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Hear the Many Reasons Existing Penterra Users Have Adopted the Fastest Acting and Most Cost Effective Penetrating Surfactant on the Market

Add comment July 23rd, 2010

While Achieving Major Reductions in Both Spending and Chemical Usage, Landscaping Director Heather Watkins-Vaughan Has Seen Significantly Noticeable Improvements in Overall Plant Health and Vigor

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.

Add comment July 15th, 2010

Growing a Robust Plant with Carbotein Provided Elisabeth Fry’s Heirloom Tomatoes the Vitality to Survive Weeks of Severe Drought Stress

I am a hobby gardener that keeps a small backyard patch with everything from lettuce to potatoes. After learning about Carbotein, I was pleased to have the chance to experiment with a truly environmentally friendly, natural fertilizer. I selected heirloom tomato plants for the test, and potted them in separate containers. The test plant received a root drench of Carbotein, and the control was not treated with anything other than the fertilizer in the potting soil, which I used for both. The plants received normal waterings.

During the time of growth, the infused plant was more compact, greener and fuller than the untreated plant which grew taller and had fewer buds. Unfortunately, in the middle of the trial I had to unexpectedly leave town, and when I returned home discovered the plants had been neglected almost to the point of no return. Without much hope, I began watering them regularly again, and lo and behold the one treated with Carbotein (which I now call The Wonder Plant) recovered quicker and more completely than the other plant which has almost no regrowth. Since then I’ve been lucky enough to get the opportunity to eat them before having to go on location for work again. Compared to the control plant, the root drenched tomatoes were redder, juicier and more tasty, and there were bunches more of them!

I am so very happy with the product, and will continue to use it. In fact, I have already infused my newly tilled beds with Carbotein, and I’m excited to see what it will do for my summer plantings.

Elisabeth Fry
Orange County, CA

Add comment June 25th, 2010

Superintendent Rob Vaughan Is Glad He Has Gotten On Board with Geoponics: “Great Products at Great Pricing!!!!   My Greens Have Never Looked Better!!”

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

Add comment December 2nd, 2009

For Superintendent Jeremy Wilson, Geoponics Line of Premium Products Provides the Results Needed to Improve His Course at A Price It Can Afford

This course was getting ready to close before I took over, so it hadn’t really been maintained for some time. The greens had not been aerated in over three years, and the thatch build up was pretty bad, so my main issue was just getting water to move in. My Geoponics sales person suggested I try Penterra at the regular two quart rate, and within a couple of weeks we stopped having run off when watering. Once the weather turned hot, we switched over to Humawet, which has been working well for us.  We used to be out by 12:00 or 1:00 every afternoon to water again, but we aren’t drying out as quick, so now we don’t have to except on the hottest days.

Once we added Agriox into our program, the over all look of the greens soon became much cleaner. It has really gotten them looking much better in the short time I’ve been here. I’ve always purchased according to what the grass is telling me it needs, and when it’s growing fine I don’t bother putting anything out. Before we were fertilizing every three weeks. Now we’re out to five weeks, which is a 40% savings, and I feel a lot better about both our growth and color. I’m really impressed with the products.

Jeremy Wilson, Superintendent
Cypress Bay Golf Club
Little River, SC

Add comment October 4th, 2009

Premium Results At Affordable Prices Has Golf Course Superintendent Bernie Lowe Using Multiple Geoponics Products

My Geoponics sales consultant has been really helpful with suggesting products that are right for our situation. We now use the 15-1-2 +4 FE fertilizer Terrain, the Charge minors package and Carbotein on our Champion bermudagrass greens. We’ve been really pleased with the results. I especially like the next day response you see from the foliar feed.

The added soil oxygen from the Agriox gives our fertilizer more kick too. We apply it with either Penterra or Humawet, and the monthly treatments have gotten rid of the bad odors a few greens would get occasionally. For the price, the products are great, and when you are trying to do your part and “go green” these Earth Chemistries help out a whole lot.

Bernie Lowe, Superintendent
Black Bear Golf Club
North Myrtle Beach, SC
berniel@classicgolfgroup.com
843-756-9432

Add comment September 10th, 2009

By Using Penterra on His Fairways, Certified Golf Course Superintendent Billy Huskins Has Reduced Water Use and Achieved His Desired Soil Moisture

I was sold on Penterra from the first meeting I had with the Geoponics sales representative once he did the jar test. What I liked was that he asked me to get my favorite wetting agent from my chemical room so he could do a comparison. I was impressed by how quickly the Penterra worked and by the low cost per acre. At the time we were in the middle of the worst drought on record, and under severe watering restrictions, so we were looking for any edge to help control the dry areas.

I have a double row irrigation system with only 700 heads for 95 acres, which means I’d have to either over water the fairways or under water the rough. Because the course was built on a very sandy vein of soil, my fairways drain like a push up green; they have no moisture holding capacity. Since we started spraying Penterra every 3 weeks or so on the tee boxes, fairways and more than half the rough, we’ve been able to keep our moisture levels right in the middle of those peaks and valleys we used to have. I don’t have to water for 20 minutes per head anymore because I can hold my color with just 10 minutes. I pay for my water, so that helps us to offset the cost of the product as well as increase our water efficiency. I’ve tried many different products out there, and I believe we’ve found the right one for our situation.

Billy Huskins, CGCS
Highland Woods GCC
Bonita Springs, FL
bhuskins@comcast.net
239-218-7589

Add comment March 20th, 2009

People Who Play His Course Can’t Help But Notice That Superintendent Francisco Navas Has Achieved His Goal of Uniform Appearance and Consistent Play

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

Add comment March 18th, 2009

Superintendent David Dore-Smith’s Willingness to Trial Geoponics Earth Friendly Products Led to Reduced Expenditures and Increased Turf Health

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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Add comment March 6th, 2009

For Superintendent Scott Corwin, Consistent Applications of the Geoponics Soil Oxygen Program Has Yielded Consistent Benefits and Cost Savings

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

Add comment March 3rd, 2009