A bitter dispute between a compost maker and a nursery owner drags in soil experts and the courts and makes the Santa Clarita Valley the site of. . . : A Dirty Little War

Gary Dugar, a big, burly man with dirt under his fingernails, says he’s been getting applauded lately when he walks into restaurants in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Word has spread among his supporters that he’s filed an $8.1-million lawsuit against a competitor who had launched an aggressive offensive against Dugar’s product.

Both men sell compost.

Nursery owner Richard Green has spent thousands of dollars running newspaper and radio ads warning people to stay away from Dugar’s product. Last week, Green’s campaign kicked into even higher gear when workers began blanketing the valley with tens of thousands of door hangers.

Green, who owns Green Landscape Nursery, one of the valley’s largest, peddles compost that contains redwood shavings. Dugar’s compost contains horse manure and race-track bedding straw that’s been used and then discarded by a Ventura County mushroom farmer.

War of the Composts

Which compost is better? That’s debatable in this rift, which folks here are calling the “Compost War,” as well as some unprintable things. When the battle lines are drawn, Green enjoys the moral support of the valley’s other nurseries. Dugar, on the other hand, keeps testimonials from happy customers who praise his compost.

The stakes for compost dealers are high in the Santa Clarita Valley, where the bumper crop is new houses and the market is ripe for selling tons of compost to backyard gardeners trying to start new lawns.

Landscape novices who buy tract homes with dirt yards must invest hundreds if not thousands of dollars on compost, sod, fertilizer, trees, shrubs and flowers. And, in this valley, a green lawn is not just desirable, it’s written into contracts. People who move into new houses built by Valencia Co., for instance, must have their front yards landscaped within six months, according to the homeowners association that enforces restrictions.

Green said he launched his compost crusade to protect the investment of his customers who have been dragging dead and ailing plants into his Saugus nursery after planting them with Dugar’s compost. Green contends that the high salt content in Dugar’s compost can burn plant roots, leaving discolored leaves and grass and sometimes killing the plant.

“We are sending our plants out to suicide. It angers me,” said Green, who calls the compost “liquid fire.”

Astounded by Green’s media assault, Dugar and his wife, Debbie, filed a lawsuit in San Fernando Superior Court in May after compost sales at their 8-year-old family business, called Nutri-Soil, began plummeting.

According to court documents, customers’ need for the Dugars’ compost was once insatiable. Each month, the couple sold more than 1,600 cubic yards of compost--one cubic yard fills a small Datsun pickup truck. That’s roughly 1.9 million pounds sold a month.

In the lawsuit, the couple claims that Green has libeled their business, engaged in false advertising and unfair competition practices. They claim Green also is guilty of slander for calling them “bandits” who are “ripping people in this valley off.”

“He actually went and told people they would have to dig up soil and take it to the dump,” Dugar complained. “They paint such a horror story . . . they told them our stuff was going to kill their sod.”

The Dugars obtained a temporary restraining order from a San Fernando Superior Court judge in June preventing Green from criticizing the product in ads. But, in July, another Superior Court judge, who grows camellias, denied the Dugars a preliminary injunction that would have continued the ban on Green’s advertising.

Green’s attorney, Marc H. Berry, told Judge Richard A. Lavine that large amounts of the compost would “burn, fry, destroy, mutilate, ruin” plants. Afterward, Lavine volunteered that he thought Green would probably win the case if it goes to trial.

However, the Dugars--perceived by some as hard-working mom-and-pop dirt sellers up against a wealthy nursery owner--remain unswayed by the judicial horticulturist’s opinion.

Seller’s Testimonial

“Once people have had the mushroom compost, in my opinion, they’ve become absolutely sold on it,” said Debbie Dugar, after digging her hand into a mound of the moist, dark compost.

The Dugars’ sales office is a small trailer and, without air-conditioning, the heat is sometimes stifling. The compost, smelling vaguely of a barnyard, rests nearby in a large pile that sits on the edge of a rutted dirt driveway. The horse manure is mixed with ingredients like decomposed straw, poultry manure, rock lime, peat moss and cottonseed meal and hulls.

