Direct Solutions, Swingle team for CSU’s Ram Town Green Up

By |  October 9, 2012
LOVELAND, COLO.—Football fans visiting Ram Town at Hughes Stadium tailgating area before Colorado State University’s home football games this season have been celebrating on greener, healthier turf courtesy of Direct Solutions, Swingle Lawn, Tree and Landscape Care, and Agrium Advanced Technologies’ (AAT’s) Spread it & Forget it controlled release fertilizer.

Through its sponsorship of CSU Athletics, Direct Solutions is providing AAT’s premium Spread It & Forget It controlled-release fertilizer to feed the two-acre Ram Town lawn, which was applied by the landscape professionals from Swingle. CSU’s Ram Town sits on the southeast side of Hughes Stadium, and is where fans meet prior to games to enjoy food, live music and a variety of activities for kids of all ages. Direct Solutions’ donation of Spread it & Forget it is part of a larger cooperative agreement between CSU and AAT, which also includes graduate student sponsorship and research and demonstration plots across the CSU campus and at the Harmony Golf Course in Fort Collins, Colo.

Applying Spread It & Forget It to the Ram Town turf augments CSU’s advanced sustainability efforts, ensuring predictable release of nutrients for up to six months and decreasing the overall number of fertilizer applications needed. Fewer applications can provide CSU with cost savings by using less fuel and fertilizer, along with reducing labor time for maintenance activities.

Use of Spread It & Forget It also provides environmental benefits such as reducing the amount of nitrogen used by up to 40%, lowering potential for product leaching and volatilization into the environment, and growing healthier turfgrass, according to the manufacturer.

“The Colorado State Rams are AAT’s hometown team, and we are pleased to be able to enhance the game-day experience for fans at Ram Town,” says Dave Gingrich, managing director, Direct Solutions. “Not only does Spread It & Forget It enable CSU to maintain strong, healthy, great-looking turf, it contributes to the university’s world-class sustainability programs by conserving natural resources, time and money.”

The team from the Fort Collins Swingle was instrumental in the application of the controlled-release fertilizer at Ram Town.

“At Swingle, we’re committed to the communities we live in, and for so many of us in Fort Collins there is nothing better than celebrating game day at Ram Town,” says Tom Lynch, the Fort Collins branch manager for Swingle. “We’re proud to support our Rams, and being able to partner with Direct Solutions, and use product technology as sophisticated as Spread it & Forget it is an added bonus.”

This project is the latest collaborative effort among Direct Solutions, AAT and CSU, who partner frequently on turfgrass and horticulture research. Earlier this year, AAT donated a variety of its slow- and controlled-release fertilizer brands—Spread It & Forget It, DURATION CR, DURATION NPK, POLYON and XCU—for use by the CSU Facilities Management Department. The fertilizers were applied to five areas on campus, including four intramural sports fields and turf areas and landscape beds in CSU’s newest residence hall community, the Academic Village.

This article is tagged with and posted in Athletic Turf News, Course of the Week


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