5/5/2020

POLYON® controlled-release fertilizer—the product that we know and love—is quickly being recognized as a great option for a wide range of crops. Its unique technology is providing an array of great benefits for ornamental greenhouse crops, including extended shelf life and sell-through at retail, reduced shrink, enhanced garden performance, and foolproof feeding for perennials.

Despite the great care put into crops by the grower, flowers often don’t receive the same care after they reach the stores. Once there, plants usually only receive water and are deprived of fertilizer. As they languish on the shelf, they begin to pale and can lose their “flower power” due to a lack of nutrients. We have a saying, “color sells.” If a plant is not blooming at retail, it’s unlikely to sell. Since growers might not get paid until their product is sold at the store, shelf life and sell-through are key to profitability. By using POLYON® fertilizer in containers, the plants will continue to be fed at retail, even if the caretakers only apply water.  

One time, at a home improvement chain store, I observed an employee watering a whole line of hanging baskets. I had to stop and take a video because every single basket was dead! Sometimes we can work on autopilot without thinking about why we are doing certain tasks. It was amazing to watch this employee repeatedly water completely brown, dead baskets. “How could they not notice?” I couldn’t help but wonder, but the death of these hanging baskets didn’t happen overnight. It likely started when the soil ran out of food and the plants became pale yellow, obviously hungry. From yellow, they turned brown, ultimately dying and rendering them unsellable—no matter the discount offered. However, incorporating POLYON® fertilizer into the pots at planting or topdressing at the time of shipping would have helped keep these plants green and blooming longer, reducing shrink (loss) at retail. And reducing shrink can make the difference between breaking even and earning a profit for the grower. 

Greenhouse growers often feed their plants every time they water, but the home gardener isn’t always as consistent. Often, the home gardener only waters their plants when necessary, but neglects to feed them until it’s too late. By the time they realize their plants are hungry, it may be a challenge to recover them with fertilizer. Sadly, the new gardener may decide, “I don’t have a green thumb, maybe gardening just isn’t for me.” When growers incorporate POLYON® fertilizer into their containers, it helps ensure that their customers’ plants don’t run out of food suddenly when they get them home. Rather, they will stay fed for quite some time after bringing the plants home. The POLYON® fertilizer will keep feeding the plants, and they will slowly indicate they are getting hungry, giving the gardener the chance to feed the plants before the situation becomes severe. And when a gardener has success with plants from a specific grower, they will buy again and again, year after year, coming back for the performance they associate with the plants from that grower!

At the end of summer, while the home gardener starts cleaning the garden and finishing their season, the greenhouse grower is already preparing for next spring. It’s a busy time for planting perennial crops, which go dormant and overwinter in the greenhouse. Then, in the spring, these plants “wake up” and start growing and blooming again. Feeding perennial crops involves some guesswork, and it’s important to start feeding as soon as plants emerge from dormancy in the spring. However, it is easy to overdo fertilization with conventional water-soluble fertilizers. This can lead to soft growth, which is prone to damage, disease, and peaking blooms well before the sales window. Growers are learning that POLYON® fertilizer is a great solution to avoid these headaches! Because POLYON® fertilizer only feeds when the conditions are right for growing, it will start feeding at the time of planting and stop feeding as soon as the greenhouse is cooled in the fall (when the plants are no longer actively growing and don’t require any more fertilizer until spring). Once temperatures warm back up in the spring and the plants begin growing, the POLYON® fertilizer will automatically begin spoon feeding nutrition to the plants in predictable, controlled amounts. This gives the plants exactly what’s required when it’s required—and not a moment too soon. This helps automate the perennial crop for the grower and removes some of the guesswork required for success.  

Water soluble fertilizer has long been the go-to for the ornamental greenhouse grower, but things are changing. Today, as growers learn about how POLYON® fertilizer contributes to their bottom line, more growers are turning to its applications for expanded use within their operations. Talk to your Harrell’s representative today to find out how our proprietary CUSTOGRAPH® program can help you dial in just the right prescription for your POLYON® fertilizer needs.