Horticulture Hotline 03/25/19
By Bill Lamson-Scribner
Over the past few weeks during this dry spell, I have talked
to two different customers with different situations that have had great
success with one of my money saving products that I wrote about a while ago.
The product is Possum’s Wetting Agent with Biostimulants.
My well needs a little attention, so I have been watering
with city water. Having the reputation of being cheap, or as I prefer to think
of it as being thrifty, saving money for the future, conserving water, managing
runoff, or being more agronomically correct, I have been using Possum’s Wetting
Agent with Biostimulants in my yard. The product has been working great! Too
much rain, Possum’s Wetting Agent with Biostimulants helps dry the lawn. Too
little rain, it helps keep the lawn wet. Just like a thermos knows whether to
keep something hot or cold.
Possum’s Wetting Agent with Biostimulants is a water
management product. Imagine a bunch of tiny microscopic little balloons that
penetrate into your soil through the tiny cracks, absorb water, expand, relieve
compaction , and then release the water slowly back to the plant. After about a
month, these balloons begin to break down in the soil, like a helium balloon
does in the atmosphere, then you reapply.
The first customer that thanked me for introducing her to Possum’s
Wetting Agent with Biostimulants lived in a clay type soil. The first benefit
she noticed was areas that stayed wet in the past seemed to dry out quicker. Possum’s
Wetting Agent with Biostimulants (PWAB) let the water go into the ground
instead of sitting on the surface. She also noticed that the water that flowed
over the curb after a rain now stayed on her lawn. For hours or even days after
a rain, her neighbors curb was wet while hers was dry. Strong evidence that her
lawn was absorbing the water instead of it running down the storm drain.
Once the rains began to slow down, she began to notice the
big savings in her pocket book. She went from watering Monday, Wednesday, and
Friday for thirty minutes a zone down to Monday and Friday for 20 minutes a
zone. In other words she went from watering a total of 90 minutes down to 40
minutes. She cut her watering in more than half!
Because of the clay soil she didn’t like to plant into the
ground, so she had lots of containers and hanging baskets for color plants and
a small herb garden. These plants also needed far less water. In our brutal
heat some of her hanging baskets needed watering twice a day. Not anymore!
The other customer lives in a sandy soil area of the
Lowcountry. He suffered from a large dry area on a hill and an annual bed that
always dried out; however, the annuals were on a zone with turf so the turf was
getting over watered to keep the annuals alive.
Through the monthly use of Possum’s Wetting Agent with
Biostimulants, he was able to solve both problems without having to rework his
irrigation system. He had been watering everyday for 30 minutes and has cut his
watering to 3 times a week. On last report he was going to try to lower the
minutes per watering. Another lowered water bill of over 50% and another better
looking yard!
Less watering also means less disease and less expensive
fungicides. This slow release watering can save you money on your water bill,
help fertilizer work better, lessen compaction, prevent runoff into storm water
drains that go to our marshes, grow deeper roots, develop healthier plants that
can withstand stress better, and let me mention again save you money!
In parts of the country wetting agents are common knowledge
because water is so expensive. Around here golf course superintendents use this
product on greens for hotspots or on steep bunkers (especially if made of sand)
that dry out quickly.
Give Possum’s Wetting Agent with Biostimulants a try. We
have been told the water bill savings more than pays for the product and the
other benefits are a bonus!
Always read, understand and follow product label. The
product label is a Federal Law.
