We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Andrew Allen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andrew below.

Hi Andrew , thanks for joining us today. Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned while working at a prior job?

One of the most important lessons I learned before starting SD Microbes came from working with and around different soil companies throughout San Diego.

At the time, I was already deep into growing, soil biology, composting, and trying to understand what actually made plants thrive. I had worked with different companies and started seeing the same problem over and over again: a lot of products looked good on the surface, but the foundation was weak. Some companies were bulking up mixes with cheap filler, too much manure, poorly made compost, or ingredients that were chosen because they were inexpensive instead of because they helped the plant.

That stuck with me.

I started realizing that most people buying soil had no idea what was really in the bag or in the truckload. They trusted the company to do it right. And when that soil failed, the customer usually blamed themselves. They thought they overwatered, underwatered, planted wrong, or just “didn’t have a green thumb.” But a lot of times, the problem started long before the customer ever touched the product.

The biggest lesson I took from that experience was that shortcuts always show up later.

You can cut corners on inputs. You can use cheap compost. You can bulk a soil mix with ingredients that make the margin look better. But eventually, the plant tells the truth. The customer sees it. The garden sees it. The farm sees it.

That lesson became one of the foundations of SD Microbes.

I believe soil balancing starts at the compost level. If the compost is poor quality, contaminated, manure-heavy, salty, or biologically weak, it is very hard to build a truly high-performing soil from it. Compost is not just a filler. It is the biological engine of the soil. It affects nutrient cycling, water retention, microbial life, soil structure, and long-term plant health.

That is why we do things differently. We focus heavily on clean inputs, plant-based composting, vermicompost, mineral balance, and biology. We are not trying to make the cheapest soil possible. We are trying to make soil that actually works.

As a business owner, that lesson has helped me stay grounded. There is always pressure to lower costs, move faster, or make things easier. But I learned early that the quality of the foundation determines everything else. Whether it is soil, compost, customer trust, or the business itself, you cannot build something strong on weak inputs.

That experience taught me that doing it right matters, even when it takes longer. And that is the standard we have built San Diego Microbes around since 2017.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Andrew Allen, and I’m the founder of San Diego Microbes (AKA: SD Microbes), based in Ramona, California. We make premium compost-based soils, vermicompost, Bokashi, mulch, and soil amendments for gardeners, growers, farms, landscapers, orchards, vineyards, schools, and anyone trying to grow healthier plants from the ground up.

My path into this industry started with growing premium boutique cannabis. Long before SD Microbes became a business, I was obsessed with understanding why some plants thrived while others struggled, even when people were watering, feeding, and caring for them. The more I learned, the more I realized that the real answers were usually in the soil: the biology, the compost, the mineral balance, the structure, the water-holding capacity, and the life happening below the surface.

SD Microbes officially started in 2017 with BierKashi Bokashi, a fermented soil amendment made from upcycled spent beer grains from Protector Brewing, San Diego’s Only organic brewery. What started as a small Bokashi project slowly grew into something much larger. We soon expanded into plant-based vermicompost, compost production, garden soil blends, raised bed mixes, bulk amendments, and custom soil solutions and soil testing for both home growers and professional clients.

Today, we provide loose bulk soil, bagged products, vermicompost, Bokashi, compost amendments, mulch, local delivery, pickup by appointment, orchard and garden consultations, and custom project support throughout San Diego County. Some customers are filling one raised bed in their backyard. Others are installing orchards, vineyards, school gardens, farm plots, or large landscape projects. The common thread is that they want better soil and they want someone who can help them understand what they actually need.

A big problem we solve for customers is confusion. Soil can be overwhelming. People are told they need compost, amendments, fertilizer, mulch, microbes, minerals, and a dozen different products, but they often do not know what matters most or where to start. We try to simplify that. We help people choose the right material for the project, estimate how much they need, and build a soil system that makes sense for what they are growing.

What sets SD Microbes apart is that we are a production-focused, hands-on soil company. We are not just reselling generic materials. We are involved in making, blending, testing, delivering, and using these products in real gardens and growing systems. We look at soil as a living system, not just a growing medium. That means we care about biology, structure, moisture retention, clean inputs, and long-term plant health.

We also work with a wide range of growers. We have customers growing vegetables, fruit trees, cannabis, ornamentals, school gardens, pomegranates, orchards, vineyards, and backyard food forests. That gives us a lot of real-world feedback. We get to see how our products perform in containers, raised beds, native soils, farms, and larger landscape installations.

One of the things I am most proud of is that SD Microbes has grown through trust and repeat customers. When people come back season after season, or when a gardener turns into a landscaper account, or when a small project turns into an orchard renovation, that means a lot. It tells me we are actually helping people grow better, not just selling them another product.

