Farewell to the 2015 Season

Well, it is nearing the end for the 2015 season!  Overall, it was not too bad of a year as far as turf goes. The early rains presented some challenges, but the cool summer kept golfers on the course and most of the usual turf issues at bay.

All of us at ProGro Solutions want to thank you for your business this past year. We continue to grow and expand our product offerings and service capacity to meet your needs. The upcoming 2016 season will be no different and it has already begun!

ProGro Solutions has launched its 2016 Early Order Program.  This year, there are increased savings and expanded qualifying products available. While it may be the last thing you want to think about at the moment, it really pays off to take some time to plan for and purchase key inputs during the EOP program period. Your ProGro sales representative will be contacting you soon with specific details.

Aaron Goy
ProGro President

Turf Tip: Poa Seedhead Suppression Applications

"As spring emerges, golf course superintendents break their dormancy inside the office and investigate their courses to prepare for the upcoming season. One of their first chemical applications, often the trickiest to accurately time, is their poa seedhead suppression application. There are many schools of thought on when to apply the application for poa seedhead suppression. One is after the first forsythia bloom, using Growing Degree Days (www.gddtracker.net). The other is applying after identifying seedheads in "indicator" areas (South-facing slopes, near cart paths or asphalt). These methods all have merit and it may be wise to take all into consideration. It is vital to continuously check weather forecasts when planning your application. If there is a chance of frost within 48 hours after application, it is recommended to wait for warmer weather before applying. Some growth regulators, especially Embark (mefluidide), will have deleterious effects on turf quality if a frost occurs after application. My advice is to check the weather and use all information you have at your disposal, including past records, to decide when to apply. Also, be patient and use common sense." 

Brett Ziegler

ProGro Sales Representative

The Foliar-Pak® Spring Performance Program

In the northern and transition zones, the spring season signals the renewal of activity to human and plant life around us. The fluctuating nature of spring weather teases us, and our turf. As turf waits on consistently warmer temperatures, it sometimes seems to sit stagnant. During these early spring periods, we need to remember that turf can truly benefit from building carbohydrates, which it will use to overcome the summer stress difficulties that are sure to arrive later in the growing season. With a few timely applications of bionutritional products, we can improve the plants ability to create more of these precious energy reserves and impact the turf in many positive ways.

The Foliar-Pak® Spring Performance Program features four high performance foliar products to enhance turf color, improve rooting, and increase carbohydrates. This program helps turf repair from winter damage and prepare for summer stress.

• The quicker the plant begins photosynthesizing, the more carbohydrates it will build. Foliar-Pak® A.S Fusion supplies ammoniacal and amino nitrogen that plants can use much more efficiently than nitrate nitrogen or urea during colder temperatures. Since the plant is yet to devote energy to leaf growth, it can use these nitrogen sources to build chlorophyll molecules, carbohydrates and enzymes that will drive photosynthesis.This will help maximize the plants ability to generate color, as well as energy.

• Foliar-Pak® Amperage with iron, manganese and zinc supplies micronutrients and sugars that will maximize plant performance in the early spring season. Iron and manganese are deeply tied to photosynthesis  and chlorophyll production, so when conditions are conducive, Amperage will maximize the carbohydrate building process of photosynthesis. Manganese and zinc are needed to build enzymes that are involved in the conversion of sugars to stored carbohydrates. Zinc is necessary for initiating root growth, which occurs much more so than leaf growth during these periods of lower temperatures. The sugars work as a form of insurance; they can be taken up by the plant and metabolized, which may become important throughout periods of extended cool cloudy weather.

• Foliar-Pak® L-18 Activator™, as a concentrated and complete amino acid supplement, provides building blocks needed to create proteins, including those proteins necessary for chlorophyll development. L-18 Activator is laden with high levels of glutamic acid, which is necessary for constructing chlorophyll. Acting as nutrient symporters, the amino acids work to increase plant absorption of nutrients too. During these cooler temperatures when plant processes are working slowly, L-18 Activator can increase many plant efficiencies, which lead to better protein and carbohydrate development.

• Foliar-Pak® Promote provides bionutritional materials that enhance the development of root systems. Since root growth occurs at lower temperature than shoot growth, early spring is the perfect time to impact rooting. While the plant is sending limited amounts of energy to the leaves, the biostimulant package in Promote can maximize the energy diverted towards roots by improving the plants ability to initiate rooting.

Part I: Balancing Soils – Understanding Critical Soil Relationships

When soils are functionally balanced, the soil biological community is constantly working hard, not only to meet the plants short-term nutritional needs, but also enhancing the soil microenvironment to insure plant health in the long-term. As managers of turf, we are sometimes either impatient or feel obligated to catalyze many of these natural occurring processes with the intention of improving plant health. It is the unintentional consequences that sometimes can work against us.

Plant Health

Plant health is a direct function of the soil environment that immediately surrounds the roots – i.e. the rhizosphere. This dynamic zone is where critical interactions between plant and biology take place. Plants exchange exudates, rich in sugars, amino acids, and organic acids providing food for microorganisms. They return the favor by supplying essential nutrients directly back to the plant. Along with plant exudates, microbes depend on both nitrogen and carbon for energy and for building structural components. The storehouse for both carbon and essential nutrients is soil organic matter. The ability of microorganisms to slowly decompose active organic residues is important in mineralizing essential nutrients, but also critical in the production of humus, that part of organic matter that is impervious to additional decomposition. Humus can dramatically improve structure, increase nutrient exchange capacity, and enhance the water holding capacity of soils. Humus also provides important soil buffers to protect plant roots from soil pathogens and parasites.

