HEALTH CHALLENGES made him realise that the foods available in the supermarkets did not provide enough nutrients, so Joshua Forte read up as much as he could about growing nutrient-dense foods.
Forte, owner of Red Diamond Compost, said five years ago when he acquired Apollo, his pet green iguana, he became interested in growing foods and learning about the specific green, leafy vegetables such as kale and collard greens it would eat.
However, when Forde himself took sick, he delved further into growing nutrient-dense foods that would supplement his diet. He had suddenly become lethargic, suffering extreme fatigue and nausea.
“That is where I learned about the deficiencies in conventionally grown foods. My mind is always going but my body just was not able to keep up. So having some knowledge about nutrient-dense foods, and the deficiencies in the foods we eat, I knew that what I was consuming was not putting me in the optimum health,” he said.
He now adheres to a strictly vegan diet and said he had no health complaints.
About a year ago he started developing not only plant composts, worm castings and bio-char but also plant tonics made from the Sargassum Seaweed.
Hopefully in the next two or three months, he expects to have some of his products commercially available on the local market.
Forte said worm castings came from when composting worms were fed food scraps. When they passed through the worm’s body, they turned into nutrient-rich compound for growing plants.
With regard to his plant tonic, Forte said there were other plant tonics but they were made from kelp, but with the sargassum so readily available here, he decided to research and see what he could develop.
“We had the great influx of the sargassum . . . . I found a few research papers showing a breakdown of the nutrients the sargassum contains. Looking at it I realised that it can be used in the same way as kelp,” he said.
Though he had no science background but rather favoured business subjects while at Alexandra School, Forte said he made a connection with a soil scientist in Texas who has been mentoring and guiding him as far as the composting process was concerned.
He explained his Red Diamond Compost was to help famers, landscapers and horticulturalists to grow healthier plants, but most importantly nutrient-dense foods.
He said he was working with some farmers to test the products with their crop. He has used them extensively in his small kitchen garden at his Weston, St James home with “great results”. However, he warned that not every plant would be able to tolerate the plant tonic.
“There was only one issue that I had at first. Because of the high salt content, it would affect the sensitive plants. I had some mustard green and got good results – they started to spring up faster – but the peanuts did not like it so I had to review the application rates.”
Another plus Forte noted was that he had less snails and pests after applications.
Today, Forte grows what he needs, adding he buys very few items from the supermarkets. He has planted sun chokes, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, collards and corn at home, but is hoping to get into large-scale agricultural production.
“I can see the scope of the industry here, the potential it has for certain areas for growth, especially specialty crops that are not usually grown here,” he said.
