Dr. Dirt

Some call me Dad, a few call me son, some call me Coach Josh, and there are a few hundred kids I’ve read to who think I’m Dr. Seuss.

But here, I am Dr. Dirt.

I run a soil diagnostics lab where I use a microscope, refractometer, spectrophotometer, and advanced soil and plant tissue reagent tests. After testing, I make it a priority to help my customers truly understand their data and what their plants need.

To help fix those needs, I offer a targeted line of eight amendments: kelp meal, alfalfa meal, feather meal, fish bone meal, blood meal, langbeinite, elemental sulfur, oyster shell flour, and garden gypsum. I also provide worm castings to help jumpstart crucial microbial life.

Finally, I teach an affordable bacterial culture course where customers—now students—learn to cultivate beneficial microbes like Lactobacillus and purple non-sulfur bacteria. At the end of the course, everyone leaves with a small educational vial of live culture.

My immediate goal is data-driven solutions that reduce agricultural waste and runoff into our watershed. Being here in Hawaii, with our porous volcanic ground and the constant threat of invasive flora, this concern is multiplied tenfold. My hope is to reduce the environmental damage caused not only by synthetic fertilizers, but also by the misguided overuse of natural and organic products.

My long term goal is making this all fun and understandable for the common person, starting with the kids. It's why I will always bring FREE STICKERS and a book in case any child wants to escape into the world of imaginative reading.

Hope to see you there,