Geoponics Blog

Dermy Jones, greenskeeper, Raffeen Creek Golf Club, Ringaskiddy, Ireland

(www.raffeencreekgolfclub.com  )

Q: Can you tell us a bit about Raffeen Creek Golf Club and its features?

Greenskeeper Dermy Jones: It’s located 12 miles outside of Cork City. It’s very close to the sea at Cork Harbour but without being a links course. We have a 9-hole golf course, an 18-hole pitch and putt course and two soccer pitches.  We have two saltwater lakes.

Q: What are the soil and turf like?

Greenskeeper Dermy Jones: Limestone. It’s silty, heavy soil. The greens are of the old construction style with predominantly annual meadow grass greens, but we keep a lovely surface.

Currently temperatures are between -2 degrees Celsius and 10 degrees. Growth is very, very slow. We’re mowing once or twice a week.

Q: Which Geoponics products are you using?

Greenskeeper Dermy Jones: Penterra (www.Penterra.net) and Detox (www.SoilDetox.com)

Q: How did you discover Geoponics products and why did you choose to try them?

Greenskeeper Dermy Jones: A ProGrass representative (Brian O’Carroll) called me about five months ago. He and a greenskeeper in midland Ireland told me about Penterra and Detox. I read the literature on it. Unless you try something yourself, you wont’ actually see the results.

Q: What challenges do you or others in your area typically face?

Greeenskeeper Dermy Jones: We had a very, very wet summer. Actually we had a wet year. In 2012, we got a meter and a half of rainfall throughout the year.

The surfaces were wet. The greens were holding water. As much as we aerate, as much as we sand, the surface water was sitting there. With that and the dew, the conditions were perfect for disease.

Q: How did Penterra assist with the challenges of a wet surface, dew and disease susceptibility?

Greenskeeper Dermy Jones: For taking dew off the surface, I’ve never seen anything like it and I’ve been a greenskeeper for 25 years and worked on three courses. The Penterra pulls the moisture out of the top layer much better than anything else I’ve used.

It makes cutting much better. The Penterra even keeps the frost off the greens. There’s not as much moisture there to freeze. Every 14 days we spray and there is no dew, no disease.

We were looking to get the water off the surface and the Penterra did just what it said it would do. Our greens have dried up so much. We’ve been open everyday, except for a couple of mornings for frost.

Q: As for the Detox, was this to address sodium in your soil?

Greenskeeper Dermy Jones: Yes. We’re starting with the two together—Penterra and Detox. I found great results with this. I’m still waiting on the soil analysis test to come back.

We got saltwater on one of our fairways after a high tide a couple of times. The first time the water was high the turf yellowed and took some time to recover. It looked like it was dying off. But this next time it happened, we put the Detox on it as soon as we got the water off. It greened up again in a matter of days.

Q: How was your service with Geoponics in regard to technical assistance?

Greenskeeper Dermy Jones: (Brian O’Carroll) The distributor from ProGrass (www.Prograss.ie) keeps me up-to-date. I can ring him up anytime and ask him what products I can put with it. He rings me on a regular basis and asks if I have any problems.

Q: Any other experiences or tips I may not have asked that could help other greenskeeper or golf course superintendents?

Greenskeeper Dermy Jones: I haven’t been through a full growing season with Penterra yet, but if it’s even half as good of a soil surfactant as it is a wetting agent, it will be superb.

Superintendent Bruce Bach of Twin Eagles Golf Course in Naples, Florida is thrilled with Geganics.

The course recently hosted the LPGA CME Group Titleholders event and the players were impressed with the playability.

The Celebration Bermuda Grass responded gorgeously to the environmentally-friendly fairway program with visible results on first application. Those results also lasted, Bach said.

“I’m sold on Geganics,” said Bach of using Geganics on his closely-mown turf at Twin Eagles.

He’s so sold on the sustainable fairways program provided by Geganics that he’s using it on his other course as he prepares to host the Ace Group Classic.

Geganics comes from combining organic and Geoponics. Organic + Geoponics = Geganics.

Bach is one of many superintendents willingly sharing testimonials to the effectiveness of Geganics and other Geoponics products.

View more information about Geganics here. Watch a video and view an article from Golf Course Industry Magazine here.

Still want more information? Contact us today, info@geoponicscorp.com, 1-877-667-6330.

