Dana Venrick’s talk on “Improving Organic Growing in Florida” Wednesday, May 17, 2007

Dana Venrick promoted Quality Green Specialists with a talk on Improving Organic Growing in Florida before the Simple Living Institute (www.simplelivinginstitute.org) at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 17th, 2017. The location was the meeting room in beautiful Leu Gardens at 1920 N. Forest Ave., Orlando, FL 32803 (407-246-2620). This talk set forth a vision for a sustainable future using the best organic growing methods. Dana is President & Founder of Quality Green Specialists, Inc.

Growing plants organically is in many ways superior to conventional practices, which was pointed out in detail. However, unique Florida conditions of high heat and humidity, an abundance of pests & diseases, and mineral-depleted sandy soils with low microbial life pose unique challenges for producing high quality organics. Dana inspired with his knowledge and scientific approach for achieving outstanding results even when starting with very poor soil conditions. With his Master of Science degree in Plant Physiology (received from the Botany Dept. of the University of Florida) and years of organic & conventional farming and consulting experience, you can be assured of receiving accurate information you can rely on.

Dana’s talk described how Quality Green Specialists incorporates the best possible methods and practices in their consulting practice by utilizing in-depth comprehensive soil, plant tissue, and water testing and by formulating the highest quality organic & organic-based nutritional products which maximize results when growing fruit, vegetables, herbs, or plants in general.

 

Previous Green Happening: A Talk by Quality Green President Dana Venrick at the Wine & Tapas Festival, an event of the DeLand Area Chamber of Commerce, held from 6-9 p.m., October 21, 2016

“Quality Green Specialists – Our Mission, Our Products & Our Services”

Hello, I’m Dana Venrick, President of Quality Green Specialists, Inc. We are located at [335 W. Michigan Ave. DeLand, Florida 32720]. Our phone number is 386-734-8000.

We have an Organic & Natural Fertilizer Store, and Fruit tree/ Fruiting Plant Nursery. We are active in the community, co-sponsoring the Florida Wildflower and Garden Festival (held the fourth Saturday of March every year in downtown DeLand) and we are an active member of the DeLand Area Chamber of Commerce.

Our products include many formulations we have developed ourselves.

We make our own high quality organic-based compost, potting soil and high quality organic-based fertilizers with low nitrogen, low or no phosphorus, high potassium & magnesium, other essential elements (more on this later), and over 70 micronutrients (trace minerals).

We formulate liquid & dry fertilizers for lawns & landscapes and for commercial growers, farmers and ranchers.

My passion is to be a good steward of the land & share with everyone how to grow plants (especially fruit trees & fruiting plants) & turf grass in a sustainable way (that also works exceptionally well) using scientific methods to enhance Mother Nature’s proven way of doing things sustainably. Our methods are similar to the way a forest builds perfect top-soil.

You might say we have a “Whole Earth” philosophy guiding our recommendations for growing great greenery and fruiting plants and guiding the development of our nature-based formulations.

We specialize in complete & detailed testing of water, soil, and plant tissue to make it easy to grow the best plants & the most delicious fruits & vegetables by telling you how to best improve any type of soil or growing medium.

We test the soil in two important ways – a standard soil test & a saturated paste extract (to find out what will actually dissolve in the soil water!

We look at the status of all the essential elements. Very important: We address the two most important elements for plant growth, Carbon C) & Silicon (Si) in all our recommendations and in our fertilizer formulations that others overlook.

Think of this saying I was taught in Chemistry class at UF to remember the most important elements: C(Si)HOPKNSCaFeMg (Spoken: C Silly Hopkns CaFé – Mighty Good). (Like the mighty good food in the cafés in DeLand.) Plus, of course, all the essential micronutrients besides iron (Fe): manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), boron (B). We look at potentially very toxic levels of aluminum (Al), chlorine (Cl), bicarbonates (HCO3), and soluble salts in the soil as well. All essential elements are included in our recommendations as high-quality bio-available forms, when found deficient from our complete testing. We also tell you how to unlock any minerals that are sequestered (tied-up). Plus, we make the fertilizer blends (dry & liquid) that include all these essential elements, not just the typical fertilizer materials N-P-K (nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium), Ca (calcium), Mg (magnesium), S (sulfur), micronutrient Fe (iron), and some of the other essential trace minerals (that perhaps are unavailable oxide forms). We use available forms of essential elements, including very bio-available glucoheptonate chelated micronutrients.

