POSTS FILED UNDER: 'Stabilized Chemical Aeration'
How were you first introduced to Geoponics Earth Chemistries?
It was 6 or 7 years ago when I was working as a superintendent at a big operation in Greensboro, NC (Grandover Resort & Golf) which had bought the Agriox product for its courses. Honestly, I didn’t know much about what it was meant to do at that point, not the way I do now, so my evaluation was entirely based on what I saw rather than what I was told. After putting it out a few times, the best way I can describe it would be to say that the turf responded as though it had been refurbished, like fresh life had been breathed into it.
That is a perfect way to think about it considering it’s a soil oxygenator, right?
Exactly. These last few years I’ve gained a much more complete understanding of what it does, how it slowly releases oxygen into soil moisture. I can tell you when growing bentgrass in an extreme environment with high temperatures and humidity like we have here (Florence, SC) that can make all the difference.
Obviously you don’t want to find yourself in a situation where you start losing turf, because it is very difficult under stressful summer conditions to get it back, so if used as a preventative measure Agriox can really be a high priority tool in your shed. It has become that for me; I go out with monthly maintenance applications all season long, and I feel it is well worth every penny.
When you spray Agriox, which wetting agent do you use and why?
We always use it with some combination of the Geoponics products. Conditions are constantly changing out on the course, so you have to be quick to adapt and modify what you are doing. For me that means going out regularly and tweaking the mix ratio between the two surfactants depending on whether we want to move excess water through with Penterra or hold more moisture up in the root zone with Humawet.
One area where that particular product has given me an edge is with sod installations; it’s great for keeping the roots from drying out before they’ve had a chance to take hold. With budgets the way they’ve been the last few years, I appreciate their low rates and cost per acre as well.
Offering value is what we’ve set out to do as a company, so I’m glad to hear that. Cost has always been a big concern, but it seems like superintendents are more price conscious than ever. Have your purchasing decisions changed?
When you have your routine, you get kinda set in your ways and settle into a comfort zone. I’m probably as guilty of it as anyone, but these days you have to be careful with every dollar; you have no choice. No one has more money to spend than they did the last year, so you have to look for ways to save.
We use a lot of different brands, there are some products I am always going to use, but it has been well worth my time to have sat down with my Geoponics rep to learn about the line. I’ve ended up using a number of the Grizzly foliars as a result and have seen nice steady growth from them.
Which formulas have you used, and would you say you had a favorite?
I’ve used the Charge minors package, Nitron 30-0-0, and both Northern and Terrain. So far I’ve felt that the quality of all of them is just as good as any of the other more expensive premium liquid fertilizers, but the Carbotein has definitely become my favorite. It is so inexpensive that I put it in almost every tank, and I’ve applied it to almost everything around the course. It’s definitely one of the most effective fertilizers I have in my arsenal.
We’ve been told by many users that combining it with non-organic macro-fertilizers causes both products to perform better than they do on their own…
It mixes really well, and having used it with other foliars so often, I would say that I’ve noticed that myself.
Our customers commonly single Carbotein out among the nutritionals. Aside from its affordability, what do you think makes it so special?
My greens are pretty small, so my edges take a beating. I’ve steadily increased Carbotein applications there and in other areas where we get the most damage, like walk-ons and where the mowing patterns are constrained, and over the years the turf just keeps getting better and better, more full and wear resistant. I believe it’s all the plant extracts and amino acids helping the plant with photosynthesis that sets it apart from everything else. I’ve seen it do some amazing things on flowers too.
We get told that about the flowers a lot. In fact, we often end up bringing a case for the superintendent and one for their horticulturalist once it gets tried out on the ornamentals around a course. Are there any other products you use regularly you’d like to mention before we finish up?
Actually, yes. We switched from Green Toes to Blue Cobra for a marker dye and have found that on top of being a lot more affordable it is easier to handle and clean up.
As with many of our products, that one is very concentrated, so a little goes a very long way. I’m glad it has been a worthwhile change for you. Thank you so much for talking with us today. If a fellow superintendent wanted to discuss your experiences with you directly, would that be alright?
