

Luke also emphasized that many Australian agricultural professionals, from large cattle operations to specialty crop producers, are shifting their focus to greater land stewardship, seeing compost tea as an ideal component in this new approach to land management. Well done mates!