February 16,2008

Submitted by Dynamite Gold Director Judy Sinner

These are my petunias last summer and fall, after treating them with our new CCF (Concentrated Compost Formula plant growth enhancer) and Prescription Treatment for Home and Gardens. They are in a west-facing window box against a low E window, and they get brutal mid to late afternoon sun in the summer plus the reflected heat from the window, so they kind of struggle.....and are usually looking like they grew next to a nuclear power plant by September, all scraggly and leggy. This year, I pruned off all the spindly growth and all the blooms, then treated them as above, in August.

The result is the top photo, they were revitalized and just went crazy with blooms within a few weeks.

The second photo was taken on Thanksgiving day! This was after several nights of 15 degree temps. Usually petunias are toast in this Eastern Washington climate, by mid-October when we generally get our first hard frost.

The bottom photo was taken a couple weeks later in early December, after a week of really brutal low temperatures, which finally froze the blossoms. But you can see the leaves are still hardy and viable, and there were buds still on the plants! It was so cold that the leaves were actually stiff with ice crystals, just a couple hours before I took this photo.

This is amazing proof that CCF is acting almost like a natural anti-freeze. It was so nice to look out the window and see these plants still blooming away for a couple months after they are usually totally dead sticks. The implications of CCF for crops, pasture and really all plants is mind-boggling. Even a few degrees of frost protection can be the difference here in the Yakima Valley for the fruit growers in the spring, and for the wine grapes in the fall when they race to get them harvested before the first hard frost. Not to mention it would be great to have healthier pasture for a few weeks longer in the fall. I think we have another winner!