Sure, I’d be happy to talk with anyone about the company. As I said earlier, the time it takes to sit down and learn about Geoponics is time well spent since the products are absolutely worth the money.
Jeremiah Pierce, Superintendent
Florence Country Club
fccsuper@bellsouth.net
843-662-5309
December 16th, 2011
This interview was conducted on property; photographs taken that same day.
Good morning! Let’s start out with an introduction. Please tell us your name and what you do here at Brunswick Plantation.
My name is Heather Watkins-Vaughan, and I have been here at the Brunswick Plantation Golf Resort for 10 years now. I’m in charge of the subdivision maintenance department, our developmental group, and all golf course landscaping.
Thank you so much for meeting with us here today. So how did you first learn about Geoponics as a company and about our products?
I first learned about the company through the golf course. They were doing a lot of renovations on the greens at the time, really switching things around out there, and a conservation easement was being added in the process. That caused a big change to the way we’d choose which products to buy, and has influenced everything from the types of fertilizer and other chemicals we use, to raising issues of aquatic safety and public opinion. The golf course superintendent started using a number of Geoponics products, and he was really seeing amazing results.
In addition to that, one of our main owners has a major construction firm, and they were doing site work where, in order to get the permits needed to continue developing, they had to have really good grass coverage. Well, there were areas where they had gone out and hydroseeded time and time again, using $15K to $25K worth of products, and absolutely nothing was happening. Then they started taking Carbotein, Humawet and some other Geoponics products out there, and it just exploded with growth. Rob was making grass grow on pure sugar sand and extreme slopes, places I have never seen grass grow in my life. Once I saw that, I had to try it.
I’m glad that we were able to come in and help out in a circumstance like that. Having had the opportunity to see the results of a number of Geoponics products, which did you decide to try first for yourself?
Carbotein was the first product I tried. That and Agriox. We’ve got a lot of flowers out here, over 17,000 at any given point in time, whether it’s fall or spring, and that’s a lot of money. We were going with the typical products that are out there, which are all salt carriers, and what we were noticing was an extreme sodium build up in the beds that was hurting my plants. We were spending copious amounts of money on calcium trying to eradicate that as a result.
Once we started checking out Carbotein and realized that beyond being organic and safe it also didn’t have the salt base, I simply had to give it a try. In doing so, we have easily saved 75% off of our fertilizer budget this year, and that’s on top of all the calcium I was having to put out.
No kidding! That’s a really large number. How is the product to use?
Carbotein is the easiest product I’ve used in my life. I don’t have to worry about any incompatibility issues when doing a tank mix or about the safety of my staff. I’ve had it on me, they’ve had it on them and it’s not an issue.
We are a very family-friendly operation here. There’s a large condominium aspect to what we do, the golf packages, as well as permanent housing, all of which means we have a lot of children running around. On a side note, that is one of the huge things I have to consider. I love that Carbotein is so safe, not only for my staff, but for everybody else around the property.
Once you decided to use Carbotein, how did you find it affected the way you were treating flower beds?
It has changed virtually everything. From tank mixing to the PPE [Personal Protective Equipment] that my employees were having to go out with; from the soil profile to the bottom line. It has impacted every single bit of it. It’s a product that you just don’t have to worry about even when children, guests or visitors are around.
How has it impacted the amount of time spent covering your areas?
The Carbotein gives us such good results that I can go out once every 4 to 5 weeks, whereas with the other product lines we were going out roughly every 7 to 10 days, and their results weren’t even close. It’s been a huge change: in hours and in the bottom line, in every way.
How are you determining your rates and frequency of applications?
My rep. That’s a very, very easy answer, and actually one of the things I like most about Geoponics. When you are making fertility applications in the landscaping field it is obviously very different than the treatments made within the golf course industry.
Rates are going to be really exact when you are spraying turfgrass, but on flowers and shrubs, due to differences in size and density, leaf structure, whether they’re waxy or hairy, there’s just a huge range to how you put things out. Anything that I want to know, anything that I want to experiment with, I know Jennifer has already done it. She uses these products herself; she trusts them, and any time I have a question she’s always available to answer it.
