Together with his partners, Richard Specht runs the Piluweri nursery in Müllheim-Hügelheim. A total of around 60 different types of vegetables are being grown there. The nursery is a pure organic entity; it produces vegetables according to Demeter guidelines. In cultivation, the growers rely on organic sheep's wool pellets from floraPell Düngeprodukte LLC.
What is your main focus?
"The main part is diverse vegetable cultivation with over 60 different vegetable species on 40 hectares of open land and on 1 hectare of protected cultivation under glass and film."
Where does fertilization come into play?
"In the past, we fertilized both in the greenhouse and in the open field. Today, we mostly fertilize in the open field because the Nitrogen supply in the greenhouse is provided by our own compost and intensive silage mulch use."
For which crops do you use floraPell?
"Here, we do not have any restrictions. We use floraPell on all of our vegetable crops because it is suitable for virtually all crops."
What quantity and dosage do you use?
"Fertilization is done according to the needs of the different crops, referencing the measured N-min values and observing current fertilizer regulations."
How have yields changed with floraPell?
"The positive yield development that we have been recording comes from the sustainable N supply. We are very satisfied there."
How do soils change when using floraPell?
"Many aspects are important for our soils, such as compost and proper tillage. floraPell also plays a role in this, really bein one of the building blocks."
What distinguishes floraPell from other fertilizer products? Where are the clearest advantages?
"floraPell provides us with a slow-flowing N-release over a long period of time. This is very important for many of our vegetable crops. Many organic Nitrogen fertilizers work too fast and this means they are not sustainable enough."
Many other organic fertilizers, such as horn shavings, come from factory farming. Specht: "There's not even a way to track where they actually come from. We reject that. In addition, and this is fundamental, we know that floraPell will always provide good quality and a good nitrogen supply. There has even been a study on it from the Humboldt University in Berlin."
How did you become aware of floraPell?
"We have been using floraPell since 2014, first in a trial and from 2015 as the only organic N commercial fertilizer. We found the fertilizer through expert research at the time and, as you can see, have stuck with it."
For more information:
Gärtnerei Piluweri 
Richard Specht
Am Stockacker 1
79379 Müllheim-Hügelheim
Telefon: 07631 936100
[email protected]