Nampa, Idaho-TerraLife Inc. reports sales of its Save-a-Tree fertilizer, which has found a devoted following for restoring health to dying fruit trees, exceeded 90,000 gallons last year, and more growth is expected this year after being awarded the 675,000-member National Home Gardening Club’s seal of approval. The organic product, which was tested by more than 100 NHGC panel members over a three-month period, is featured in the organization’s magazine Gardening How-To. “Last year we sold more than 75,000 gallons of Save-a-Tree in the Nampa-Boise area alone,” said Jos Zamzow, TerraLife vice president. “It is particularly popular with people raising fruit trees. It has been so successful in organic gardening circles here that we are concentrating on national distribution this year. There is a much greater focus on organic gardening and products that are safe for the environment.” Calloway’s Nursery, Inc. and Cornelius Nursery, Inc. recently introduced Save-a-Tree at 23 locations in Texas, and additional outlets have signed on in Fremont, Calif., Salt Lake City, Spokane, Wash., and Boise. Save-a-Tree was concocted 20 years ago by Jos’s father Jim Zamzow, popularly known as Dr. Jim, who started by giving his Idaho nursery customers a brown liquid organic fertilizer in used two-liter soda bottles. Customers kept coming back, the family recalls, and after his first 55-gallon batch was depleted he named the product Save-a-Tree and started selling it. Save-a-Tree’s recipe is a secret, but is known to contain nitrogen and phosphate in a base of sugar cane molasses, selected because it smells good, does not attract ants, and discourages nematodes.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain