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Published:3/1/2006

Should your garden pharmacy include organic and natural controls?

The organics trend is finally becoming mainstream in the United States and the term “organic” itself is no longer reserved for hippies in Haight-Ashbury or a handful of people building some commune in the mountains of New York. Much of this is due to the recent popularity and widespread availability of organic foods from top-notch retailers like Whole Foods, but natural foods can be found virtually anywhere now, from your smallest local specialty store to Target and other mass merchants.

A survey conducted in 2005 by Whole Foods Market Inc. tracking the organics trend reported more than half of respondents are buying organic products because they believe organic foods are better for the environment and better for their health. And as prices for these products continue to drop, closing the gap between organics and non-organics, more and more customers are gravitating toward natural alternatives when it comes to what they purchase and eat.

Our industry has a tremendous opportunity right now to capitalize on the boom in organic foods and organic lifestyles by really promoting the natural alternatives available to gardeners. Some garden centers got into the organic niche early and are currently growing their customer base by offering both the natural products and information needed to begin an organic approach to gardening, but many have not. For some of you, it’s time to bring the cottonseed meal out of the dark corner and feature it as a natural fertilizer, once again.

We caught up with Julie Versman, marketing director at AgraQuest, a biotechnology company in Davis, California that focuses on discovering and developing environmentally-friendly pest management products for commercial and residential use, to find out more about the state of organic products at the garden center level. Since 2003, AgraQuest has offered Serenade Garden Disease Control, an organic disease control spray for use by home gardeners and the demand continues to grow each year. This is true not just for Serenade Garden but other less-toxic, natural gardening products, as well.

“Organics are finally catching on,” Julie says. “We might have been ahead of the curve for the general public in the past.” Her comments are based on not only the increase in sales of organics for the commercial and retail markets it serves but also from the number of distributors requesting the product based on conversations with retail customers.

So what are gardeners looking for when considering organic alternatives? After efficacy, Julie believes the number one interest is in safety - safety for pets and children playing in or near gardens and the safety of the overall environment. This might be just the ticket for growing the organic department at your store: Many organic products are safer for kids and pets. Make sure you have eye-catching signage promoting this fact and be sure to mention it to customers as they peruse your pest and disease aisle.

Although Serenade is a very safe product, Julie warns that not ALL organic products are safe. Sulfur-based fungicides, for example, can cause irritation to skin and lungs and neem oil-based products are not safe for beneficial insects and bees, she says.

In the past, the reluctance of many retailers to get into organics has been due to questions about the effectiveness of natural products compared to their synthetic cousins. There are plenty of natural products on the market and many are not completely tested or certified organic, yet they work well. But it’s difficult to change consumer habits and encourage them to buy organic without clearly stating the effectiveness of the products. When AgraQuest introduced Serenade Garden Disease Control to the residential market, it was only after more than five years of use in commercial applications from agriculture to greenhouse growing. Not to mention the fact that Serenade Garden was one of the first fungicides to receive registration from the new National Organic Program (N.O.P.) administered by the Environmental Protection Agency. When stocking organic products, look for N.O.P. or OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) information on the packaging and be sure to mention the importance of these designations to your customers.

If we hope to grow our industry by attracting the next generation of gardening customers and beyond, attention to the trend toward organic and natural product is imperative. If you conduct customer surveys, consider asking if they buy organic foods. Promote the benefits of organic products through communications like e-newsletters, in-store signage and organic gardening seminars and educate your employees about organic products so they can help carry the message to your customers.

There is still plenty of potential within this segment and if you’ve tried organics in the past with questionable results, you might very well have been head of the curve. With more and more organic food retailers opening up in every city across the country, the perfect time to grab some new customers with environmentally-friendly products is right now.

Check it out

Serenade for professional and Serenade Garden for residential use are available from distributors nationwide. Garden centers can stock the product in RTU and concentrated forms for effective and safe control of a broad spectrum of the most common fungal and bacterial garden diseases. To learn more, visit www.serenadegarden.com.