In the Spring of 2007, technical sales representative Robin Wicker introduced Carolina Country Club superintendent Bob Young, CGCS to Carbotein and Agriox, two of Geoponics environmentally friendly Earth Chemistries.
Mr. Wicker explained the benefits of using the turfgrass products together, which are primarily due to the introduction of oxygen into the soil profile.
This testimonial is based on superintendent Young’s comments during his interview with The Greenskeeper for the September edition of the electronic newsletter.
Are very experienced superintendents willing to introduce new chemicals into your greens maintenance program?
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Over all, I try a lot of products. I don’t try everything that comes by, you can’t do that, but if the product seems to have some merit I will try it on a low scale basis to see if, in fact, it is any good or not. The Carbotein and Agriox blend sounded good, and I asked him how much it was and what the rates were per acre.
But like many golf course superintendents presented with an unknown product, he wasn’t sold right away.
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I ordered enough to spray it one time. It came in and I put it in my chemical room. I just kept looking at it back there, but I didn’t spray it.
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When asked why not, years of skepticism from salesmen’s big promises and their product’s small results came through in his response.
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I thought, ‘I don’t know, it’s probably some hair tonic that somebody’s selling.’ You know, you try a lot of things, and sometimes you get a good response, but other times you’d just as soon be spraying sugar out there.
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So why the change of heart?
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We got into a heat situation in the summer. The root structures in the greens were getting shallow rooted from all the stress of no rain and high temperatures. I was having problems with this disease called pythium volutum, which we have in this area on bentgrass, especially A1-A4 bentgrass, and I was trying different things on some of the greens to see if I could get some response.
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Willing to try new things because of the severe drought conditions, the unfamiliar Geoponics products were eventually given a chance.
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I happened to see it in the chemical room. And said I might as well try it, it can’t hurt anything. So I sprayed #12 green with it one Saturday and just kept watching it. After 2 or 3 days, after just one application, I noticed that the green had a pretty decent response to the product; it seemed to be healthier - the color came back into a little bit.
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After a promising test, a hopeful crew went to work on a much larger scale, using the combination of Carbotein and Agriox on all 18 golf course putting surfaces.
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So the next Monday I went ahead and sprayed the rest of the greens with it. And after the initial application, I got a real good response in color and with how they weathered the heat.
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But were the benefits short lived?
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I got about a 2-week response out of it, and the greens were a little easier to take care of for those 2 weeks - there was less hand watering involved for about 10 days.
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Aside from the immediate benefits of green up and reduced time tending each of the treated greens, Mr. Young realizes a pleasant secondary benefit.
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After I sprayed it twice, I noticed that I was getting a lot more out of my fertilizing program. In other words, if I spray 1/8 of a pound of N, it’s lasting me about a week to a week and a half longer than it did before.
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Why such a dramatic reduction in the amount of fertilizer required to treat the same putting green surface area?
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You’re introducing oxygen into the soil, and you’re stimulating microbial activity. Maybe the fertilizer is being utilized a lot more efficiently than it was. I don’t know that for a fact, but I’ve noticed it seems to be stretching my fertilizer out a little bit. Instead of having to spray in little short intervals, I can skip a week, a week and a half. So when spoon feeding greens, we’re getting more longevity.
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Do the results you have seen with Carbotein and Agriox warrant a recommendation, and do you foresee yourself using other Geoponics products?
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Some products you can’t spray one time and even tell whether they are any good. But after spraying this one time I could see a pretty substantial difference, and during a stressful period, so it must be doing something good. I have interest in using some of the other products on greens and turf that I haven’t tried.
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