Jennifer makes suggestions to me as well. She has come out here, and she’s worked with me. We started off at a low-moderate rate, saw what that did and loved the results. So we pushed it a little bit more the next time, and by pushing it a little bit harder we didn’t have to go out quite as fast. And because the product is so safe, even those times when we pushed the envelope, possibly adding a little more than I would have felt immediately comfortable with, the only thing we saw was an increase in the density of the plants, more vigor, more health, and more growth. So it has really worked out well.
That’s fantastic. We’re very glad to hear that you are having a good experience, and we really appreciate your business and willingness to work with us. You care for quite a few different types of plants, from flowers to shrubs and everything in between. Have you found there to be any liabilities working with a single product on such a broad range?
I have found that there are none at all. There is not a plant that I have treated with any single Geoponics product that has had a problem with it. Obviously, all plants have different growth patterns and growth rates, so we just don’t put as much product on anything we don’t want to have to prune quite as regularly.
The flowers that I have this year by far surpass any flower bed I’ve ever had in my life. The homeowners have been enthusiastic about the changes they’ve seen as well. Most of them are actually asking us what we are using because they want to get involved in this type of a program too.
That’s great to hear, and the flower bed there behind you really speaks volumes. I think it is important to note that we are currently in the middle of a period of record heat. What you would expect to see under these conditions, and do you think the soil you’ve cultivated with these products has positively impacted the stress resistance and tolerance of your plants?
It was 102 degrees out here yesterday with a heat index of 110, so it has definitely impacted it. Less than 2.5’ below the bed that I am standing in front of right now is pure concrete. (Unfortunately, they didn’t decide to put it here until after the slab was poured.) It is obviously extremely hydrophobic, with a horrible soil profile. Granted, I’m having to really push Penterra and Carbotein on this bed in order to get it to do this well, but at this time last year it was already dead.
In addition, given the fact that it doesn’t drain the way that it should, we’ve always had to put a lot of fungicides out here. Since we began using the Geoponics products though, for the first time ever, I have not put a drop of fungicide on any single bed on the property, which is huge.
Now that’s what we want to hear! It’s exactly that sort of proactive environmentalism that will allow us to together make a real difference for the good in the natural world. You mentioned a product named Penterra, which is a surfactant commonly used by our golf course customers, but not typically by landscapers. Tell us a little about what brought you to that product and about the results you’ve seen since starting to use it.
I’m using Penterra at one of our townhome facilities here. There are 12 buildings, and they have the worst soil profile you’ll ever see in your life: it is either extremely boggy wet, or it is hard as a rock. When we first did the landscaping there, we actually used pick axes to put in the plants, which should tell you how horrible it is. Since it’s pure gumbo clay, the hotter it gets, the more compacted the ground gets, to the point where water just pools on top of the grass and won’t soak down at all. I’ve put out repeated applications of gypsum to no avail; nothing has happened at all.
Then about four months ago we started going out with Penterra. The golf course superintendent, who comes out here and works with me, had told me it would cause the water to move through the soil profile better, and it has. That’s another area where I have not had to put a single fungicide out this year, and I’m hoping we’re not going to need a Fall application to renovate spring dead spot there next year either.
Aside from the Carbotein and Penterra, I understand that you use Agriox, our soil oxygen product. Can you tell us some about that?
I love the Agriox; it’s amazing. Out of the whole product line, I can honestly tell you that I have never, in my entire life, seen anything work the way Agriox does.
Due to the clay I’ve mentioned we have out here, nutrients get flat out choked up in the soil profile and are just not available to the plants. There have been situations in the past where every 5 to 7 days I was putting out products which would have absolutely no positive impact. I mean, you can put foliar applications on things all day long, but if your soil profile is poor, if you haven’t done anything to support the root system and microbial activity in the ground, then you’ve done nothing. It wasn’t until we started working with Geoponics that I realized how horrible the soil really was out here. I was throwing good money after bad, week after week, until I found Agriox.
