GIS boosts interest in nutrient technology

New golf course products can be hard to get off the ground. Even after development, marketing can be difficult and competition is fierce – just look at the hundreds of booths on the trade show floor.

So, it’s instructive to take a look at the product of a company that’s been around a few years and has used the Golf Industry Show to boost its profile to superintendents.

One such company is Crystal Green (booth 1320), which calls its product “the first root-activated nutrient technology to offer phosphorus, with nitrogen and magnesium, in one continuous release granule.”

The 5-28-0-10 mg product, according to Regional Sales Manager Dave Wacker, offers a plant-available formulation that allows a season-long release of nutrients that minimizes tie-up and cuts levels of leaching and runoff.

Wacker says Crystal Green – part of the Ostara Nutrient Division — uses a citrate-soluble mode of action that’s activated by organic acid production. As the roots produce citrates, the product responds by releasing phosphorus, fertilizing turf “on demand.” As the plant’s needs lessen, nutrient release decreases, minimizing excess phosphorus in the soil and lowering tie-up risk. This goes on, Wacker notes, all season long.

Studies at Auburn University over two years, Wacker says, indicate that Crystal Green can allow turf managers to reduce phosphorus fertilization rates and still get the same grass establishment over time, a boon to the soil profile and the environment.

The product is on solid marketing ground, Wacker says, and the GIS has been a boost to the product each year that the company has had a booth.

“We’re working with the supply chain,” Wacker notes, “and we see people here at the show who have tried it and want more, as well as those who have heard about the results and want to try it for the first time.”

The GIS helps in every regard, Wacker says, and the relationship between the company and the show will continue.

Learn more at CrystalGreen.com.