Growers Secret

The Grower’s Secret Story began in 1995 on a mushroom farm on Maui with a phone call that started a collaboration between two long time friends, lab partners and plant pathologists, Bryan Hiromoto and Wesley Chun, both have degrees in plant pathology from U of Hawaii. Together, they identified several species of edible mushrooms that produced nematicidal compounds. One mushroom was found to produce a compound that significantly stimulates plant growth. In 1998, Advanced Biological Research, LLC (ABR better known as Albert Pleus, Bryan Hiromoto, Randy Harve) was formed and the process to produce large quantities of this compound in a liquid fermentation culture was developed. Field validation was conducted in Hawaii and by third party researchers with the support of a federal grant. By 2003, large bioreactor incubation was established and the growth enhancer was sold commercially as Liquid Compost Factor and in retail stores such as Ace Hardware, KMart, and Long's Drugs as PGE.