For more than 30 years, Doug Adams has maintained the two 18-hole courses at Treasure Lake in DuBois, Pennsylvania. He’s been the superintendent for almost 20 of those years. With a lean crew, Doug values efficiency everywhere on the property.
“We run with, on a daily basis, between four to six personnel—some days more, some days less,” Doug said. The Treasure Lake team uses Foliar-Pak products on both their gold and silver courses, which are about six miles apart from each other.
Before Doug’s sales rep, Rich Bryce, first introduced him to Foliar-Pak, he was using traditional nutrition products. “We were just using your basic quick-release fertilizers,” he said. “Rich actually started me out with the 11-0-11 and the 14-2-4. And then we just kept building on from there.”
At first, the transition to Foliar-Pak products was small. “I started them at the silver course and just was very impressed,” Doug said. “And then since, we’ve added four or five more products that I use on the gold course.”
Doug uses the following products on the greens of the gold course: “Foundation Forty goes in every tank starting June 1. Gold Standard 45 is another heavy hitter that I love to use. It gives us great color, plant health, and definitely helps fighting off disease pressure. We’ve implemented Armament MKS. We hit that once a year. We use Amperage, and we use Minors.”
According to Doug, the results have been simple yet impactful. “Plant health. Root development. We consistently, in the years past, have fought with anthracnose terribly. And it seemed to have helped once we started implementing these products.”
The reduced disease pressure also takes some pressure off Doug and his crew. “We would get anthracnose so bad that we would have to physically go in and sod out the dead spots.” Now, they can spend that time doing other work on the property.
Doug credits Rich with helping him understand the value of Foliar-Pak products. Rich “basically explains the benefits, just breaking down some of the chemistry that goes into them to explain how there’s more than just putting fertilizer down,” said Doug. “You’re getting so much more with Foliar-Pak.”
Doug plans to continue using Foliar-Pak as much as possible. “If I had the budget, I would implement every single one of them. I would definitely alternate and try to implement every single one of the foliars,” Doug said. “And also, I would definitely put it everywhere. Greens, tees, fairways.”
With a tight budget and a lean crew, Doug has used Foliar-Pak to maximize his efficiency at Treasure Lake.