I am also proud that we have been able to turn local and plant-based inputs into products that improve soil instead of letting those resources go to waste. From Bokashi made with upcycled brewery grains to our vermicompost and compost-based blends, a big part of our work is taking organic materials and transforming them into something useful, biologically active, and valuable for growers.

The main thing I want people to know about SD Microbes is that we care about the result. We care whether your garden thrives. We care whether your trees establish. We care whether your raised beds hold moisture and support healthy roots. We care whether the soil gets better over time.

Our goal is to help people build living soil systems that are easier to manage, more productive, and better for the land. Whether someone is a first-time gardener or a professional grower, we want to be the company they can trust when they are ready to start with better soil.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

The first real product was BierKashi Bokashi, a fermented soil amendment made from upcycled spent beer grains. At the time, I was experimenting with ways to take a local waste stream and turn it into something valuable for gardeners and growers. I was still working full-time, so the business grew during nights, weekends, and whatever extra time I could find.

The early days were very hands-on. I was making product, packing bags, answering customer questions, fulfilling orders, and trying to figure out how to turn an idea into a real company. Like a lot of side hustles, it started small, but it had momentum because people could see that the product was different.

One of the first major milestones was getting support from well-known growers and content creators in the gardening community. Affiliates and YouTube creators like Epic Gardening, Nature’s Always Right, and others helped introduce our products to a much larger audience. That exposure gave us credibility early on and helped push the business beyond just local word of mouth.

From there, SD Microbes continued to grow. We expanded from Bokashi into plant-based vermicompost, compost-based potting soils, bulk soil blends, amendments, mulch, and delivery throughout San Diego County. What began as a side project in fermentation and soil biology turned into a full soil company serving home gardeners, farms, landscapers, schools, orchards, vineyards, and serious growers.

Another big milestone was realizing that we were not just selling one product anymore. Customers were coming to us for complete soil solutions. They needed help filling raised beds, improving orchards, choosing compost, building living soil systems, and understanding what materials actually made sense for their project. That pushed the company to grow from an online product brand into a local and regional soil resource.

Eventually, the business reached the point where I had to make a decision. I could not keep treating it like a side hustle while customers, production, deliveries, and opportunities continued to grow. Leaving the stability of a corporate job was not easy, but I knew SD Microbes had become the work I was supposed to be doing full-time.

Today, I am proud that the company has grown from a small side hustle into a real production-based soil business. We now make and deliver compost-based soils, vermicompost, Bokashi, mulch, and custom soil solutions for a wide range of customers. We have products in local retail stores, repeat bulk customers, and a growing base of people who trust us to help them build better soil.

Looking back, the biggest milestones were starting with one unique product, getting early support from respected growers and creators, expanding into soil and compost production, building a strong local customer base, and finally taking the leap from corporate employee to full-time business owner.

It was not an overnight success. It was years of working after work, learning as I went, making mistakes, improving the products, and listening to customers. But that is also what made the business strong. SD Microbes was built slowly, from the ground up, just like the soil systems we help our customers create.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I think our reputation has been built on customer satisfaction, quality inputs, and a commitment to not cutting corners.

In the soil and compost world, reputation is earned over time. A customer can usually tell pretty quickly whether a product performs or not. If their plants thrive, their raised beds hold moisture, their trees establish, or their garden improves season after season, they remember that. If the product fails, they remember that too.

For us, the goal has always been to make products that actually work in the real world. That starts with the inputs. We are very intentional about the materials we use, the compost we build from, and the way our soils and amendments are blended. We do not want to make products that only look good on a price sheet. We want them to perform in gardens, farms, orchards, containers, and landscapes.

Customer satisfaction has also been a huge part of our growth. We spend a lot of time helping people figure out what they actually need for their project. Sometimes that means recommending a premium soil. Sometimes it means telling someone they can save money by using a more basic mix for part of the project and only using the premium material where it matters most. I think people appreciate honest guidance more than being oversold.

A big part of our reputation has also come from being hands-on. We are involved in the production, deliveries, customer questions, bulk orders, and field work. That gives us direct feedback from the people using our products. We see what works, we hear what customers need, and we keep improving.

I also think people respect consistency. When you say you care about clean inputs, compost quality, biology, and soil performance, you have to back that up every day. You cannot build a trusted brand by cutting corners behind the scenes. In our market, customers talk. Gardeners talk. Landscapers talk. Growers talk. Your reputation follows the product.

What has helped us most is that we have stayed focused on doing the right thing, even when it would be easier or cheaper to do otherwise. We want people to know that when they buy from SD Microbes, they are getting products made with intention, not just whatever materials were cheapest that week.

At the end of the day, I think our reputation comes from caring about the customer’s results. We want people to succeed with our soil, compost, and amendments. When customers see that we care about their garden, orchard, farm, or project as much as the sale, that builds trust. And trust is really what reputation is.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sdmicrobeworks.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sdmicrobes/following/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SDMicrobes