Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back here in the Garden with Ron Wilson. And
you know, wool isn't just for socks anymore. As a
matter of fact, we started talking this past spring trying
to stir the stir the pod a little bit about
using wool in our gardens. And I think I spurred
a lot of interest in this, as we had a
lot of emails going back and forth and doing a
(00:21):
lot of research and reading over the summer and learning
more about it. And I thought we'd come back around
again this today and spend a little bit more time
looking at the use of wool in the garden and
the landscapes. Sounds crazy, doesn't it, But there's an excess
of wool out there, and then why not if it works?
To find out why it works. And somebody who's got
(00:42):
a lot of history on how to use wool in
the garden and agricultural applications. He's from Wild Valley Farms.
Their website is outstanding. Check this out as Wild Valleyfarms
dot com. And he is mister Albert Wilde. Good morning sir,
Good morning Ron. Gad to have you on our show.
Appreciate it, man. I tell you what your website's outstanding.
(01:03):
First of all, I spent I think about a whole
day going through everything that you guys have on there.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Oh well, thank you and thanks for having us on
the show. That's just been a real work in progress.
So yeah, and it's been a fun journey.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Can we come and visit?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Oh absolutely, you know, the ranch is open anytime for
anyone to come and visit. So we actually live in
a small town. There's only two hundred people, so yeah,
we love.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Visitors, love it. And that's Croydon, Utah.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Right, Yeah, that's in Croydon, Croydon, Utah.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
So yeah, be sure and check it out. But go
to their website first of all, Wild Valleyfarms dot com
and you will you will learn more about what we're
going to talk about here this morning. So this past
spring I kind of stirred the pod a little bit,
starting to learn a little bit more about using wool
in the garden. It really has perked peauked my interest,
and I think it's an outstanding thing that we can
(02:07):
be doing here. So you've been experimenting with us for
probably the longest of anybody here in the United States
as far as doing this. How did you first get
started looking at other ways to use sheep's wool.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Well, so, I mean, I am a sixth generation sheep rancher,
so we've always had sheep here on the ranch in
that and I had started doing compost, and then my
wife had asked me if there was any way that
I could make it so that she didn't have to
(02:43):
water her plants as often, because she loves her plants
on the porch in that, and she was I think
she was thinking like a trip irrigation system. And anyway,
as a farmer, I was like, well, I've got some
wist wool. So I went and got some of the
waste well that we had laying in the barn and
stuffed around her plants. And then you know, she came
(03:08):
out and she's like, what are you doing? And I'm like, well,
this is like the wool will hold water, Like this
is gonna be great. And she at first was not
a believer. She was just like, oh, why why, But anyway,
we were able to go on vacation that summer for
seven days. We came home and no one has been
(03:30):
watering or taking care of the plants, and yet they
looked fantastic.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
And that's when she was like, hey, I think you've
got something. You're onto something there. So that's kind of
how we started.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
And had you heard about using wool like that before.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
No, you know, I'd never really heard of anyone using
like wool in a garden application, you know, not even
as a mall or anything. So I just I just
knew wool held water. I mean, you know, when we
have a sheep that you know, falls in in the
(04:11):
ditch or or it gets really you know, wet, right,
sheep becomes very very heavy.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
So it holds water. So so you experimented with that
and then everything just the light bulb went on and
you took it from there for folks to understand. And
I guess this waste wool. I mean, isn't all wool
used for making socks and wool products and all of that,
or what is waste wool?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Okay? So yeah, waste wool is any wool that is
coarser like the microne. The diameter of the wolf fiber
is coarser, like it's bigger. And so there's a lot
of different types of breeds of sheep, and so the
different breeds will have different micron size of wool, and
(05:01):
those courser breeds, no one buys that wool for us,
like most of our sheep are where we run a
mostly a fine hair or a fine wool sheep, and
so most of the wool will go to socks or clothing.