Actually, I had quit fertilizing for around 3 weeks when I decided to give the Agriox a try, and literally in seven days I had 16” worth of growth in a bed that was flat out floundering. It had hollies that had never really sent out feeder roots since being planted over 8 years ago, so I was at the point of thinking another plant needed to be put into the site. But then we put the Agriox out. Instead of having to remove the bed, it’s now the healthiest I’ve got on the property. In fact, it’s still growing and doing really well.
Agriox has also saved us money on the back side in a way that it didn’t occur to me it would. There are over 85 units here which each hold between 4 to 10 people. As you can imagine, we’ve got an extreme traffic situation during the golf season. Unfortunately that means a lot of damage caused by vehicles. Because of that, we’ve always had to buy plants of the same size to replace the ones that have been damaged. For the first time since starting here, I don’t have to do that now. I know I can buy a plant that is a reasonable size, at a reasonable cost, put it in, and within 3 or 4 months I will have a plant that is as established as those around it.
Awesome. We’ve covered quite a bit today. I would just ask if there is anything you would like to add?
The biggest thing is that I really want y’all to continue pushing towards landscapers and not just towards golf course superintendents. The trend here [in the Myrtle Beach area] has always been that the golf courses get all the attention. It’s only really been over the last 10 or 12 years that the landscaping element of the golf courses, and of the subdivisions, has started to gain a presence and have a voice. Yet it’s still all too common that we get totally ignored. The vendors don’t come to see us; the reps don’t come talk to us. And so we don’t get any information.
Geoponics isn’t that way. If I hadn’t seen the results – if my sales representative hadn’t been half as nice as she is – I would never have tried the products, and I would’ve really missed out. So please continue pushing the line. Every landscaper on the beach could benefit from it.
You definitely don’t have to worry about that. Geoponics is committed to getting these Earth Chemistries in front of anyone in the Green Industry who is looking to work in concert with natural systems rather than against them. In closing, I’d just like to say that on the way in today I drove past one gorgeous planter after another. There is no way that anyone coming onto this property wouldn’t know that you are doing an incredible job.
Well, I appreciate everything your company is doing. Most importantly I appreciate that y’all are being so environmentally considerate with the product line that you sell.
We certainly appreciate your support as well, and are so grateful to have had the opportunity to help you do your job in a way that you feel more comfortable. Thank you again for speaking with us today.
July 15th, 2010
I first used Agriox and Penterra this past spring (2009) at a time when my greens weren’t doing much of anything even though we had done our normal fertilization. The initial hit made a night and day difference. In less than a week after we applied, they busted loose. We’ve stayed with our maintenance applications ever since, and have begun using a number of other Geoponics products as well. We’re using Grizzly Terrain, Kodiak, Charge and Carbotein now. They’ve really helped fill in areas where the Champion came out of transition a bit thin because of the overseeding we do.
Rob Vaughan, Superintendent
Brunswick Plantation and Golf Resort
Calabash, NC
December 2nd, 2009
When I was first introduced to the Geoponics line of products, I was skeptical. Every salesman comes into your office with the same story about how this is the best product ever, but you have to buy it before you find out it doesn’t work. So the way I look at it now, when you have a program in place, you don’t modify it unless you have an area where you’re looking to improve. Besides, it’s human nature to resist change.
But when it comes to moving water, I’ve always been willing to try something new. Our greens have gotten slow to drain due to clogging caused by some of the materials used when they were constructed. They aren’t very big greens anyway, so once you add 240 rounds a day, compaction becomes a real issue. When I explained the situation to my Geoponics sales representative, he asked me to try Penterra. I’ve been using it ever since, and now the water moves right through.
You can just tell it’s breaking everything up, and that’s especially important when you have the kind of heavy rains we get here. Before the greens would lock up and we’d start moving towards black layer, but not any more. When a storm is headed our way, I can put the Penterra out and not have to worry. On the other hand, when it gets to be dry and windy and we are looking to hold some moisture, we use Humawet instead. I used to have 2 guys out there hand watering all day, and now we just have to do a little touch up in spots.