Maintaining balanced soil carbon is the buffer that regulates the decomposition rate of organic residues by microbes, all the while protecting the mutualistic relationship with the plant. Excess applications of synthetic fertilizer reduces plant exudate production and can diminish the importance of naturally occurring, nitrogen-fixing bacteria. Without the benefit of plant exudates, microorganisms will begin feeding on exogenous soil nitrogen and begin the process of aggressively decomposing organic residues. Rapid breakdown of organic residues results in the volatilization of carbon (carbon dioxide) and nitrogen (ammonia) in favor of stable soil carbon, nitrogen and other humic substances beneficial to plant and soil health. The rapid recycling of carbon eventually results in a depleted soil, unable to sustain a balanced, functional, biological community. Additional synthetic nitrogen applications will only serve to provide minimal plant uptake and dramatically increase nutrient loss through leaching. This condition is commonly referred to as “soil nitrogen burn-out."

Soil Carbon: Nitrogen

Managing the ratio of soil carbon to nitrogen is the key in controlling the process of building valuable soil organic matter and protecting the important contributions of rhizobacteria and other beneficial microbes. The ideal soil C:N ratio is 20:1, making carbon based inputs the dominate player in building a balanced soil. All natural organic and synthetic organic fertilizers have a carbon component, but not all meet the ideal soil C:N ratio. Meals are predominantly protein (16% nitrogen) and have a C:N ratio of 6:1, which favors excess nitrogen accumulation in the soil. Sludge is typically cooked at high temperatures, striating proteins and making them virtually unavailable as an acceptable carbon source. A good humified compost organic has a favorable C:N ratio (20:1), along with the added benefit of containing natural living biology (i.e. bacteria, fungi, protozoa, beneficial nematodes).

Healthy Grow + Holganix

Healthy Grow contains a poultry compost derived from Pearl Valley egg production in Pearl City, IL. The indoor composting process is what separates the Healthy grow product from others; producing a clean, granulated (90-180 SGN), homogenous, ammonia-free product that is very user and soil friendly. The base compost is 90% organic (OMRI certified). It contributes a beneficial amount of carbon, as well as organic sources of phosphorus, potassium, calcium and other minerals. This makes an ideal product that energizes and balances depleted soils. The combination of these two products provides all the benefits of a well-composted organic fertilizer along with the diverse living biology, additional food, and soil-building supplements contained in Holganix.These products will give you a perfect opportunity to experience the biological enhancement of Holganix, combined with a sustainable food source and additional soil building benefits of carbon, ultimately making the soils work for us.

Progro is carrying three Healthy Grow + Holganix products:

HG 10-3-2 + Holganix

HG 8-3-5 + Holganix

HG 2-4-3 + Holganix

Dave Henricksen

ATS Product Specialist

GREEN OPS: ProGro's Operations Team

ProGro Solutions was founded on two basic principles 1.) Build a sound agronomic program to reduce inputs and improve economics and 2.) Provide superior service to our customers from sale through delivery. As Operations Manager for ProGro, I am going to highlight our Operations Team involved in servicing you, our 600+ customers.

 ProGro is dedicated to providing the best service for our customers and, as our customer base grows, so does our team in order to get the product out accurately and safely. For 2015, we have hired 2 new full-time delivery drivers as well as adding a new vehicle to our delivery fleet.  During April and May, our trucks will be making 2 full trips per day to get out early order and spring necessities. Last year during this time, we averaged over 100 pallets delivered per week; this year, we will be closer to 125 with increased vehicle capacity. 

As orders come in from the field, they are processed at the Barrington Warehouse location, which is managed by Roy Cranmer, our Warehouse Manager. He brings with him 10 years of warehouse operation and landscape sales experience. Helping Roy with receiving shipments, organizing product, and pulling orders for delivery is Toby DeRita (who is celebrating the end of his first year with ProGro). 

Once the order is processed and pulled from the shelves, it will be delivered by one of our three licensed CDL delivery drivers. Nelson Martinez drives our curtain side truck and has been with ProGro for 4 years. 10 years prior to that, with Olson's Distributing, he delivered to many of our landscape customers. Randy Fischer has come to us after 15 years of experience delivering around Chicago and Northern Illinois from another industry. He will be driving our flatbed truck.  Finally, driving our new F-550 stake bed, is Ayrre Rogers, who will be a delivery driver as well as warehouse help in pulling and loading orders.

ProGro takes the time through the fall and winter to ensure all employees maintain certifications that are in compliance with local, state, and federal regulations for their respective positions. With this, you can be assured that the product is coming to you in a professional manner with vehicles that are reliable, certified safe, and properly insured. 

Scott Verdun

Progro Sales Representative

Spring Time Deliveries

As much as I do love the snow, I'm getting excited to finally go outside in something less than a winter parka. With that being said, these next couple months are some of ours and your busiest months of the year. At ProGro, we really strive to have every product in stock for you this season, no questions asked. To help make this possible, please inform us if you can take a shipment early. Early shipments assist with clearing floor space in a warehouse and allow us to use the drivers earlier, while were not as busy. And if you're looking for specific product to use this year, just let us know. We can then order it and have ample time to get it in from our suppliers.We want to give a sincere Thank You to all who have purchased from ProGro and support this newsletter.

Craig Shepherd
Progro Sales Representative