Denny Mundell’s Fertigation Company Blog

Happy Birthday, Joni.

“Big Yellow Taxi” is a song originally written and performed by Joni Mitchell.

Mitchell got the idea for the song during a visit to Hawaii. She looked out of her hotel window at the spectacular Pacific mountain scenery, and then down to a parking lot.

Joni said this about writing the song to journalist Alan McDougall in the early 1970’s:

“I wrote ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart… this blight on paradise. That’s when I sat down and wrote the song.”

The song is known for its environmental statement (from the lyrics “Paved paradise to put up a parking lot”, “Hey farmer, farmer, put away that DDT now”) and sentimental sound. The line, “Took all the trees, put ‘em in a tree museum/And charged the people a dollar and a half just to see ‘em” refers to Foster Botanical Garden in downtown Honolulu, which is a living museum of tropical plants, some rare and endangered.

California’s Fresh Express, a company specializing in leafy greens, has spent over $2 million for research into causes of E. coli.  These findings suggest that:

1. Ozone appears to be more effective in helping to control the disease versus chlorine baths.
2. Pathogens are able to regrow themselves on the surface of stable composts.
3. The coring of iceberg lettuce in the field is an extremely high-risk practice.
4. Insects, including the common housefly, are able to act as a vector for E. coli.
5. Let’s not forget our own findings, as written about last month—excessive nitrogen to force growth rates, contribute to poor plant health and E. Coli susceptibility.

Growers and distributors of green products cannot afford too many more outbreaks.  Oops, here’s another one already.

October 1, in Michigan, 26 people in eight countries were sickened by iceberg lettuce tainted with E. coli; go figure.  The tainted lettuce was traced to Detroit’s Aunt Mid’s Produce, who only markets to restaurants.

The primary problem packers encounter when attempting to isolate the source of the E. coli contaminate, is a result of several ingredients being delivered to Aunt Mid’s and then mixed together at their facility for distribution—and only 1% of the imported produce is actually inspected!

What should possibly be the first and most important step to safe food? Quite obviously, safe feedings in the fields as the crops are grown.

Romaine anyone?  I have a better idea, let’s all subsist on Cinnabuns; has anyone ever heard of E. coli on a cinnamon roll?

Have a good day.

California’s one million acres qualifies it as the largest producer of alfalfa in the U.S., with alfalfa itself being the fourth largest crop grown.  So it was no little issue in March when San Francisco’s judge, Charles Breyer, issued the first ever injunction against a government-approved, genetically altered commercial crop.  Monsanto was selling and had planted “Roundup Ready” alfalfa and the judge wants additional governmental studies on the affects of the genetically altered seed on human health—thank goodness for common sense and restraint!  Then in September, of this year, a federal appeals court upheld the ban.

As has been discussed before in this blog, the primary properties of Roundup as a herbicide mirror agent orange used during the Vietnam War and is known to be a serious contributor to cancer.  Now Monsanto, and like companies, want to inject the herbicide directly into many varieties of seeds—laziness, greed, and pollutants seem to override the proper way of growing our crops on way too many occasions.

Let’s remember that fertigation and its spoon-feeding will always create a healthier plant that resists insects, and the weed population would be diminished as soils begin to come into balance with reduced herbicide and synthetic nitrogen use.

Please encourage farmers you may know to grow responsibly, and at least inquire of the many benefits available to them through natural/organic fertigation.

Have a great Thursday!

Irrigation Professionals in all verticals, agriculture, golf, turf, and landscape, are gathering in Annaheim, California this year for the annual Irrigation Show.

The Irrigation Show is where industry professionals go to find the newest, most innovative products and services. And with almost 80 percent of attendees reporting that seeing new products, technologies and services is their top priority at the show.

The New Product Contest at the Irrigation Show is a unique opportunity to:

• Reach attendees at one of the best attended show venues
• Highlight new products and services
• Enhance your company’s reputation for innovation

Contest applications have been accepted in four categories: agriculture, golf, specialty or turf/landscape. One winner in each category will receive a trophy; free industry publicity; and recognition in the 2009 Membership Directory & Buyers’ Guide.

Entries will be evaluated on the following criteria by a panel of expert judges:

• Water conservation
• Ease of use
• Cost savings
• Design quality
• Time savings
• User risk
• Product life expectancy

We’ll update this post with news of the winner and other highlights of the show, which is underway at the Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, California from November 2-4, 2008.

Being absent from my own blog for a few days, for all the right reasons, has allowed me to step back and review my recipe for the ‘high life,’ and probably why I enjoy fertigation so much. The primary ingredient for my recipe is family—always has been and always will be. Start out with four great kids (Kristi, Amy, Tara, and Robyn) and mix in the best wife and friend, and we immediately have volatility. Who better to mix the batter and oversee the process than God and his ‘troops?’ No matter what your recipe is, ultimately, the first product just won’t taste the same without religious conviction.