Cost is one reason for mushroom compost’s popularity. Consumers, often financially strapped after purchasing their new homes, sometimes choose mushroom compost after discovering it’s much cheaper than others. It also has a psychological advantage in that mushroom compost can be sold in bulk--a truck driver will dump it on a customer’s driveway.

But redwood compost is contained in bags small enough to be slung over a shoulder. Customers are frightened off when they hear it will take 60 bags or so to mulch a lawn, some nursery owners say.

Some people swear by mushroom compost.

“It’s just wonderful stuff,” bragged Wesley Driver, who has been recommending mushroom compost to his adult-education horticulture classes in the Santa Clarita Valley for almost 20 years. “All my students have had terrific results.”

Another booster is Don Tilquist, a sales manager for Cal-Turf, a large statewide sod company, which sells some sod through the Dugars’ firm.

‘No Problems’

“I’ve seen no problems with anybody using it in all these places I’ve seen--well over a couple of thousand,” Tilquist said. “I have used it in my own backyard . . . it’s very high in nutrients.”

But others curse it.

Months ago, Valencia homeowner Ernie Arboles scooped some of the compost in a coffee can and took it to a private soil laboratory. The leaves on his myrtle trees and the purple-flowering shrubs were becoming discolored and the plants seemed to be struggling. The lab pinpointed the culprit.

“The plants burned because the soil was so salty,” Arboles said. “In retrospect, I feel we would do it differently.”

The experience of Mike Owens of Sylmar was more devastating. As a beginner in the nursery business two years ago, Owens planted 12,000 seedlings in a mixture that included mushroom compost. He watched the acacias, oleanders, pines and all the other plants suffer a “slow death.”

Experts elsewhere are divided on the qualities and problems of mushroom compost.

Consumers should not be afraid to use it as long as the compost is applied in moderation and not used in poorly drained areas, said Peter Fliegel, a plant pathologist with Los Angeles County. “If I had a garden, I would use it,” he said.

Others, however, referred questions to Gary Hickman, a farm adviser with the University of California cooperative extension in Stockton.

In 1984, Hickman analyzed several types of soil additives, including mushroom compost. He concluded that the high salt content of the mushroom compost would pose a particular hazard to small plants. Instead, he recommends peat moss and redwood compost.

Hickman, however, questioned Green’s tactics. “I wouldn’t put notices on people’s doors. That doesn’t sound too smart.”

Mutant Radishes

Green found his own experts to analyze a bucketful of Dugar’s compost. At one laboratory, radish seeds sown in pure mixture died, he said. Radishes planted in soil containing 25% mushroom compost sprouted as mutants.

“We didn’t know how bad the product was until we took it into the soil lab,” Green said.

The Dugars scoff at the experts’ conclusions and say they wouldn’t have stayed in business for so long if their customers weren’t satisfied. They acknowledge that their product contains salt, but they say the compost is no threat when used in proper proportions with topsoil. Nursery experts concede that the salt problem can be diluted with heavy waterings.

“I don’t care if it’s made out of truck inner tubes,” Debbie Dugar said of the compost. “It works. Maybe all his soil scientists ought to go back to school.” The Dugars claim that greed motivates their opponent. “They compete with each other in selling products,” said David B. Vogt, the couple’s attorney. “I think that’s the crux of the problem.”

Squabble Amuses

But Green denies the charge, saying he specializes in landscaping and plant sales, whereas the Dugars primarily sell soil, sod and compost.

Meanwhile, the feud is being closely watched by the valley’s other nursery owners.

“It’s kind of a comedy out here between the two,” said Sharon Korn, part owner of Sand Canyon Nursery. “There is enough business for everybody. It’s kind of comical to see what’s going on. There is no sense being that way with each other.”

No one at the five Santa Clarita Valley nurseries contacted by a reporter recommended mushroom compost.

But some hesitated at publicly bad-mouthing the product out of fear of getting pulled into the litigation.

“Hurrah for Green! If he has the money to take a chance on this, more power to him,” said one nursery manager who asked not to be named. “It’s about time someone spoke up for all of us out here.”

A bitter dispute between a compost maker and a

nursery owner drags in soil experts and the courts

and makes the Santa Clarita Valley the site of . . .