Growing Solutions Compost Tea Blog

Michael Alms presents an overview of the compost tea industry at the Hilo workshop.

Sold out! Two words we usually hear from garden centers offering compost tea as the growing season heats up…but this time it was a sell out crowd at a full day workshop in Hilo, HI, organized by the Hawaii Organic Farmers Association and funded by the University of Hawaii. The more than 80 in attendance soaked up the latest research and innovative uses of compost, vermicompost and compost tea during presentations and field trips over the course of the day. Presenters included Dr. Norman Arancon (Sustainable Agriculture Program, CAFNRM), Dr. Ted Radovich (Sustainable Farming Systems Laboratory, UH-CTAHR) and Growing Solutions’ Michael Alms. The afternoon included an on site compost tea demonstration in a commercial vegetable operation at Island Harvest Organics in Pahoa. Michael offered an overview of the 15-year-old compost tea industry, and a look to the future in tropical environments and elsewhere.

Compost tea is applied to pak choi at various stages of growth, part of the SARE grant project led by Dr. Ted Radovich.

Hawaii is leading the world in researching compost tea and its use in tropical and subtropical production systems. The University of Hawaii has a dedicated department for organic and sustainable agriculture, with Dr. Radovich and Dr. Arancon leading the efforts. Dr. Radovich discussed the current SARE (Sustainable Agriculture & Research Education) grant project using compost tea on pak choi. Growing Solutions is participating in this project to further a better understanding of the use of compost tea in on-farm trials and through educational activities, including the May 6 Hilo event.

Dr. Arancon is co-editor of the latest and most comprehensive text discussing compost and compost tea, Vermiculture Technology: Earthworms, Organic Wastes, and Environmental Management. Stay tuned for a post about this culmination of work from an international cast of scientists. Dr. Arancon and Dr. Radovich both work with Compost Tea System10s in their research efforts at UH/Hilo.

Sharon Tamanaha puts the preschool's System10 to work.

Growing Solutions’ distributor Mindy Jaffe of Waikiki Worm Company reports on a great story of a process that we hope to see replicated in schools everywhere. It recalls the sagely adage of “it takes a village…”— in this case, a generous donor supplying a System10 to the Calvary-by-the-Sea Montessori Preschool in Aina Haina, Oahu, Hawaii, where organic waste fed to the school’s worm colony is fully recycled to everyone’s benefit.

Assistant teacher Sharon Tamanaha worked with Waikiki Worm to create the vermicompost program. Not only is the school’s garden and landscape benefiting from the weekly compost tea production, the fourth Sunday of every month is dedicated to tea brewed for sale to church members—always a sell out—that brings revenue to help sustain the program.

“We are very, very happy with our brewer,” Sharon says. “It’s easy to use and clean. Every plant is healthy and robust and the entire property just glows.”

Read the full article in Waikiki Worm Company’s newsletter here.

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.”

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.

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!