Ian Dickson, a bowling green contractor, believes that COMPO EXPERT products have proved to be top of range without the premium price tag.
Ian originally started his career in greenkeeping but switched to bowling green maintenance ten years ago. While admitting it is a completely ‘different animal’, Ian says he quickly got an appetite for maintaining bowls greens and has done so ever since.
He explained how he first started using COMPO EXPERT products on bowls greens.
“In my greenkeeping days I used to order a lot of products from Agrovista Amenity (the exclusive national distributor of COMPO EXPERT’S turf products in the UK) and my representative was Ramsay MacGregor. I stayed in touch with Ramsay when I switched to bowls because he is very knowledgeable, and he gives valid reasons behind using products.
Ramsay is genuinely interested in a plant’s health and his advice is key to my operations.
“Ramsay came in and looked at the bowls greens I was working on. He suggested using some COMPO EXPERT products and explained how they had been getting great results on some golf courses, so I decided to give them a try.”
COMPO EXPERT believes in sustainable, integrated turf management by focusing on modern fertilisation concepts, consistent regeneration of growth and optimal support of the plant’s own physiological processes. All of which promote vitalisation, stress tolerance and root development while providing optimum turf quality.
The innovative product range includes specialty mineral and stabilized fertilisers, slow and controlled release fertilisers, water soluble and liquid fertilisers as well as biostimulants, trace elements and soil conditioners.
The first product Ian tried from the COMPO EXPERT range was Fertilis® Speed, an NPK complex fertiliser with emphasis on nitrogen for spring and summer application to promote growth and a quick green-up.
“The green where we applied the Fertilis® had a lot of bare areas and the growth has been tremendous,” said Ian. “We applied it in May and had a full 12 weeks out of it. There has been less disease, the sward is a lot thicker, and even during a big drought period the greens performed superbly.”
Ian also maintains a sand-based green which is prone to leaching. For this green he applied Floranid® Twin Eagle K – an extra fine granulated slow-release complex fertiliser of excellent solubility.
“The nutrient levels on this green are very hard to maintain. With the Twin Eagle K, you don’t get the flush of growth in the way you would from the Fertilis®. Instead, you get an even, consistent growth. I judge the consistency of it by looking at the amount of grass cuttings I take from the mower each week. We get three boxes of cuttings three times a week and that underlines how consistent the Twin Eagle K is. Again, we get excellent results.”
Ian claims that he has been very impressed with the longevity of the products and believes that there isn’t much on the market that can beat COMPO EXPERT products in terms of performance and price.
“A lot of other fertilisers just don’t have the longevity that these do,” he said. “We were using a cheaper fertiliser in the past and I was applying twice as much product, so it ended up costing me more.
“The COMPO EXPERT products are top the range, but you don’t pay top of the range prices for them. They are very fairly priced compared to their competitors.”
For more information about Agrovista UK, visit www.agrovista.co.uk/amenity
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