But even with us, the belly or the back end
of the sheep where it gets a lot like the
(05:24):
belly because the sheep lays down and you know, it
gets a lot of what they call vegetable matter, which
is like can be sticks or manure or straw or
whatever in the wool and it gets matted down. Then
that wool is considered waste wall like they don't like
to to buy it as much. The value is very low.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
So you have these piles of waste wool that you've had,
you've dealt with for years. What did you do with
it before you started to figure out that we can
use this in our gardens?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, I mean basically you just threw it away. You know,
you may have like bags of it that you're like,
you know, sometimes people keep it around the farm because
you think, oh well, if if the wool price it
will be good next year, maybe I'll just keep it
and maybe that'll come up to be you know, ten
(06:24):
cents or something, but it usually, I mean, it never does, so,
I mean the wool market is very low. It's and
it's always kind of been that way.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Interesting talking with alberber since since World War Two. Got it,
Talking with Albert Wild Wild Valley Farms. Go to their
websites really Cool Wild Valley Farms dot com and check
them out. That out in the Utah a sheep rancher.
And so when you when you're raising sheep like this,
obviously you're doing it for the wool, but you're also
doing it for the meat as well. I'm assuming how
(07:00):
many sheep do you raise every year?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
So we have about twenty four hundred sheep wow, and
so most yeah, most of them will have, you know, twins,
so you almost you know, get double the the number wow,
so that you run during the summer.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So you you used them both for the wool and
obviously for the meat as well.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Correct, correct, yep.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Got it. Talking with Albert Wild Wild Valley Farms. Talking
about using wool in your guarden. Let's take a quick break,
we come back. We're going to find out so where
did he take it from there? How is it available?
And a whole lot more about using wool, sheep wool
in your garden. I think it's a great idea. Here
in the garden with Ron Wilson. Oh, you know what, Albert,
(07:51):
we are our producer. He has stepped out. We can't
take a break yet. He hasn't come back out to
the office yet, So stick with me. We're I don't
know where he went, but we're gonna keep on going
here talking with Albert Wilde. There he goes, now he's back. Now,
let's take the break with Albert Wilde here in the
garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Landscaping made easier with your personal yard.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Boy, he's hitting the garden and he's Ron Wilson. Remodeling
(08:34):
your basement into a wreck room, office or home. Jim Well,
don't forget to ventilate those spaces to protect your home
from decay. The Easy Breathed ventilation system exchanges trap, dirty,
damp air for cleaner, dryer, healthier air. We've had an
easy breeze system in our home for about ten years now,
and the air in our basement always feels fresh and clean.
Diy kits are available and right now get to your
(08:57):
minutestats plus twenty percent off every Easy breathe purchase call
eight six six eight two two seventy three twenty eight.
Hey folks, Gary Salvin here, I've trusted gutter brush for
twenty years. It's the easiest way to stop gutter cloggs
before they start. And right now you can save twenty
five percent and get free shipping with coupon code Gary
(09:17):
twenty five at gutterbrush dot com. No tools, no hassle,
just slide it in and you're protected all season long.
Now don't wait. This limited time offers end soon. That's
gutterbrush dot com code Gary twenty five or call eight
eight eight three ninety seven ninety four thirty three.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Welcome back. You're in the garden with Ron Wilson's special
guest this morning, mister Albert Wilde of the Wild Valley Farms.
He's a sheep rancher over two thousand sheep. Go to
their website check it out it's wild all Farms dot
com and learn more about it and trying to figure
out what to do with all that waste wool, and
come to find out, the experimented with it in his
(10:11):
wife's potted plants. They were gone for almost a week
and kept them water while they were gone. So so
you looked at that, you said, okay, we got something here.
How'd you take it the next step?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Well, I mean the hardest thing that happened was actually
trying to take the wool and then stuff it around
the plants, and so I got I've got to make
it easier. And my friend who owned a pallet company
and he did recycling, he recycled pallets, but he actually
(10:48):
ended up buying a pellet mill that makes wood pellets,
and so when that happened, he you know, he told me,
and I just joking, he said, hey, what if I
brought some wool down and we ran some wool through
your you know, pellet mill and to see if we
(11:08):
could make wool pellets. And to my surprise, he was
like okay, because the guy that had owned the pellet
mial before had already promised a chicken farmer that he
would give him a week to run chicken maneuver through
it and make chicken maneuver pellets, and so he was like,
at the end of the week, just bring the wool down,
(11:29):
and he's like, you know, we'll just it'll help clean
out the chicken manure. So anyway, that was that was
a huge break for us, not having a pellet mial
to be able to go down and do that. And
during that, there's about two weeks before that, that greenhouse
(11:51):
grower had come up to me and asked if I
had any organic steer manure, and so when he did,
I I mentioned to him, I said, hey, you know,
have you ever thought of maybe using wool pellets as
a nitrogen source? And I didn't know how much, you know,
(12:12):
nitrogen there was or but I had found a study
that just said wool isn't effective for lasuer for tomatoes
from the University of Berlin and anyway, so he wasn't
interested at first, but then he had called his consultant
from the University of Michigan, who was emeritus at the time,
(12:35):
and they were like, well, maybe we should run a trial.