We use the soil oxygen product Agriox as well. It’s an incredible product. You can see how it helps release tied up nutrients and gives you a nice even green. It’s been a complete night and day response from before I started using it, and now it’s an important part of my program. We used to fertilize every 10 days or so, but the grass doesn’t start looking as hungry as soon any more. Now we can get almost an extra week out of the same amount of material. I’ve run the numbers, and we save over $15,000 a season in labor and material, so the products really do pay for themselves.
I was looking to improve my tee boxes and decided to spray Carbotein. My clipping ratio from before spraying weekly to now is night and day. Visually it’s obvious because our divot recovery is much faster than before, and the turf is much more dense. I’ve actually had members ask what I do to make them “like carpets.” About once a month we use the Penterra on them, as well as on the fairways, just to loosen things up and get a flush. Before we started doing that we’d see signs of compaction when little brown spots would pop up, but they have all gone completely away.
The turf everywhere on the course looks uniform now, which is what you want to accomplish as a superintendent. I am very pleased with all the benefits we’ve seen, and glad that my owners and membership have noticed the improvements as well.
Francisco Navas, Superintendent
Cypress Woods Golf & Country Club
Naples, FL
March 18th, 2009
Geoponics sponsored a hole at a golf event I played with a superintendent friend who was already using some of their products. He was seeing benefits, and the Sales Consultant on site was obviously very knowledgeable,
so I agreed to meet at my course for a follow up.
I was surprised when at that first meeting the rep asked if there were any areas that were proving challenging where we could do a trial. Turns out we had been working to reclaim the perimeter of our greens, which had been lost to encroachment over the years, and though we had them back to their original shapes, the edges just weren’t filling in completely. We decided that was a good place to spray Carbotein to really see what it could do.
It took a few weeks for it to begin showing, but within two months all the greens were looking completely consistent. More importantly, they are playing as consistent as they look. Our ball speed has even gone up due to increased turf turgidity. I’ve been using Carbotein ever since, and we now use the soil oxygen product Agriox and the wetting agent Penterra. My greens are looking good, and we aren’t doing as much watering or fertilizing as we used to, which both helps us to save time and money and to be environmentally responsible. As an Audubon certified course, we really appreciate that. With the improved health of the turf, our fungicide applications have been substantially reduced as well. It’s been a lights out positive response.
Everything with the turf is just consistent: appearance, health, over all quality. That’s what I find most beneficial about using the Geoponics products, that they have allowed us to overcome the inconsistency of the soils. It’s fantastic. Even the low areas and mounds of the greens now look the same as the rest of the surface, and once the products get a hold, all you need to do is supplement.
David Dore-Smith, Superintendent
Copperleaf Golf Course
Bonita Springs, FL
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March 6th, 2009
I’ve been using Agriox with Penterra for a little over a year now; it’s a regular part of my program. We find the products together give us the extra help we need to keep the turf as healthy as possible considering the stress that daily double cutting and rolling to less than an eighth creates. We are expected to stay as fast as possible, but it is still vital to be consistent. That is probably the best measure of the effect using these products has, but you have to stay on the program.
In this industry we often don’t give a product a chance unless we see a dramatic change right away. We tend to be visual people, which is probably the reason, but not everything can work overnight. By releasing oxygen into the soil in the right mixture with the soil moisture, you can keep the balance between your capillary / non-capillary space right where you need it to be. Not only is our soil profile now more uniform, but we can also quickly get rid of hot spots. My clipping yield tells me the combination is effective as well; I’ve seen us go from being where we need to be for 10 days before putting fertilizer out to 15 or more, so it is definitely saving us money.
Scott Corwin, Superintendent
Renaissance Vinoy Resort & Golf Club (Marriott)
St. Petersburg, FL
March 3rd, 2009
We started using Agriox this past July (2008) and have made monthly applications since then. We were just hoping that it would help us survive the heat and stress of our busy season, and we really weren’t expecting the type of benefits we’ve seen. We put it out the first time right before our big Invitational event, which is usually when we start to go south some from the increased traffic, and we quickly saw amazing results. The entire playing surface improved in color and appearance, and the walk-on areas we were close to losing before starting treatments ended up making it all the way through the summer. The greens responded much better from our big Fall aeration, and it was very noticeable where we had sprayed twice, to the point where you could have put chalk marks around them. We definitely believe in the product, and honestly the price could go up by 50% and it would still be worth it.
