Summer Musings

 

It’s been the busiest summer of my professional career.  I worked with our team to launch five new products (Pageant^™ fungicide, Tower^® herbicide, FreeHand^™ 1.75G herbicide, Stature^® SC fungicide and Segment^™ herbicide), host six regional launch/education meetings, attend three major trade shows, attend industry meetings, host distributor training meetings, visit customers, and I even squeezed in a short vacation.  These are active times indeed for the BASF T&O group – and I mean active in a good way, as in productive.  On top of the five new products we have introduced to the ornamentals industry this summer, we also introduced two new products into the turf market.  Over the next couple of years BASF has several new, exciting chemistries that we will be introducing to the T&O industry.  But I digress; my purpose for writing this blog entry is to highlight the summer’s activities.

 

Southeast Greenhouse Growers Conference, Greenville, SC – June 19 – 21

This trade show is typically the first industry trade show of the summer season.  Beginning this year, OFA began its tenure as show manager.  As an exhibitor, I’d characterize this regional show as ‘OFA Short Course-light,’ which is to say, it offers an educational track for greenhouse growers coupled with a moderate sized trade show geared for commercial greenhouse producers.  I felt that traffic was off a bit, probably due to the escalating price of fuel and a general malaise that currently exists in the greenhouse and nursery markets.  It could be that the number of attendees was the same as last year (as show officials reported), but they only came for one or two days rather than two or three days as in past years.

 

OFA Short Course, Columbus, OH – July 12 – 15

This show always brings out the best as far as new product introductions, new varieties and the latest industry scuttlebutt.  This year’s show did not disappoint.  BASF used the show to showcase our new Pageant^™ fungicide, now recognized as the industry’s broadest spectrum foliar fungicide.  Dr. Ann Chase was our featured guest speaker at an educational session we hosted during the conference to highlight the strengths of this outstanding new fungicide. Click here to view Dr.Chase's presentation. Once again BASF was co-sponsor with OFA of the GrowerTalks Magazine Young Grower of the Year award.  This year’s recipient, Zoltan Kovacs, is a remarkable story of the American Dream being lived out.  An immigrant from Hungary, Zoltan has established himself as an innovative and successful grower.  He embodies everything the Young Grower award stands for.  BASF is very proud to shine the spotlight on our industry’s best and brightest.  This year’s five Young Grower finalists were the best group ever nominated, an indication that our industry has a rich pipeline of outstanding talent coming for years to come.

 

Again, trade show traffic seemed lighter than years past.  However, show officials assured me that registrations were up over last year.  My feeling is that growers come to the show to cherry pick the information they need and leave without spending additional night(s) in an effort to save money.  Just a theory on my part, but a reasonable one, I think.

 

The FarWest Show, Portland, OR – August 21 – 23

This is easily the best trade show for the nursery industry.  It has good educational sessions coupled with the most colorful and varied nursery stock around.  This show always attracts growers from ‘east of the Rockies’ who come to Portland to enjoy a great town, nice weather and the most diverse collection of nursery growers from the Pacific Northwest.  I was fortunate enough to be asked to speak at one of the educational sessions on pesticide resistance along with my colleague, Todd Burkdoll, our Western Technical Manager, who followed my talk with a discussion on understanding product labels.  The session was well attended and provided Todd and I a chance to talk about two very basic, but important topics.  The FarWest staff provided a Spanish interpreter for Hispanic attendees – a nice touch I thought.

 

This show represented an opportunity for BASF to promote our two new herbicides: FreeHand^™ 1.75G herbicide and Tower^™ herbicide.  Both products feature a powerful, new active ingredient for nursery and landscape weed control: dimethenamid-p.  I expect both of these herbicides to become industry leading preemergence herbicides over time.  They provide excellent control of several important weeds for nursery growers and landscape managers.

 

BASF New Product Launch Meetings

Greenville, SC, Orlando, FL, Mobile, AL, Houston, TX, Columbus, OH and Portland, OR were sites we selected to role out our newest products to growers through a series of educational meetings hosted by BASF.  Each meeting included one or two guest speakers that spoke on their experiences with Pageant herbicide, FreeHand 1.75G herbicide, and Tower herbicide.  I want to thank Dr. Joe Neal – NC State University, Dr. Dave Norman – University of FL, Dr. Charles Gilliam – Auburn University and Dr. Ann Chase – Chase Horticultural Research, Inc. for their participation as our guest speakers at the various meetings.

 

Better get back at it – It’s Grow Time!