So he called me up and as soon as we
made the pellets, we went down to the greenhouse and
they set up the trial and they were it was
taken him seventy six days to grow those tomatoes organically,
and with the wool pellets he could grow them in
(12:57):
thirty eight days. Wow, So it was half a time.
And that's when that's when the greenhouse grower and his consultant.
We're both like, oh, like m that that's that's too good.
That's that's amazing. And so the professor, the consultant, he
(13:19):
lined us up to go to Utah State and to
have you know, the University of Utah State replicate and
and actually verify our trial. And so that's what we did.
And you know, from there they found the release curve
of the wool showing that it's starting to provide nutrition
(13:42):
on day one and then it it lasts the whole season,
so it lasts over six months. And that was that
was just the nutrition, which was a surprise for all
of us, right because again when we started, we were
just thinking like it's water holding. So yeah, that was
(14:03):
that was kind of the development. And we've done a
study with the University of Vermont and and other universities
now and that's kind of where we started and started
getting it getting into the market.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Interesting talking with Albert Wilde again. Their website is wild
Valleyfarms dot com. Uh go check it out. It's a
pretty cool website and lots of on there besides just
the wool. So so this can be labeled them as
an organ as organic. Correct.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yeah, So we've got an armory listed and it's it's organic.
It just and honestly, like if anyone does come out
to the farm, we share in May. Users run the
first of May, and you know, you can watch as
the years come and should wool off and then we
(14:55):
just take it straight from there and and put it
into the middle like there's nothing else to happen to it.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Wow, that's interesting. So I was kind of joking about
coming out to the farm and visiting, but you can
actually come and do that. Oh yeah, yeah, and then
they can help. But can they help share too.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Well? I mean the shares actually come from Uruguay and
they're they're professional. Oh yeah, so like for me, it
takes me like forty five minutes to share a sheep
and they can do it in six minutes.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
So that's an amazing process to watch that sometimes when
they're like that, when they know what they're doing, it's crazy.
So now we have this product, so you know, did
you I'm just curious when you did that in your
wife's container their potted plants, did you notice an increase
in how they looked as well throughout the rest of
the season.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, I mean we noticed that they looked better, but
you know, you're just like, oh, well, I mean I
just assumed it was just because you know, they were
they were getting better water usage, right Like, I was
just like, oh, they look good. They looked, you know,
better than it seems like they ever did. But you know,
(16:13):
we didn't really know the notice of quick growth or
you know, other things, because my wife's podet plants, you know,
are are like bulbs, and you know they're not We
didn't start from seed with with them. You know, the
hanging baskets were hanging baskets that she had bought, and
(16:34):
so then we were just adding the wool pellets to
something that was already growing and beautiful. What we noticed
is just that they stayed looking beautiful. Because usually with
the hanging baskets, you know, you get them, they look beautiful,
and then you know, within a month or so, they're
not looking as good. You know, when you're adding you know,
a liquid fertilizer to them. But because of the peat
(16:58):
is actually hydrophobic, and the factor or the wedding agent
that they use on the the media kind of starts
to wear off. Then it doesn't hold the nutrition. That's
what we noticed with the wool pellets is the hanging
back baskets continued to look as good as they did
(17:19):
in the beginning.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Well. Talking again with Albert Wild Wild Valley Farms Wild
Valleyfarms dot com, are there have you found any restrictions
to using wool pellets in the in the garden around
anything in particular or is it pretty much open to turf, vegetables,
you know, flowers, gardens, whatever you may want to use
it for.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah, you know, it's it's new. Most people have never
even heard of using wool in the garden, right, but yeah,
every everything that we've ever tried it with has it.
