Insight Series: Nature’s Dream Nursery Part III
Hibiscus and mandevillas grew a lot over the last few weeks. Usually, by January the crop begins to take shape and we start to see what challenges will define the growing season.
In my last blog we looked at using the NutriTech Tool to measure early season fertility levels. A few areas in Nature’s Dream’s hibiscus showed low pH. So far, the unpredictable pH is the hallmark of his growing season. However, the color of the plants improved dramatically over the last few weeks and now making significant growth progress.
I asked Ray if any of the new crop protection products contributed to early season success. He mentioned the new miticide Sultan™ helping young plants start clean and strong. Marengo® pre-emergent herbicide is easy to overlook as a helpful tool this time of year. Timing the Marengo® application for property maintenance in the fall gets us through the critical growing season when we’d rather be doing anything but worrying about troublesome weeds. The mandevillas benefitted from a post-plant drench with Empress™ Intrinsic™ and WinField’s own Gravity® PGS. Of the many products that go into growing, these stood out as significant contributors to this year’s crop.
Focusing on crop quality is a primary reason for Ray partnering with WinField this season. In this growing environment new pests enter and establish regularly, profit margins are always top of mind and there is no shortage of competition. Despite those immense hurdles, we find some of our greatest success stories in challenging our grower-customers to expect more from us than delivering a product. This is certainly not the easy path. It requires trust and open communication. But for all of the struggle, it is so nice to see the look of satisfaction on a customer’s face when their crop looks fantastic and we got to play a part in that.
If you have any thoughts on my blog series or want to follow my other projects in the ornamental plant world, find me on LinkedIn or Twitter: @_TylerChandler.
In my last blog we looked at using the NutriTech Tool to measure early season fertility levels. A few areas in Nature’s Dream’s hibiscus showed low pH. So far, the unpredictable pH is the hallmark of his growing season. However, the color of the plants improved dramatically over the last few weeks and now making significant growth progress.
I asked Ray if any of the new crop protection products contributed to early season success. He mentioned the new miticide Sultan™ helping young plants start clean and strong. Marengo® pre-emergent herbicide is easy to overlook as a helpful tool this time of year. Timing the Marengo® application for property maintenance in the fall gets us through the critical growing season when we’d rather be doing anything but worrying about troublesome weeds. The mandevillas benefitted from a post-plant drench with Empress™ Intrinsic™ and WinField’s own Gravity® PGS. Of the many products that go into growing, these stood out as significant contributors to this year’s crop.
Focusing on crop quality is a primary reason for Ray partnering with WinField this season. In this growing environment new pests enter and establish regularly, profit margins are always top of mind and there is no shortage of competition. Despite those immense hurdles, we find some of our greatest success stories in challenging our grower-customers to expect more from us than delivering a product. This is certainly not the easy path. It requires trust and open communication. But for all of the struggle, it is so nice to see the look of satisfaction on a customer’s face when their crop looks fantastic and we got to play a part in that.
If you have any thoughts on my blog series or want to follow my other projects in the ornamental plant world, find me on LinkedIn or Twitter: @_TylerChandler.
Hibiscus and mandevillas grew a lot over the last few weeks. Usually, by January the crop begins to take shape and we start to see what challenges will define the growing season.
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