I am a grower
You are a plantsman. You could say that you run a “plant factory”. You enjoy plants and growing them but at the end of the day you manage an investment. Every plant in the nursery or on the farm is cash. There is a lot at stake. It’s a big responsibility.
Every plant that dies, is like throwing money away. It’s the same for plants that aren’t ready on time or that do not meet the specification. Your clients are professional and demanding. To ensure customer satisfaction you produce crops to a set standard within a tight time frame.
Each single plant deserves the best possible care
In the old days, a grower would be in his crops and spend all day looking after his plants. Now, the industry has changed so much and there’s so much to learn, you have to spend a decent amount of time behind a computer researching and emailing back and forth to stay on top of things. Love it or hate it, it’s equally important to being out in your crop. If you’re not upgrading, you’re going to get behind.
You are constantly on the look out to increase your yield and plant quality, to have a homogeneous crop, to reduce plant mortality, to reduce your inputs and have a good ROI.
The need for constant perfection of the cultivation process is reflected in:
- using state of the art propagation techniques,
- regulating and monitoring the growth conditions,
- strategic planning and crop modeling;
- optimizing the delivery and interaction with your clients.
Attention to detail is paramount. With plants, you only have one shot. You cannot say: “tomorrow is another day and I’ll figure it out next week”. Everything has to be precisely timed and delivered on a specific day. You don’t have much time to react. You have to be proactive.
The composition of the soil is the foundation for top quality plants.
Limitations in water retention causes wilting and plant loss. More watering also results in a higher water bill. And in those cases where there is no automated irrigation, more labour and attention is required.
Low fertility will result in suboptimal plant development. A low cation exchange capacity has a negative effect on fertiliser efficiency. . So, more inputs are required for the same effect. Consequently it increases the fertilizer content in the effluent.
Liebig’s law of the limiting factor
- The soil’s ability to retain water is strongly related to particle size and pore space. With its large pore and granules size it is difficult for sand to retain water. This is ideal during the wet winter months: excess water being drained away. Nevertheless, during the hot and dry summer months, the soil needs sufficient water buffering or water holding capacity to allow good grass growth.
- A pure sandy soil also lacks structure. As a result, the playing surface will be unstable and the grass plants will be very vulnerable to intensive play.
- Finally, sand has a low cation exchange capacity (CEC). This is the total capacity of a soil to hold exchangeable cations. Or the soil’s ability to hold onto essential nutrients. To put it simple: a sandy soil is less “fertile” than a clay soil.
Unique soil conditioning solution
These limitations are easy to solve. The TerraCottem soil conditioners were designed precisely to address these issues. Its origin lies in improving sandy soils in semi-arid countries to allow plant growth. They are granular products that are mixed with the top soil at preparation stage.
As your grass grows, TerraCottem’s fertilisers and natural growth precursors promote stronger and deeper root development, creating a strong playing surface.
- “To improve the growing conditions“
Peter Fabry, Public Green Spaces maintenance manager from the City of Genk, Belgium: “The urban environment offers limited free space for the trees to grow. To improve the growing conditions, TerraCottem was added to the soil mixture to increase its water and nutrient holding capacity. Despite being planted late in the season (spring) all the trees established well in their new environment with less than one per cent of the trees dying”.
- “This soil amendment gives us a near total survival guarantee“
Eric Bouton, head of Green Spaces department of the city of Calais, France and winner of the 4th flower (highest award) of The French competition Villes et Villages Fleuris: “We work with very short lead times to achieve good plant development and high quality flowering. This soil amendment gives us a near total survival guarantee. We obtained the 4th Flower this year partly thanks to the Ephemeral Garden boosted with TerraCottem. For gardens exposed to wind and sandy soil TerraCottem is a real asset for success.“
Yet you and your clients want thriving planting schemes without the worrying.
What if with a simple gesture at the time of planting, you give plants the extra help to start off the right foot instead of struggling to germinate or survive transplant shock?
TerraCottem universal is the original soil conditioner and is still the TerraCottem to use in most applications.
TerraCottem turf is the soil conditioner for all types of grass.
TerraCottem arbor is the soil conditioner for woody plants.
TerraCottem complement top-up product for flower beds after having used TerraCottem Universal. Also in horticulture.
Just mix the TerraCottem soil conditioner with the soil or substrate. Easy.
- When? Just once, at the time of planting or prior to seeding.
- Why? To get better plant growth. To protect plants against drought and irregular irrigation. To ensure they will survive. To make your work stand out
Protect your plants …
Give your plants a fighting chance from the start…