She's had a fantastic result with And that's that's everything
from container gardening to you know, like, uh, your garden
(18:03):
just your regular garden, to even farm application. Uh, you know,
we've used it with now with a lot of different
farm applications. We grew five acres of corn, which is
a high nitrogen crop and it was fantastic.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
With the University of Vermont, we even they found that
the harvest was three days earlier, so the yields, especially
like in sandy soil, the yields were almost three times
the yield and then the harvest was three days earlier,
so and they did three different soil types. It was
it was a it's a very good study. If you
(18:41):
want to ever look that one up.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, I had the one from Vermont. I think as
a matter of fact, I think, yeah, that's it. You
had forwarded that to me, and when you go and
research it, that's one of the first ones that comes up,
and uh, great, great, great information there. So yeah, I
can just I just I just something about this this
spring kind of stirred my end and I think these
this idea and using these wool pellets to me, is
(19:04):
outstanding and it uses up that waste wool and it
really is a great product. And you know, since since
I have been doing more research on this, the other
thing I have found out, and I don't know if
you guys have gotten into this shed is arenners. They're
they're actually seeing it. They're using because it has landline
in the wool as a better deer and critter repelling.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yeah. So, uh, you know socially hearing Utah, Like for
us where I live, I'm in the deer are always
in the yard every day, right.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
And so yeah, someone had yeah, go ahead, someone had
mentioned that. Yeah, so we're seeing that someone had mentioned that,
and so we we started using that and it's very effective.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
There you go, Albert Wild Wild Valley Farms check out
their wild website Wild Valley Farms dot com. Appreciate you
spending time with us this morning. We'll talk to you
again in the springtime. Were gonna keep pushing this thing
because I think we're onto something here.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Well, thank you, Ron, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Good talking with you. All Right, we'll take a quick break.
We come back this spring. We had talked to the
Wooletts and they had just gotten into this as well,
and they're the ones that got us all started. We're
gonna check back in with the Woolets and find out
what's going on after the break. Here in the garden
with Ron Wilson. Not gardening questions, Ron has the answers
(20:41):
had one eight hundred and eighty two three talk You
are in the garden with Ron Wilson.
Welcome back here in the Garden with Ron Wilson. And
you know, wool isn't just for socks anymore. As a
matter of fact, we started talking this past spring trying
to stir the stir the pod a little bit about
using wool in our gardens. And I think I spurred
a lot of interest in this, as we had a
lot of emails going back and forth and doing a
(00:21):
lot of research and reading over the summer and learning
more about it. And I thought we'd come back around
again this today and spend a little bit more time
looking at the use of wool in the garden and
the landscapes. Sounds crazy, doesn't it, But there's an excess
of wool out there, and then why not if it works?
To find out why it works. And somebody who's got
(00:42):
a lot of history on how to use wool in
the garden and agricultural applications. He's from Wild Valley Farms.
Their website is outstanding. Check this out as Wild Valleyfarms
dot com. And he is mister Albert Wilde. Good morning sir,
Good morning Ron. Gad to have you on our show.
Appreciate it, man. I tell you what your website's outstanding.
(01:03):
First of all, I spent I think about a whole
day going through everything that you guys have on there.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Oh well, thank you and thanks for having us on
the show. That's just been a real work in progress.
