[compost_tea] Re: back pack sprayers to use for compost teas?

From: <reidchris_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 04:00:06 -0000

Ted Peterson said: If we had balked at using the sprayer because the
customer had cleaned it to his specification, we would have been out
of business fast. We, of course, recommended thorough cleaning and
flushing but you just never know for sure unless you do it
yourself. Now, I don't know about you but if my customer has a
field hand who does all the cleaning, I have to rely on that hand
and work with him/her to make sure we have a good relationship.
That way, my customer is happy, the hand is happy and we get what we
want.


Reply:

Everyone has their own way of working with customers and relating to
them, and practices differ in different parts of the world, I'm sure.

I had a landscape architect instructor one time give me advice that
I felt he had branded across the top of my forehead: Keep control
of the process!" He was talking about not letting someone do an
installation of my design without being there to make sure it got
done as specified.

But I take the message to heart. I take my Bob brewer to the site
with my container for brewing, us the client's hose and well water
but my ingredients, I spray, and I clean up. If there's a problem,
it's in something I did. As Ted says, "You never know unless you do
it yourself."

I would fear that the client's sprayer could be a cause of poor leaf
assays or results, and the long term risk I would be concerned about
in Ted's scenario is a P*ssing contest between owner and you/me, the
contractor, to the effect of "See? Compost tea doesn't work." At
the point where one has to look for the reason why, some customers
will be amenable to discovering its their equipment or personnel's
actions that led to problems, and others will not. As long as
everything is working, then there's no problem. Is there a way to
provide a training session for the employee and make sure they
recognize a biofilm and where to look for one? That might be good.

In cases where these are major spraying jobs and customer's
equipment must be used, I would be interested in Elaine's or others'
feedback about what helps make this scenario work best.


To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
compost_tea-unsubscribe_at_yahoogroups.com

 

Yahoo! Groups Links

To visit your group on the web, go to:
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/compost_tea/

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
 compost_tea-unsubscribe_at_yahoogroups.com

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
 http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/




Received on Tue Dec 16 2003 - 23:22:10 EST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Tue Feb 07 2012 - 14:14:57 EST