Keeping Things Simple and Sweet With Foliar-Pak
Joshua Goodhart, CGCS, has been in the turf world for 28 years. 25 of those have been spent at Avalon Golf and Country Club, which has courses in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
“Over my 25 years at Avalon, I spent three years on the grounds crew, four years as assistant superintendent, 15 years as superintendent, and for the last three years, I’ve been director of golf course maintenance,” said Goodhart.
There are four championship courses in Avalon’s portfolio. With lots of turf to manage, having a robust and easy-to-implement nutrition program is a must.
“I tried, over the course of 20-plus years, just about everything under the sun,” said Goodhart. “We were putting down regular granular fertilizer, we experimented with molasses, but there was no real program.”
Continuing to cycle through a “hodgepodge” of products, as he puts it, just wasn’t delivering results.
Finding the Sweet Spot
Goodhart started using Foliar-Pak products around 2016. Since then, he’s found the sweet spot that allows him to maximize his crew’s efficiency while also delivering high-quality course conditions.
“For several years, I was using five or six different Foliar-Pak products, and about three years ago, we switched to Play-On as our ‘catch-all,’” said Goodhart. “Now, we just put this in the tank, and the results have been really good.”
In addition to Play-On, Goodhart and his team use CSi L, a silicon product that increases plant turgidity.
“Ever since we started with CSi L, our courses have taken abuse better, particularly at Avalon Lakes, because that’s our highest round count,” said Goodhart. “You see better stress recovery and often you see stress just not happening.”
Being able to put these products in the tank with others is nice, too.
“We’re short on time all the time, so it’s nice to be able to tank-mix these products with our fungicides, growth regulators, and other inputs,” said Goodhart.
Great Color Response Without Excessive Growth
Delivering vibrant color and keeping growth under control can be tricky, but with Foliar-Pak products, it’s easy.
“We have L-93 creeping bentgrass, and it grows aggressively,” said Goodhart. “With the other stuff we were using prior to Foliar-Pak, our ball speed was slow, and every time we sprayed, we’d almost push the growth regulator out of the ground. All this would slow us down, and we’d be stuck playing catch up.”
The difference with Foliar-Pak products has been clear.
“With Foliar-Pak products, maintaining a course is a much more gentle process,” said Goodhart. “Our growth regulators and our fungicides tend to work better because the plants take them up and they don’t get pushed out because we’re mowing. For contact products, if you want them to sit there for a day or two, they don’t get blown out of the ground.”
Handling Wear, Tear, and Unexpected Weather
It’s great when products perform under ideal conditions, but how they do under pressure is just as, if not more, important.
Last year, Ohio experienced a terribly wet spring, and then went straight into a drought.
“Every year lately has been a challenge, but last year stands out because it was probably the worst overall year I’ve had in 25 years of doing this,” said Goodhart. “I can’t remember a single year we had so much against us as we did last year.”
Fortunately, things turned out well, especially for the courses that used Foliar-Pak products.
“The two courses that used Foliar-Pak products survived and performed despite the challenges,” said Goodhart. “They handled the monsoon and drought very well. In fact, we’ve switched one of the two courses that didn’t use it over to Foliar-Pak, and we’re working on the fourth.”
Overall, Foliar-Pak products make foliar nutrition simple, sweet, and effective.
“I was doing multiple programs at the same time at one point. It was very complicated and it was very much a headache,” concluded Goodhart. “Using Foliar-Pak is very easy.”
To learn more about Foliar-Pak products and how they can help you and your course, reach out to your distributor representative.