So yeah, and it's been a fun journey.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Can we come and visit?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Oh absolutely, you know, the ranch is open anytime for
anyone to come and visit. So we actually live in
a small town. There's only two hundred people, so yeah,
we love.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Visitors, love it. And that's Croydon, Utah.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Right, Yeah, that's in Croydon, Croydon, Utah.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
So yeah, be sure and check it out. But go
to their website first of all, Wild Valleyfarms dot com
and you will you will learn more about what we're
going to talk about here this morning. So this past
spring I kind of stirred the pod a little bit,
starting to learn a little bit more about using wool
in the garden. It really has perked peauked my interest,
and I think it's an outstanding thing that we can
(02:07):
be doing here. So you've been experimenting with us for
probably the longest of anybody here in the United States
as far as doing this. How did you first get
started looking at other ways to use sheep's wool.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Well, so, I mean, I am a sixth generation sheep rancher,
so we've always had sheep here on the ranch in
that and I had started doing compost, and then my
wife had asked me if there was any way that
I could make it so that she didn't have to
(02:43):
water her plants as often, because she loves her plants
on the porch in that, and she was I think
she was thinking like a trip irrigation system. And anyway,
as a farmer, I was like, well, I've got some
wist wool. So I went and got some of the
waste well that we had laying in the barn and
stuffed around her plants. And then you know, she came
(03:08):
out and she's like, what are you doing? And I'm like, well,
this is like the wool will hold water, Like this
is gonna be great. And she at first was not
a believer. She was just like, oh, why why, But anyway,
we were able to go on vacation that summer for
seven days. We came home and no one has been
(03:30):
watering or taking care of the plants, and yet they
looked fantastic.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
And that's when she was like, hey, I think you've
got something. You're onto something there. So that's kind of
how we started.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
And had you heard about using wool like that before.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
No, you know, I'd never really heard of anyone using
like wool in a garden application, you know, not even
as a mall or anything. So I just I just
knew wool held water. I mean, you know, when we
have a sheep that you know, falls in in the
(04:11):
ditch or or it gets really you know, wet, right,
sheep becomes very very heavy.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
So it holds water. So so you experimented with that
and then everything just the light bulb went on and
you took it from there for folks to understand. And
I guess this waste wool. I mean, isn't all wool
used for making socks and wool products and all of that,
or what is waste wool?
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Okay? So yeah, waste wool is any wool that is
coarser like the microne. The diameter of the wolf fiber
is coarser, like it's bigger. And so there's a lot
of different types of breeds of sheep, and so the
different breeds will have different micron size of wool, and
(05:01):
those courser breeds, no one buys that wool for us,
like most of our sheep are where we run a
mostly a fine hair or a fine wool sheep, and
so most of the wool will go to socks or clothing.
But even with us, the belly or the back end
of the sheep where it gets a lot like the
(05:24):
belly because the sheep lays down and you know, it
gets a lot of what they call vegetable matter, which
is like can be sticks or manure or straw or
whatever in the wool and it gets matted down. Then
that wool is considered waste wall like they don't like
to to buy it as much. The value is very low.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
So you have these piles of waste wool that you've had,
you've dealt with for years. What did you do with
it before you started to figure out that we can
use this in our gardens?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Yeah, I mean basically you just threw it away. You know,
you may have like bags of it that you're like,
you know, sometimes people keep it around the farm because
you think, oh well, if if the wool price it
will be good next year, maybe I'll just keep it
and maybe that'll come up to be you know, ten
(06:24):
cents or something, but it usually, I mean, it never does, so,
I mean the wool market is very low. It's and
it's always kind of been that way.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Interesting talking with alberber since since World War Two. Got it,
Talking with Albert Wild Wild Valley Farms. Go to their
websites really Cool Wild Valley Farms dot com and check
them out. That out in the Utah a sheep rancher.
And so when you when you're raising sheep like this,
obviously you're doing it for the wool, but you're also
doing it for the meat as well. I'm assuming how
(07:00):
many sheep do you raise every year?
Speaker 2 (07:04):
So we have about twenty four hundred sheep wow, and
so most yeah, most of them will have, you know, twins,
so you almost you know, get double the the number wow,
so that you run during the summer.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
So you you used them both for the wool and
obviously for the meat as well.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
Correct, correct, yep.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Got it. Talking with Albert Wild Wild Valley Farms. Talking
about using wool in your guarden. Let's take a quick break,
we come back. We're going to find out so where
did he take it from there? How is it available?
And a whole lot more about using wool, sheep wool
in your garden. I think it's a great idea. Here
in the garden with Ron Wilson. Oh, you know what, Albert,
(07:51):
we are our producer. He has stepped out. We can't
take a break yet. He hasn't come back out to
the office yet, So stick with me. We're I don't
know where he went, but we're gonna keep on going
here talking with Albert Wilde. There he goes, now he's back. Now,
let's take the break with Albert Wilde here in the
garden with Ron Wilson.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Landscaping made easier with your personal yard.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Boy, he's hitting the garden and he's Ron Wilson. Remodeling
(08:34):
your basement into a wreck room, office or home. Jim Well,
don't forget to ventilate those spaces to protect your home
from decay. The Easy Breathed ventilation system exchanges trap, dirty,
damp air for cleaner, dryer, healthier air. We've had an
easy breeze system in our home for about ten years now,
and the air in our basement always feels fresh and clean.
