- Location
- North of Boston
How many of you are using Compost and/or Compost Tea? Do you make either or both yourself? Or do you buy everything? Have you had a hard time selling the value of these products to customers?
Compost and Compost Tea
- Thread starter BostonBull
- Start date
mdvaden
Participating member
- Location
- Beaverton. Oregon
Compost tea ....
Personally, I have used it at home, and did it with miniature equipment like a bucket and fish tank air pump and stones.
Did not use any at all in south Oregon, since we did not have a "garden" there.
I read a lot of stuff that undermined the excitement of the compost tea bandwagon of years passed.
But what I can find on the stuff, seems to shed enough good light on it's use.
Never tried to market it. Would probably prefer just to recommend someone in that niche.
Compost ...
All the time.
And often for work. For lawn install, plantings and for surface. Even dug a planting hole once where half the hole for a big tree was in soil that had no compost, and the other half was where compost was on the surface for about 12 years.
The side that had compost, had improved soil structure down to about 8 to 10 inches from leaching of compounds.
Personally, I have used it at home, and did it with miniature equipment like a bucket and fish tank air pump and stones.
Did not use any at all in south Oregon, since we did not have a "garden" there.
I read a lot of stuff that undermined the excitement of the compost tea bandwagon of years passed.
But what I can find on the stuff, seems to shed enough good light on it's use.
Never tried to market it. Would probably prefer just to recommend someone in that niche.
Compost ...
All the time.
And often for work. For lawn install, plantings and for surface. Even dug a planting hole once where half the hole for a big tree was in soil that had no compost, and the other half was where compost was on the surface for about 12 years.
The side that had compost, had improved soil structure down to about 8 to 10 inches from leaching of compounds.
We don't use either as sellable commodities. We do promote the use of compost or organic mulch as an integral component of plant health care. It can be difficult to educate the public on why the tree will do better in a tree island of decomposing matter and woody plants as opposed to being plopped down in the middle of a weed-free lawn when this is all they ever see. Many people don't understand the volume of life in soil and that good soil is not "made" it is grown. Growing requires nutrients,food and time.
So for us, we are selling the idea and hoping for a gradual change in what people consider normal as they look at landscaped yards.
Dave
So for us, we are selling the idea and hoping for a gradual change in what people consider normal as they look at landscaped yards.
Dave
treebing
Been here much more than a while
- Location
- Detroit, Mi.
healthy earth is a very difficult thing to "sell" because factually, it should be done long term and be more or less free.
selling compost tea is a money maker but really does not solve the problem as it fits squarely into the model of "i can pay some money, something will be sprayed, and everything will be ok."
I have seen the temporay results of compost tea applications and they seem good, but unless the mindset and aesthetic of what a healthy yard is changes, the health of the yard is not going to change.
in my experience, people who really do get the idea of what compost is and how it works are not going to be buying it.
this is where capitalism and common sense seem to diverge.
selling compost tea is a money maker but really does not solve the problem as it fits squarely into the model of "i can pay some money, something will be sprayed, and everything will be ok."
I have seen the temporay results of compost tea applications and they seem good, but unless the mindset and aesthetic of what a healthy yard is changes, the health of the yard is not going to change.
in my experience, people who really do get the idea of what compost is and how it works are not going to be buying it.
this is where capitalism and common sense seem to diverge.
