Growing Solutions Compost Tea Blog

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.

Watching a movie is one of life’s diversions that nearly everyone can relate to, especially that feeling of wanting to share the news when you’ve just seen a great one. Our staff watched one such movie this May and posted a link on our Facebook page. Little did we know that our enthusiasm for this film would literally grow into an exciting new alliance.

Your purchase of the DVD through Growing Solutions adds $5 to the fund for distribution of the movie to schools.

DIRT! the Movie, directed and produced by Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow, and narrated by actress Jamie Lee Curtis, brings to life the environmental, economic, social and political impact that the soil has through the stories of visionaries and experts from all over the world. You’ll learn how industrial agriculture has depleted our once fertile soils over the last 50 years, and how there is hope to reverse this trend in the very methods of sustainable agriculture that Growing Solutions advocates for and promotes through the sales of our products.

Based on the book Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth by Quill and Trowel Award-winning writer Bill Logan, DIRT! the Movie takes you inside the wonders of the soil—Earth’s living skin. It tells the story of this most valuable and underappreciated source of fertility, from its miraculous beginning to its crippling degradation.

That basic understanding of the volume of life that takes place in the first five centimeters of the Earth’s skin resonated with everyone at Growing Solutions. Compost tea plays a large role in a dynamic system of solutions that can revive depleted soils with local inputs, low energy consumption and non-daunting technical skills. Naturally we wanted to find a way to share this educational tool with our customers, families and friends.

As an Affiliate Partner Growing Solutions’ Home Page now proudly displays the DIRT! the Movie icon. Click, buy the DVD, and your purchase will generate a $5.00 donation toward providing DVDs of the movie to schools throughout the U.S.

“I’m very pleased to see the wide distribution of this film, and we’re eager to contribute to the momentum,” Growing Solutions’ President Michael Alms explained. “DIRT! the Movie is the perfect portal to understanding that our soil is actually ALIVE! Your view of where and how our food is grown and enters the world’s markets will forever be changed. I encourage everyone to view this great story and be the change locally, in management of home lawns, gardens, and community greenspaces.”

Paul Tukey, the author of The Organic Lawn Care Manual, visited Martha Stewart’s Bedford, New York estate recently to offer advice regarding the health of her lawn and fields. He is a firm believer of spraying lawns and plants with Compost Tea. And fortunately, Martha has a Growing Solutions Compost Tea System25 in her greenhouse!

The full story and great photos can be seen on Martha’s Blog:

Last week, Michael was in Marin County, California to consult with the owners of a new Compost Tea application company. Marin Soil Solutions’ owners, Bill Falk and Tom Bowen, have two of our Compost Tea Systems and recently received their new custom GSI Compost Tea sprayer. They are creating a service to apply Compost Tea to both residential and commercial properties as an economical and safe alternative to conventional fertilizers.  Michael was there to demonstrate the most effective ways to produce and apply Compost Tea to lawns, ornamentals, sports fields, school yards, etc.  The combination of using premium vermi-compost from Sonoma Valley Worm Farm and our Compost Tea Catalyst, will offer their customer base fantastic results!

Growing Solutions encourages you to view this great video from Growing Wisdom. The video features Scott LaFleur, of Garden in the Woods, and is about producing and applying Compost Tea. He emphasizes that Compost Tea feeds the soil, which in turn benefits the plants; without the need for chemical fertilizers! We would like to note that you don’t need to add quite so much compost to the basket when brewing a ten gallon batch of Compost Tea. We recommend about seven cups of a high quality, organic compost, and seven tablespoons of our Compost Tea Catalyst.

Please click below, to view the video:

How to Brew Compost Tea

We had a great meeting today!

We gathered in the Growing Solutions office to launch a project with two student groups from the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business.

The student teams are performing essential due diligence for GSI, regarding the technical specifications, sourcing and distribution pipelines for a new product line we will introduce later in the year. A product that will appeal to home gardeners and rural farmers alike.

Stay tuned for more news…

Growing Solutions has a new page on Facebook!

If you are a Facebook member already, you can sign in and then enter Growing Solutions in the search box. You can become a “fan” or simply browse the pictures of our Compost  Tea Systems and information. We will be adding more content soon.

If you aren’t a Facebook member yet, you may click here to be taken to the page.

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.”

The GSI System10 holds a seat of honor near Graze's Buddha on the rooftop.

The roof of Glide Memorial Church, located in one of San Francisco’s harshest urban environments, is “growing.” This rooftop edible, community-produced vegetable garden, dubbed Graze the Roof, is maintained primarily by youth from the local area and raises food for the homeless population. A progressive church and nonprofit organization, Glide has provided resources for the underserved for more than 45 years.

Graze features soil-less gardening vegetable growers; self-watering containers; lightweight garden beds made from milk crates; a worm composting system, vermicompost tea, and an educational mural that ties the whole project together. Glide youth and volunteers from throughout the Bay Area maintain the garden and host monthly tours and workshops.

Seed to Belly is Glide’s experiential workshop for children that teaches the essentials of the food cycle. The Growing Solutions System10 residing on the roof is highlighted in this educational program in conjunction with composting and methods for creating healthy soils to boost plant growth. The System10′s vermicompost tea is used with the hydroponic system, currently growing tomatoes, and to amend the vegetable beds.

(left) Children learn where their food comes from at Graze's Seed to Belly program. (right) Graze the Roof at Glide Memorial Church.