Diy kits are available and right now get to your
(08:57):
minutestats plus twenty percent off every Easy breathe purchase call
eight six six eight two two seventy three twenty eight.
Hey folks, Gary Salvin here, I've trusted gutter brush for
twenty years. It's the easiest way to stop gutter cloggs
before they start. And right now you can save twenty
five percent and get free shipping with coupon code Gary
(09:17):
twenty five at gutterbrush dot com. No tools, no hassle,
just slide it in and you're protected all season long.
Now don't wait. This limited time offers end soon. That's
gutterbrush dot com code Gary twenty five or call eight
eight eight three ninety seven ninety four thirty three.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Welcome back. You're in the garden with Ron Wilson's special
guest this morning, mister Albert Wilde of the Wild Valley Farms.
He's a sheep rancher over two thousand sheep. Go to
their website check it out it's wild all Farms dot
com and learn more about it and trying to figure
out what to do with all that waste wool, and
come to find out, the experimented with it in his
(10:11):
wife's potted plants. They were gone for almost a week
and kept them water while they were gone. So so
you looked at that, you said, okay, we got something here.
How'd you take it the next step?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Well, I mean the hardest thing that happened was actually
trying to take the wool and then stuff it around
the plants, and so I got I've got to make
it easier. And my friend who owned a pallet company
and he did recycling, he recycled pallets, but he actually
(10:48):
ended up buying a pellet mill that makes wood pellets,
and so when that happened, he you know, he told me,
and I just joking, he said, hey, what if I
brought some wool down and we ran some wool through
your you know, pellet mill and to see if we
(11:08):
could make wool pellets. And to my surprise, he was
like okay, because the guy that had owned the pellet
mial before had already promised a chicken farmer that he
would give him a week to run chicken maneuver through
it and make chicken maneuver pellets, and so he was like,
at the end of the week, just bring the wool down,
(11:29):
and he's like, you know, we'll just it'll help clean
out the chicken manure. So anyway, that was that was
a huge break for us, not having a pellet mial
to be able to go down and do that. And
during that, there's about two weeks before that, that greenhouse
(11:51):
grower had come up to me and asked if I
had any organic steer manure, and so when he did,
I I mentioned to him, I said, hey, you know,
have you ever thought of maybe using wool pellets as
a nitrogen source? And I didn't know how much, you know,
(12:12):
nitrogen there was or but I had found a study
that just said wool isn't effective for lasuer for tomatoes
from the University of Berlin and anyway, so he wasn't
interested at first, but then he had called his consultant
from the University of Michigan, who was emeritus at the time,
(12:35):
and they were like, well, maybe we should run a trial.
So he called me up and as soon as we
made the pellets, we went down to the greenhouse and
they set up the trial and they were it was
taken him seventy six days to grow those tomatoes organically,
and with the wool pellets he could grow them in
(12:57):
thirty eight days. Wow, So it was half a time.
And that's when that's when the greenhouse grower and his consultant.
We're both like, oh, like m that that's that's too good.
That's that's amazing. And so the professor, the consultant, he
(13:19):
lined us up to go to Utah State and to
have you know, the University of Utah State replicate and
and actually verify our trial. And so that's what we did.
And you know, from there they found the release curve
of the wool showing that it's starting to provide nutrition
(13:42):
on day one and then it it lasts the whole season,
so it lasts over six months. And that was that
was just the nutrition, which was a surprise for all
of us, right because again when we started, we were
just thinking like it's water holding. So yeah, that was
(14:03):
that was kind of the development. And we've done a
study with the University of Vermont and and other universities
now and that's kind of where we started and started
getting it getting into the market.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Interesting talking with Albert Wilde again. Their website is wild
Valleyfarms dot com. Uh go check it out. It's a
pretty cool website and lots of on there besides just
the wool. So so this can be labeled them as
an organ as organic. Correct.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Yeah, So we've got an armory listed and it's it's organic.
