Nature’s Perfect Organic Seed Starter

Whether for a professional nursery or your back yard garden, you should not have to risk that your seeds won’t germinate successfully. Different seeds have varying germination rates, and most seed starters cannot perform on all types of seeds.

Most of the commercial seed starters available today are peat-based. In fact, many of them are upwards of 90 percent peat moss with some other non-organic soil loosening ingredients, such as perlite. Not all peat mosses are alike. Peat is merely decomposed plant matter, but it does matter what plant are used to form the peat. Sphagnum peat is the decomposed sphagnum plant, a high-water retentive plant free from bacteria. Sphagnum peat moss can provide a good base for germinating plants, but like all peats it generally lacks the correct water retentive properties that all seeds require.

Seed starters should be organic and renewable.

Peat mosses is generally organic, if they meet the government standards for organic, but none of them are renewable. Once dug from the earth, they are gone forever. Why not start with the sphagnum plant? It is organic, holds lots of water and is free of bacteria, all good attributes of a quality seed starter. What’s more it is renewable! Every year the Mosser Lee Company harvests this unique plant in its Wisconsin marshes, leaving enough to regenerate another crop in subsequent years. In fact, their long fibered sphagnum moss Wisconsin marshes have been harvested for over 150 years. That’s renewable!

The long fiber sphagnum moss is milled to a course grind to make it easier to start seeds. It has been recommended by professionals as the only completely renewable seed starter.  Mosser Lee calls it organic seed starter, NoDampOff™ The Ultimate in Seed Starting™ It gives seeds the best chance of achieving the highest seed germination rate available. 

Author: David L Epstein, CEO, The Mosser Lee Company | www.mosserlee.com

The Heavy Duty Yard Sign Stake for Wind & Reuse

A big problem with yards signs is trying to reuse them, not because the sign breaks but more likely the wire frame “called a stake” breaks or get deformed. It seems like a headache to get a new stake and transfer the sign to the new stake every time you want to use it.

The good news is there are wire stakes that designed handle the stress of being reused repeatedly, It’s the H Stake.

Sometimes known as a goal post stake, the heavy-duty H stake has a thick bottom piece made of 3/16” or 1/4-inch bright basics galvanized steel with a nine-gauge U shape attached at the top to hold the sign. The .25” bottom might be a bit of overkill, but it definitely helps keep you sign anchored to the ground and can withstand re-use. Because of the thick bottom, this one is a little more difficult to push into the ground, but the thick bottom rung of the same material makes it totally doable.

The Heavy-Duty H Frame yard signs are more expensive compared to the thinner constructed ones, but the yard signs will have a much more stable look to them, and if what you’re selling is quality construction this would probably be the best option. If you place signs in a windy intersection, it will also be the best option. Many promotion companies have learned to have a mix of these stronger stakes for certain locations and cheaper stakes for areas that have less wind or are going to be used only one time.

Author: Jon Gainer, President Stakeworld.com

An Easy Way to Make a Living Wreath

When I think of wreaths, my first thoughts are of a pine Christmas wreath or a decorated straw wreath hanging on a door. I love the way holiday wreaths make an ordinary front door jump with welcome. My mother preferred a planted wreath that she would place on our holiday dinner table. A living wreath combines the decorative beauty of traditional holiday wreaths with live plants. They can be used as table centerpieces, door hangings or even as an herb garden.

She would buy a wire box wreath form to hold the medium and then plant it with all types of herbs and greens. Her wreaths would add color and a marvelous fragrance to our Christmas dinner. It is a wonderful memory of my youth. I also remember that it was a lot of work. She would labor over what medium to hold the needed moisture for the plants and where to get it during the late fall. She also struggled with how to hide the unsightly wire frame.

Since I wanted to add this tradition to my family’s holiday, I decided to try to make a holiday living wreath. As I was looking for the supplies, I came across Mosser Lee’s Living Wreath. Mosser Lee must have been listening to the difficulties that my mother had in making a living wreath.

The Mosser Lee living wreath frames are simple and easy to use. The form and long fibered sphagnum moss are ingeniously formed so all I must do is water it and place my herbs and pine boughs into the moss through the netting. They advise that I use a water-soluble fertilizer in the water when I dunk the wreath for its initial bath. The fertilizer will help the herbs to continue to develop roots and grow.

What a nice invention. Easy for me to keep my Mother’s Christmas tradition alive.

Article By David Epstein, Mosser Lee Company

Reverse Osmosis Membrane Cleaning Process

Reverse osmosis or RO is a process used in commercial water purification to remove solids and particulate from feed water into cleaner water called permeate which is then used in everything from drinking water to water used in industrial processes.

The process works by using pressure to force the dirty water through a series of very fine filters called a semipermeable membrane trapping the particulates and allowing the water molecules to flow through the system. This process is very effective and is used in a large portion of water treatment systems.

The problem is that over time, the membrane will trap so many particles that it will start to block the water flow and reduce the efficiency of the entire system. Replacing the filter with a new filter is the solution but it can significantly add the overall cost of the process.  The membrane itself doesn’t need to be replaced every time it just needs to be cleaned, removing the particles to allow the water flow to be increased. Cleaning the membrane has become an efficient way to restore the usability of the membrane and reduce the costs compared to replacing the entire unit.

Reverse osmosis membrane cleaning has proven that when done properly the membranes can be reused several times before the entire unit needs complete replacement. By using specific chemicals, it can help release the particles from the membrane thus restoring the filter back to a usable state. Some companies can even test the membrane pre-cleaning and post cleaning to determine how many more times the membrane can be used and maintain the level of quality filtering.

By monitoring the life cycle of a membrane, companies can not only reduce costs associated with new replacement filters but can know how much longer a membrane can be used and plan ahead for the costs of complete replacements.

This is a cool process that is used everyday and takes a complicated and costly problem and solving it with a basic concept of cleaning rather than replacing. While the process is not simple, the idea that a filter need not be thrown out but merely cleaned is very cool!

The information above was provided by Ron Hoolahan , President, All Water Systems

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