9/12/2018 - By Scott Parker

The official end of summer has come and gone, and what a crazy year 2018 has been so far.  We experienced a frigid cold winter that would not seem to end, multiple Nor’easter storms, abnormally cold and wet weather into April, and then came summer.

Summer has been trying for everyone across the northern part of the US.  Extreme heat, humidity, and rain events have made it a challenge to manage cool season turf.  This year, more than ever, all the blemishes on your property show their face.  From unwanted crabgrass, to poa checking out, to hot spots, areas of staying too wet, disease pressure, etc. 

This is the perfect time to work with your Harrell’s sales professional to look at your property, review your program (cultural, chemical, and nutritional) to see what worked best and what could be changed going into 2019 to meet your goals and expectations.  This quote has been around a long time but it’s one of my favorites, “A goal without a plan is a wish.”

Harrell’s has seven tools to help you create the best plan for your property next year.

Seven Tools for Success

1. Balanced Approach Annual Programs:

Harrell’s Balanced Approach Annual Programs are your prescription for year-long nutrition. Using your soil, tissue and water samples we dial in your specific needs for a turf health program with a combination of granular fertilizer, wetting agents, foliar nutritionals & soil amendments, adjuvants & colorants, and plant protectants. The Harrell's Balanced Approach is a unique strategy that addresses all facets of turfgrass health and fertility. The program includes plant protectants and nutrition, soil water retention and turf colorants.

2. Education:

Harrell’s offers a wide variety of educational tools for our customers to better understand how to grow healthy turf. Our online education tools include CEU courses, blogs, videos, and webinars, and are provided on the harrells.com website free of charge.

3. POLYON Guarantee:

How can we predict the consistent dependable release of POLYON® controlled-release fertilizer?  PolyGraph® for turf and CustoGraph® for ornamentals are software programs designed to prescribe the perfect POLYON® fertilizer blend given the weather trends at your geographic location and your nutrient release requirements. We’re so confident in their predictability, we guarantee it.

4. EOP:

Early Order is your opportunity to: Lock in current pricing on next year’s purchases and receive rebates on the products you need most from BASF, Bayer, Syngenta, Nufarm, Corteva (Dow), FMC, SePRO and Harrell's. Take advantage of extended terms to help free up cash flow. Meet and even exceed next year's budget with ease. Worried you don’t have enough storage? No problem! Let Harrell’s warehouse your purchases and then let us know when you need them delivered.

5. New Products:

• Amino Pro V: Harrell’s Bio-MAX Amino Pro V is an innovative fertilizer based on plant-derived protein hydrolysate nitrogen. This nitrogen is rapidly absorbed by leaves and translocated in plant tissue.
  
  
• Seaweed Extract: Harrell’s Bio-MAX® Seaweed Extract is intended for use on turf, trees, shrubs, flower and vegetable plants, and crops. This product may be applied to both in-ground and container plants. Seaweed Extract is a food source for microbes. This product is available for purchase in AL, AR, AZ, CA, CT, FL, GA, IN, KY, LA, MS, NC, NZ, OH, SC, TX, and VA.
  
  
• Soil Surge: Harrell’s MAX® Soil Surge is a sprayable, liquid fertilizer that is designed to reduce carbonate deposits in the soil from poor irrigation water quality. Carbonate accumulation in the soil reduces water infiltration and diminishes fertilizer effectiveness. Harrell’s MAX® Soil Surge is a proprietary safe acid formulation designed to specifically reduce carbonate accumulations in the soil. The reduction of carbonates in the soil allows for increased water infiltration, uniform distribution and nutrient availability, specifically, calcium, magnesium, iron and manganese.

Tools You Can Use

Harrell’s believes in making you successful and that means giving you as many tools and resources as possible to make your job just a little bit easier. We know you're on the go, so many of our tools are available to you even when you're not at your desk through your smartphone.

• Tissue Calculator: Our new Tissue Calculator allows your Harrell’s rep to develop a foliar prescription program designed for your specific turf needs. Based on your individual leaf tissue analysis, we’ll design a customized treatment program using Harrell’s MAX® foliar nutritionals. Trial and error applications can be costly and inefficient. The Harrell’s Tissue Calculator delivers optimal results you can count on – for the best playability, durability and beauty.
  
  
• Foliar Calculator:  With our Foliar Calculator, you can know exactly what nutrients you’re applying each time you apply. We also believe that the less math you or your spray tech has to do, the less likely you are to make a mistake. That’s why we’ve created a foliar calculator based on using full 2.5 gallon jugs of product.
  
  
• Spreader Calculator: Take a look at the label, then tell us your particle size, spreader, product density, product, and the pounds of product you want to put down and our Spreader Calculator will tell you what setting your spreader needs to be on. 
  
  
• myHarrell’s: Harrell’s customers, have exclusive access to their company’s account information through the myHarrell’s portal – http://www.myharrells.com. 

• • View Open Orders - Wondering when your recent order will arrive? Use the Open Orders page to check the status of your orders throughout the fulfillment process, whether they’re in progress, on a truck, or delivered.
  • Open Billing Transactions - View a summary of your open invoices including invoice date, due date, amounts, and aging status, or further click to view specific invoices.
  • Invoice History - Browse or search through your purchase history detail or view a summary of your purchases by month for the past three years.
  • Bill & Hold - View the items ordered during EOP, including those you have on Bill & Hold, ready to be delivered when you want them. You can even accept the Bill & Hold agreement online.
  • Pay Online - Pay your invoices online through your myHarrell’s account. Visit www.myharrells.com today to register your account.

Again, I believe this is the best time to examine your course to see what worked for you and to determine where you would like to see improvements or possible changes to your current plan.

The good news is that the days are getting much shorter and the nights are getting longer.  Many of you have started your aerification process and cooler days are on the horizon.  This has definitely been a year of extremes and one we soon won’t forget.  I wish all of you the best of luck finishing out the year and please let us know how we can help!

All the Best,

Scott Parker
Sales Director – Midwest
scott.parker@harrells.com