23/06/2026
I’m in a bus and I’m seeing Sugarcane growing out through the windows. It’s reminded me of a story that made me laugh.
We were doing our Potting mix trial at the nursery and I got a phone call from a guy from Far North Queensland. He had the slow Queensland drawl, I started to smile, he’d heard about our potting mix trial, and he wanted to know why we weren’t using his potting mix.
Mate I’ve never heard of your potting mix, we just bought the Australian Standard Premium mixes that were available here.
“Well you should be trialling my mix, the gardeners around here tell me it’s great, we sell a mile of it, Bunnings sell it for $3.99 up here.”
I nearly had palpitations, $3.99!!!! Mate what’s in it? You must get what ever’s in it, for free.
“Well we sort of do get it for free, we are right next door to the sugarcane factory, we get the bi product, we compost it, and put it in bags, Bunnings sells heaps.”
Well have you grown anything in it? “What do you mean? The gardeners love the stuff, we sell it by the truck load.”
Our potting mix trial has already started but if you want, you can courier me a bag and I’ll grow plants in it. “I’ll organise that, you’re going to love this stuff.”
It turned up weeks later it cost $48.00 just to courier one bag to us. I did as promised, I put holes in the back for drainage, cut out 4 patches on the front and planted Cos Lettuce. They got watered over head by our sprinklers, the plants didn’t grow a new leaf. They just didn’t grow.
Isn’t that interesting, he thought his product was fabulous because it sold, and because it sold, gardeners must love it.
This is what’s killing the Nursery Industry. You’d think the people who are making the mixes would be growing plants in them all the time. You think they are gardeners don’t you? They aren’t, they make potting mix and they put it in bags. They let you do the growing, when the plants don’t grow you blame yourself.
You’re a brown thumb.
