Monday, March 25, 2019

Dry or Wet - I Know What to Do


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.