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Greenkeeper John Peach shares how Geganics on Kikuyu grass leads to spectacular fairways at Paarl Golf Club in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa in just one week. This gorgeous 27-hole course originally opened in 1908 before being relocated and redesigned in 2000 by David Frost and Danie Obermeyer, who brought the Berg River further into play. Learn more about the course here http://www.paarlgolfclub.co.za

Geganics is a customizable fairway program provided by Geoponics Corp that ensures healthy soils leading to vibrant turf. The organic products manage water movement, aerobic diversity, sodium flocculation, lateral and vertical growth and soil nutrients just to name a few benefits.
This sustainable program leads to vibrant color and turf uniformity that superintendents and golf course members alike notice very quickly.
It’s easy, it’s environmentally-friendly and it’s affordable. Contact us for more information.
info@GeoponicsCorp.com 1-877-667-6330.

Testimonial:
Tim Haskins, Golf Course Superintendent, The Quarry
When you’re sitting here talking to someone, it makes sense, but until you actually get out in the field and see it work, you don’t really get it.
I can tell you that after spraying Geganics I was on the phone going, “Wow. I’ve never seen anything like that.”
I’ve never seen too many products have an affect on color and this product did. It’s noticeable within an hour or two. My members see a noticeable change.
I’m in a much better spot this year from last year in terms of my color, my density, my moisture management.
We’re getting three or four weeks out of the longevity of the color, which is fantastic. Last year, we actually used a pigment on the fairways just to add a little bit of color. We won’t have to use that this year because of the program. There’s no reason for it.

Look and listen to this superintendent’s experience here:

Try it today. One application and you see a difference!

Contact us:

info@GeoponicsCorp.com 1-877-667-6330.

Geoponics Corp

3415 Radio Road #305

Naples, FL 34104

Geoponics Corp recently caught up with Superintendent Billy Bobbit, of Ballyhack Golf Club in Roanoke, VA to see how things were going on his course.

This gorgeous course is made up of mostly cool season grasses. As Ballyhack’s superintendent, Bobbit said he struggled with the high sodium, sandy soil and bicarbonates. These issues led to challenges with water management, nutrient absorption and algae.

The solutions to all three, said Ballyhack Superintendent Billy Bobbit, were found with Geoponics products. Agriox, Penterra and Detox turned the greens around in just one or two applications.

Bobbit’s colleagues recommended he try Geoponics about a year ago, so he did. Now, he’s recommending Geoponics to others.

BOBBIT ON THE CHALLENGES:

The high sodium and high salt levels caused water infiltration challenges. Water wasn’t getting into the green cavity. The water standing on the surface was causing multiple problems, one being algae. That was from the water not getting down into the soil cavity. We had sodium toxicity from the turf taking up so much salt.

THE SOLUTIONS:

The Penterra was allowing the water to get through that layer on top and actually get down into the root zone where the water was needed. Most of our root zones here are down 6, 8, maybe even 10 inches into the sand. We really needed the water to move through the profile. Penterra did that, which also helped eliminate the algae. We were spraying the Penterra every 10 to 14 days.

The Detox helped flush out the sodium.

We always kind of struggled with algae here. We typically sprayed a fungicide on them—which checked the algae if you will, but we never really got any results out of fungicide like we wanted to see. We were cultivating—spiking and aerifying—and we still didn’t get the algae. Once we started using the Geoponics it really started to get the results we were after ,even with the first to second application.

We started using Geoponics last year when a colleague recommended it.

We started with Penterra.

THE STELLAR RESULTS:

But I have to say, what really, really turned the greens around was the Agriox product. It freed up the nutrients in the soil, or in the sand I should say, and we really got a good growth response out of that. We saw a difference after the first application.

The greens kind of perked up and the health of the greens really changed. Then after we did the second application it really, really came to life then.

There was just so much with the salt build up in the soil, the bicarbonate, once we were able to break up those chemical bonds and free up those nutrients that were in the soil, the greens just really started to grow and out-compete the algae.

The first week in July I thought we were going to do a lot of seeding and plugging on the greens, but really after that second application of Agriox, the greens really responded well. I would definitely recommend it.

The greens just really did a 180. They just turned around. We thought, like I said, we’d be doing a lot of seeding and plugging on the greens just to get a uniform turf coverage out there. But it just really grew out of that funk and we haven’t looked back since.

I can see where the fertilizer spending is decreasing and we’re lowering the input of fertilizer on the greens. I can see us not having to use nearly as much as we’re keeping the water moving through the soil profile and getting those nutrients from being bound up in the sand.

Try for yourself. Contact Geoponics Corp, info@geoponicscorp.com, to see how these and other products may solve the challenges you face as a turf manager.

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Geoponics Corp.

3425 Radio Road No. 202

Naples, FL 34104

877-667-6330

info@geoponicscorp.com

www.GeoponicsCorp.com

Soil Wetting Agents