It just and honestly, like if anyone does come out
to the farm, we share in May. Users run the
first of May, and you know, you can watch as
the years come and should wool off and then we
(14:55):
just take it straight from there and and put it
into the middle like there's nothing else to happen to it.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Wow, that's interesting. So I was kind of joking about
coming out to the farm and visiting, but you can
actually come and do that. Oh yeah, yeah, and then
they can help. But can they help share too.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Well? I mean the shares actually come from Uruguay and
they're they're professional. Oh yeah, so like for me, it
takes me like forty five minutes to share a sheep
and they can do it in six minutes.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
So that's an amazing process to watch that sometimes when
they're like that, when they know what they're doing, it's crazy.
So now we have this product, so you know, did
you I'm just curious when you did that in your
wife's container their potted plants, did you notice an increase
in how they looked as well throughout the rest of
the season.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, I mean we noticed that they looked better, but
you know, you're just like, oh, well, I mean I
just assumed it was just because you know, they were
they were getting better water usage, right Like, I was
just like, oh, they look good. They looked, you know,
better than it seems like they ever did. But you know,
(16:13):
we didn't really know the notice of quick growth or
you know, other things, because my wife's podet plants, you know,
are are like bulbs, and you know they're not We
didn't start from seed with with them. You know, the
hanging baskets were hanging baskets that she had bought, and
(16:34):
so then we were just adding the wool pellets to
something that was already growing and beautiful. What we noticed
is just that they stayed looking beautiful. Because usually with
the hanging baskets, you know, you get them, they look beautiful,
and then you know, within a month or so, they're
not looking as good. You know, when you're adding you know,
a liquid fertilizer to them. But because of the peat
(16:58):
is actually hydrophobic, and the factor or the wedding agent
that they use on the the media kind of starts
to wear off. Then it doesn't hold the nutrition. That's
what we noticed with the wool pellets is the hanging
back baskets continued to look as good as they did
(17:19):
in the beginning.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Well. Talking again with Albert Wild Wild Valley Farms Wild
Valleyfarms dot com, are there have you found any restrictions
to using wool pellets in the in the garden around
anything in particular or is it pretty much open to turf, vegetables,
you know, flowers, gardens, whatever you may want to use
it for.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Yeah, you know, it's it's new. Most people have never
even heard of using wool in the garden, right, but yeah,
every everything that we've ever tried it with has it.
She's had a fantastic result with And that's that's everything
from container gardening to you know, like, uh, your garden
(18:03):
just your regular garden, to even farm application. Uh, you know,
we've used it with now with a lot of different
farm applications. We grew five acres of corn, which is
a high nitrogen crop and it was fantastic.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
With the University of Vermont, we even they found that
the harvest was three days earlier, so the yields, especially
like in sandy soil, the yields were almost three times
the yield and then the harvest was three days earlier,
so and they did three different soil types. It was
it was a it's a very good study. If you
(18:41):
want to ever look that one up.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, I had the one from Vermont. I think as
a matter of fact, I think, yeah, that's it. You
had forwarded that to me, and when you go and
research it, that's one of the first ones that comes up,
and uh, great, great, great information there. So yeah, I
can just I just I just something about this this
spring kind of stirred my end and I think these
this idea and using these wool pellets to me, is
(19:04):
outstanding and it uses up that waste wool and it
really is a great product. And you know, since since
I have been doing more research on this, the other
thing I have found out, and I don't know if
you guys have gotten into this shed is arenners. They're
they're actually seeing it. They're using because it has landline
in the wool as a better deer and critter repelling.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Yeah. So, uh, you know socially hearing Utah, Like for
us where I live, I'm in the deer are always
in the yard every day, right.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
And so yeah, someone had yeah, go ahead, someone had
mentioned that. Yeah, so we're seeing that someone had mentioned that,
and so we we started using that and it's very effective.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
There you go, Albert Wild Wild Valley Farms check out
their wild website Wild Valley Farms dot com. Appreciate you
spending time with us this morning. We'll talk to you
again in the springtime. Were gonna keep pushing this thing
because I think we're onto something here.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Well, thank you, Ron, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
Good talking with you. All Right, we'll take a quick break.
We come back this spring. We had talked to the
Wooletts and they had just gotten into this as well,
and they're the ones that got us all started. We're
gonna check back in with the Woolets and find out
what's going on after the break. Here in the garden
with Ron Wilson. Not gardening questions, Ron has the answers
(20:41):
had one eight hundred and eighty two three talk You
are in the garden with Ron Wilson.
In The Garden with Ron Wilson News
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