Brad Lacey, 1st Asst. Superintendent
Willow Point Golf Club
Alexander City, AL
October 28th, 2008
When the heat of mid-July started to stress our greens this year, a few of the high-traffic walk on areas 
started to show signs of black layer developing. I’m the type of guy that likes to stay on top of new techniques and experiment around the golf course, so when a sales representative that I trust recommended we apply Agriox to increase the oxygen in our soil and offset the anaerobic conditions, I went ahead and put it out. At first you couldn’t tell if it was having an effect, but after two weeks even the worst areas began to make a recovery. Before long it was clear it was working because the grass was looking healthier all over. Anything that can help put oxygen into your soil is a benefit, and so we plan on sticking with the maintenance program and will be looking at some of the other Geoponics products as well.
Todd Lime, CGCS
Alpharetta Athletic Club East
Alpharetta, GA
October 13th, 2008
The budgeting constraints daily fee courses work under do not allow any room to try unfamiliar product lines, especially when they are a premium quality label. Surprisingly, the Geoponics guys that came by the course did not give up on earning my business when I repeatedly explained this to them. As a result, we were eventually able to work out a trial on the fairy ring issues I had on some of my MiniVerde greens.
I no longer face this problem, and I attribute that to the Agriox and Penterra treatments I have been making ever since. I found it especially helpful to time aerification around my applications since it really reduces the time it takes to heal over. We are now addressing the sodium issues that come along with using brackish irrigation water with the SALX product.
Originally I had been skeptical about the affordability of the Geoponics products to the point where I hadn’t really considered their cost effectiveness. Once I saw how much of an improvement the treated areas made, I took a closer look at the cost per acre. Five months later I have adopted the complete Grizzly Pro-Turf Program™ and am very happy with it, especially how affordable it turned out to be.
I had been using a granular based program, but now I have the convenience of easy application, the time and labor savings of not needing to water in, as well as the benefit of a more uniform and even feed over time. I put a high value on the technical backgrounds of the sales representatives I have been dealing with; they’re good people that I enjoy working with.
Scott Ryan
Eagle Lakes Golf Club
Naples, FL
October 6th, 2008
The philosophy we use to guide our efforts here is based upon doing everything we can to enhance the natural processes of plant growth. Some of the long standing, traditional methods used throughout the agricultural world get results by overwhelming that system rather than by working within it. In some ways, we are putting a square peg into a round hole; if you use enough force it will fit, but it isn’t the most efficient way to go about it.
It has been documented that a significantly high percentage of active ingredients within granular fertilizer will never be accessible to the plant, which means we have long been paying for product we know is not being utilized. There are now available more cost effective organic options to the synthetics our industry has come to rely on but in many ways can no longer afford. As a turfgrass manager, my responsibility is to maximize results while keeping expenditures as low as possible, so we are transitioning that way.
As an individual concerned with the environment, I believe it is important to consider what happens to the chemicals we spray after they have been applied. That is what has impressed me as different about Geoponics as a company. Unlike most salesmen that come in and focus on results, their representatives spent time discussing how their products are designed with the environment in mind. I’m not the type to jump right in when it comes to the “next big thing,” but my interest was piqued, so I did some research. Once all my questions had been answered, I was comfortable to try some of their Earth Chemistries,™ specifically the Agriox and Penterra soil treatments.
But my main focus currently is on the role that carbon plays in plant health, which is why we are so intrigued by Carbotein and its various uses. The labor related benefits of working with a foliar are well known, but the potential savings of moving away from granular have not been very widely evaluated. We have seen some very promising results so far, enough so that we’re planning on purchasing in bulk next season, which will lower our cost per acre even more. It isn’t my personality to discuss our approach publicly, but I am more than willing to speak with anyone that has an interest in developing a more naturalistic fertility program.
Brian Sarvis
River Hills Golf & County Club
Little River, SC
October 2nd, 2008
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