  • Carbon (C), the most important element, as bio-available fulvic acid: We emulate the way it is gradually made by nature – we just make it faster by adding extra oxygen atoms to the humic acid molecules to make a high percentage fulvic acid humate. We include fulvic acid in our fertilizers as well as humic acid which slowly is converted into fulvic acid.
  • Silicon (Si), the second most important element, as bio-available silicon dioxide from OMRI listed and Florida registered Azomite volcanic pumice which is 65% silicon dioxide (plus a wide range of micronutrients). This is very important because of extreme deficiencies of silicon dioxide in many soils, especially sandy & muck soils.
  • Hydrogen (H) & Oxygen (O) – mainly as water from rain & irrigation and from the atmosphere.
  • Plus all the primary & secondary essential fertilizer elements (N-P-K-Ca-Mg-S), plus all the essential & beneficial micronutrients.

Our fertilizers supply immediate release & long-term sustainable release of Nature’s best forms of available minerals: fulvic acid, silicon dioxide, naturally mined minerals such as potassium magnesium sulfate, botanical based kelp, black-strap molasses, animal-based composted litters, hydrolyzed fish, bone meal, etc.

When needed minerals are applied, based on our complete testing, beneficial microbial life and Cation Exchange Capacity (holding capacity) increases dramatically. The microbes break-down minerals for food (needed energy) and release waste products as positive and negative ions in the soil water that plants actually absorb.

We incorporate 11 kinds of beneficial microbes, such as species of Bacillus & Trichoderma to accelerate & maintain mineral release in our potting & planting soil.

In our nursery, we have a beautiful selection of fruit trees, fruiting plants, vegetables, and a select choice of ornamentals grown with our own special potting soil and complete fertilizers.

We have a big selection of Citrus & olive trees. Stone fruits. Persimmons. Mulberries. Guavas. Figs. Avocados. Vegetables. Many others.

We now have strawberry plants for the winter & spring.

We have over 70 varieties of fruit trees and fruiting plants in all.

I would like to give you a special invitation to come visit our beautiful Nursery and Garden Center. You will see super nice plants grown without harsh, toxic pesticides and herbicides. We mostly hand weed and sometimes use 20% vinegar (20% acetic acid).

As you will see – our principles & methods work extraordinarily well.

We are open [9-4 Daily]. We have the knowledge & experience to help you grow better plants in a more natural, sustainable way.

Dana Venrick, Founder & President, M.S. degree, with a major in Botany (Plant Physiology), and minors in Chemistry and Fruit Crops from the University of Florida (UF). Former Vocational Agriculture Teacher, FDACS inspector and Assistant in Plant Pathology, owner of a Citrus Grove, Ranch and Nursery, a UF/IFAS Commercial Horticulture Extension Agent for 10 years.

Come meet our very personable, knowledgeable, and helpful Associates: Leigh Middlemass, Lisa LeVeck, and Alex Andrews.

We all work as a team to spread the word that you can grow better plants using natural and organic methods – Mother Nature’s Way – without wasteful, easily leached (poisoning the groundwater), high analysis chemical fertilizers – no muriate of potash/potassium chloride/KCl (high analysis but only half of the compound is essential, the other half toxic chlorine), but lower analysis but more usable minerals like naturally mined potassium magnesium sulfate (SPM). LOWER ANALYSIS NATURAL & ORGANIC FERTILIZER MATERIALS WORK BETTER & ARE MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY & SUSTAINABLE FOR LONG TERM HEALTH OF THE PLANET. THINK how we can protect the vast number of our little friends in the soil: Feed the microbial life in the soil well and they will build the organic matter & tilth of the soil, digest minerals and produce ionic forms (cations & anions) for plant uptake, and stop minerals from leaching to the groundwater! Some say that there are more microbes in a handful of healthy soil than there are people in all of earth!

For more complete information about our company and proof of how well our recommendations work, be sure to check-out all of our web-site pages.