{"id":13399,"date":"2021-09-15T11:05:53","date_gmt":"2021-09-15T15:05:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aquatrolscompany.com\/a-mountainous-challenge\/"},"modified":"2021-09-15T11:05:53","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T15:05:53","slug":"a-mountainous-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aquatrolscompany.com\/en-ca\/a-mountainous-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"A Mountainous Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Pat Jones |<\/strong> \u201cWe have a big thatch layer, then clay, then rock,\u201d says Nathan Armstrong who\u2019s using Zipline<\/em>\u00ae to overcome a serious lack of soil in West Virginia.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Nathan Armstrong<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nathan Armstrong was a kid\nwhen his father died. Like his four brothers, he pitched in to help the family\nsurvive. His mom gave him the job of taking care of the lawn. He was 8 years\nold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere I was mowing \u2013 my\neyeballs about even with the handle of the Snapper mower \u2013 and a neighbor came\nby and asked if I mowed grass. I looked at him and, even at 8, I wanted to give\nhim a sarcastic answer, but I resisted and said yes sir. He said, “come\ndown and mow mine”. I did it and he gave me a $20 bill. I looked at that\nbill in my hand and thought, \u201cI can do this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he did. He mowed and he\nearned and he helped his family cope and overcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, a chore born from\ntragedy became a career that has touched nearly every major aspect of the green\nindustry, including sports turf, pest control, and landscaping, before he came\nto golf. The Florida native credits Ward Pepperman, who hired him at Southern\nDunes CC as a spray tech, for giving him a shot in the golf business. But it\nwas seven years working with our frugal friend Andy Jorgensen at Top of the\nWorld that taught him the real world of golf course maintenance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today he\u2019s at Glade Springs\nVillage, a 36-hole development property near West Virginia\u2019s well-known Glade\nSprings Resort. He\u2019s been overseeing the two Tom Clark-designed courses for the\npast two years. The best thing about the place? \u201cThe views here are out of this\nworld good. We\u2019ve got a spot on top of 16 tee you can see 11 or 12 miles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The not-so-good part is the\nsoil or lack thereof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a tough spot because\nwe have poor soils and other environmental challenges related to being at 2,800\nfeet. There really is no soil. We have a big thatch layer, then clay, then\nrock. Nothing\u2019s consistent and getting roots to grow is not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing he brought along from his time with Top of the World was some experience with a new product, Zipline\u00ae. \u201cWe were renovating our links courses and Duncan Stewart-Orris (of Aquatrols\u00ae) brought us a couple of cases. We tried it with no expectations. We were in the middle of growing in TifEagle greens and sprayed it and the response of the turf as a whole was great. It was exactly what we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So once he\u2019d gotten his feet under him (and used up the inventory he\u2019d inherited) he wanted to try Zipline\u00ae in this new, hostile environment. \u201cI was thrilled with the response that the new TifEagle had given us so I wanted to see if I could use it as my primary wetting agent and what it would do just by itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, in late May, Armstrong\nstarted giving his greens 4 oz\/1000 of Zipline every two weeks along with 4\noz\/1000 of Harrell\u2019s Earthmax and 2 oz\/1000 calcium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pictures tell a\nremarkable story. The before shots from May and 60 days later at the end of\nJuly are night-and-day different. \u201cThose pictures are from the same green. And\nthe color. Right now our greens look fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Is it consistent? \u201cI\u2019m seeing\nthe same results on both golf courses and when I pull profiles on any given\ngreen they look just like those pictures.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And his method suggests that\nZipline is the reason. \u201cThose are the only soil applications that I\u2019m doing and\nwhen I compare what the roots look like then and now\u2026very different. We are\naerifying but not fast enough to account for roots like that. The way the roots\nare responding is astounding and the only thing I can conclude is that it\u2019s the\nZipline.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He also loves the flexibility\nof watering later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt gives me some important\nflexibility because I\u2019m also the spray tech for one of the courses. I get busy and\nthings come up and if I don\u2019t get on that rig early enough I\u2019m competing with\nplay. The last thing you want to do is start spraying and irrigating while the\nfirst groups are waiting to start. I like that little bit of flexibility that\nyou don\u2019t have to water right away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, Armstrong is a fan\nof anything that gets calcium into the plant. \u201cOne of the things I\u2019ve observed\nabout Zipline is it helps unlock calcium and some of those micronutrients bound\nup in the soil so your plant can take them in. I pull a soil sample in fall and\nspring and it always says there\u2019s plenty of calcium but if I send clippings off\nand test those, will I still see plenty of calcium? One thing I\u2019ve learned is\ncalcium is always in the ground but not always in the plant. I know Zipline is\ngetting more of it where it\u2019s needed and that\u2019s what matters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Pat Jones | \u201cWe have a big thatch layer, then clay, then rock,\u201d says Nathan Armstrong who\u2019s using Zipline\u00ae to overcome a serious lack of soil in West Virginia. Nathan Armstrong was a kid when his father died. Like his four brothers, he pitched in to help the family survive. His mom gave him […]<\/p>\n

Read More… from A Mountainous Challenge<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[289],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-success-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Mountainous Challenge - Aquatrols<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aquatrolscompany.com\/en-ca\/a-mountainous-challenge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Mountainous Challenge - Aquatrols\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Pat Jones | \u201cWe have a big thatch layer, then clay, then rock,\u201d says Nathan Armstrong who\u2019s using Zipline\u00ae to overcome a serious lack of soil in West Virginia. 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