“I came across Johnson/Su applications in three different presentations at our annual Western Slope Farm, Food, and Soils Conference in 2024. The data sold me and I immediately began ordering it.
In 2025, I discovered Colville Compost and have been ordering from Don ever since. His customer service is excellent, responsive, and genuine. The product has proven itself in the field.
Prior to using Johnson/Su, we had high mortality rates and ‘failure to thrive’ across the board in our landscape installations. When we started using Johnson/Su, roots on perennials and grasses entered the soil by an inch within the first week. Our tree failure rate on my crews’ installs disappeared.
I appreciate most that it’s a natural product derived from botanical “waste” that typically is so hard to repurpose: the hard, brown, dry stuff that takes so much longer to decompose. I appreciate that it’s an affordable cottage industry product not monopolized by Big Ag or private equity. It’s “ours”, made by people like you and me, for people like you and me: gardeners, farmers, landscapers, ecologists. People of the Land. The people that care, doing the work to save the planet in regenerative, closed loop systems.
Our Colorado Rocky Mountain soils are notoriously hard to work with. Inoculating our plantings with Colville Compost has made a notable impact on our landscape projects AND our margins. I wouldn’t plant without it – not on our commercial/residential projects, and certainly not in my own personal plantings. Don’s product rocks.”
“I bought a second batch of Don's Johnson–Su this year and initial results are encouraging. I got exceptional germination across 18 different varieties of vegetable starts (600+ plants) after giving each seed a quick squirt of extract. For inoculating plug trays and 72-cell 1020 flats, I use 2 tablespoons in 16 ounces of water — my ‘extractor’ is a ½-gallon milk jug shaken vigorously, then strained through a paint strainer. Emergence was ahead of schedule and plant vigor is excellent — a totally different experience from average germination and marginal plant health when not inoculated. I even had 20% germination of unstratified lavender seeds using the extract; the non-extract batch had zero.”
“Obviously, they've figured out how to make good JSC, and it makes a difference in my garden. I inoculate seeds as above and use a very weak aerated extract as a foliar a couple of times a year.”
This photo is of Jeff's garden. The lush plants were planted with Johnson–Su compost from Colville Compost. The poorer-looking plants nearby did not get the inoculation.