Now you mix in family campouts, which at first blush the kids were dumbfounded that an activity so ‘old’ would even be suggested; but now are some of their fondest memories.

Never missing a school event the kids were all in, weekly phone calls now that they are all grown and gone, and the final piece—why we all become parents—the grandkids! We just had our fourth last week—a boy, and it never ceases to be exciting.

Dads often are gentle critics but always the kids biggest fans and always proud.

I have been a very lucky man as I’ve enjoyed the HIGH LIFE with my family. My entire career I have been blessed with the ability to make a living doing my hobbies—athletics and landscaping. Now to finish a career with fertigation—helping the environment while conserving water—and surrounded by a growing family as evidenced by grandkids, one after the other, that’s the recipe for the HIGH LIFE.

If you aren’t able to combine pleasure and family with your business pursuits, then you need to get out of business—I’m here to stay folks. Tomorrow is back to work with ‘saving the planet through fertigation.’ (Don’t you all wish it was that easy?!)

Mark Cuban, at Blog Maverick, has this to say:

Entrepreneurs live for the juice of making their dreams come true. Of having a vision and fighting to see it come true. The joy of mission accomplished and the scoreboard of the financial rewards.

We are in an economic mess right now. It doesn’t matter who caused it. It’s here. It doesn’t matter what our Presidential candidates and their economic advisors come up with. Its meaningless.

The cure to our economic problems is the Entrepreneurial  Spirit of All Americans. Instead of bitching at each other, could one Presidential  candidate please show even the least bit of leadership and character and stand up for and encourage the entrepreneurs in this country ?

i dont care who is friends with whom, who preached when you went to church, whether you know the actual role of the Vice President, whether you voted with President Bush. I dont care about any of the mudslinging going back and forth. All it does is waste the time of every potential voter.  All of that is meaningless.

What we need is our candidates to stop yelling at each other and starting looking at the American people and encouraging the best of who we are.  That is who I want to get behind. That is what I would like to see for our country. That is what will energize and motivate people to create companies and invent products that will  turn the economy.

The best time for little guys to start a business  is when the big guys are worrying about surviving in theirs. You dont need to raise money. You need to be smart and be focused.  I had no idea until this current financial crisis that when I started MicroSolutions, my first company, it was in the middle of a very bad recession. I had no idea whatsoever. I didnt know what the tax rates were, and I didnt care. I had an idea, a floor to sleep on and a lot of motivation.

Now is the time for Entrepreneurs to step up and do our part for our country. Its up to us to start businesses and create jobs. That is the cure to this country’s economic problems.

Amen to that, brother.

“The economic situation is apparently so grim that some experts fear we may be in for a stretch as bad as the mid seventies,” writes Paul Graham in his latest essay, “Why to Start a Startup in a Bad Economy” adding, “If we’ve learned one thing from funding so many startups, it’s that they succeed or fail based on the qualities of the founders. The economy has some effect, certainly, but as a predictor of success it’s rounding error compared to the founders.”

If you’re taking stock, it’s  probably a good idea to read the whole essay here.

It is great to see the landscape industry begin to enter the 21st century and no longer pictured as an assortment of shovels, rakes, and mowers in an old truck.

Besides the excitement and limitless profit opportunities associated with fertigation, what other new industry developments allow contractors to enhance their professional image in addition to participating in the ‘green revolution’?

A bit of good news for a large segment of the landscape industry would be the knowledge that sales for new and existing home sales increased in July.  Realizing this is a ‘discovered needle’ in the haystack of financial concerns today, the hope that demand will once again surpass supply assures that soon this segment of the economy will be strong—and secure this time.

At a recent trade show there was a company offering an alternative fuel source to homeowners through the use of ‘vertical windmills’ that would be compatible with a landscape.  Only requiring a breeze to move the rotors, trees could be designed and planted to create natural wind tunnels.

Wind and solar are within the reach of landscape contractors today for powering pool pumps, landscape lighting, irrigation timers, outdoor refrigerators, pond pumps and outdoor water fountains or, even to possibly heat a pool.  Both alternative fuels are becoming more reliable and popular and who’s to say forward thinking landscape contractors can’t be the ones with the services in their ‘tool boxes’?  Wind, solar, and even geothermal are all arenas that could become synonymous with the landscape construction market place.

With the green movement, the average consumer is becoming more aware of what contractors offer and who the ‘knowledgeable forward thinkers’ are in the industry.  You don’t have to be a member of Greenpeace or the Sierra Club to become involved, but an association with Planet wouldn’t hurt any contractor at all.

All that being said, the number one way to still increase cash flow while adding a new service, at the same time saving precious water and assisting our environment, is fertigation with natural and organic products being used.

What will each of you do today that will matter tomorrow?!

Fertigation, as I have said many times, is not a new industry but fertigation, in the worst economic environment in decades, is truly a new opportunity.  What a perfect time to launch a new company to oversee an explosive industry that both assists in the conserving of water and the protection of our environment.

Basic premise:

People need good ideas and beneficial products regardless of the economy and ever more so in a ‘near recession’.  Should your business provide a service and save money while ‘going green’, you will succeed in good times and bad.

Credit is tight today, or non-existent, so the ability to be flexible in your corporate development and be able to create mutually beneficial relationships for your suppliers as well as yourself, realizes immediate benefits and security while paving the way for an extremely bright future, when the economy does take a turn for the better.

Today, customers want more bangs for their buck, even more so than under good economic conditions.  So the recipe of passion for a great idea, coupled with enhanced customer service, is a definite winner!  Passion and a belief level go an awfully long way in creating sales and, ultimately, a very successful corporation.

Some steps to success for a new company in economic bad times:

1. Target a growing demographic—what a better target for fertigation than homeowners, cities, commercial properties, agriculture, and golf courses that all want to conserve water and save money.
2. Embrace a service opportunity that is professionally related to what you as a corporation know best.  Would over 100 years in the landscape/soils/irrigation industries qualify?!
3. Minimize expensive marketing efforts while turning satisfied clients into a well-oiled marketing machine.  Referrals lead to additional savings on product and service.  Do you think the baby boomers would mobilize and   even create a fertile growing environment for fertigation through controlled   and inexpensive franchises?
4. Launch a website that is alive and tells a story daily!  www.allbusiness.com has some great ideas.  A website to display daily advances, test documentation, videos that validate satisfied customers and a place to be educated as well as place an order.  I am certainly no Internet genius, but the term interactive website comes to mind; is that accurate?
5. Road map—don’t go anywhere without your business road map—or business  plan.  What about competition, pricing, staffing— www.bplans.com is a great piece of software to get you going on the road to success.

Is your corporation ready to explode?  Now is the time!  Have a great day.

Don’t you wish just once in a while life could have a few storybook endings and expectations wouldn’t come crashing back to earth?  Wall Street thieves could be held accountable, government agencies could actually act with responsible timing to avert problems, and maybe a Cubs’ pitcher could not walk three men in a row and grove an 0 – 2 fastball for a 4 - 0 Dodger lead with only one hit!  Needless to say, October 2, is not the most optimistic day when considering two more States are actively pursuing the banning of phosphorous fertilizer while a company with product and answers waits ‘patiently’ for governmental validation to move aggressively to use fertigation to assist in remedying problems.

Several Michigan counties and East Hampton, Connecticut are considering, or have passed, bans on the use of phosphorous-based fertilizers.  Water quality concerns from fertilizer-saturated runoff that creates ‘algae bloom’ that chokes other aquatic life has folks irritated and aware; and as we know full well, spoon fed fertigation of natural and organic plant food totally mitigates such runoff.

In East Hampton, conditions have become so extreme that residents are circulating petitions to force public officials to ban all phosphorous based fertilizer, after an ordinance was rejected by the town council a few months ago.  Grass roots movements by people who care about the environment and are not encumbered with the thoughts of reelection or special interest groups—now there’s a refreshing thought.

Michigan is actually proceeding in an intelligent planned manner where the proposed ban would affect lawn applications but exempt  farmers, gardens, newly established turf in its first year and soils where ‘soil testing’ by an authority shows phosphorous is needed.

I applaud the efforts which will see fines up to $300 per offense, but a question that begs an answer would be “who is going to determine if a lawn is in its first year (or fifth) and who will review soil samples?”—another governmental agency?!  That process should certainly expedite compliance and environmental improvement.  Can you imagine Mr. Smith, who’s lawn has been in for 18 months ‘apprehended’ with a bag of phosphorous fertilizer by a zealous city or state official, while ten of his neighbors’, with lawns that have been in for five years, are indiscriminately applying fertilizer from Wal-Mart that is full of phosphorous, because they don’t know how to read the NPK-and these lawbreaking neighbors are not apprehended?!

Oh well, at least States are trying and maybe that actually sheds some light on why other types of state provided activities and services are so laboriously slow in achieving results.  I promise to be more positive tomorrow, and who knows, maybe the White Sox can win today and make Chicago proud, because it is quite evident there is nothing but another 100 years of futility in the future for Cubs’ ‘fans.’

You’ll excuse me if I don’t wish you all a happy Thursday—misery loves company.