October 2009

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An important goal of ours at BASF T&O is to bring the very best plant protection solutions to growers.  I think we are doing a pretty good job on that front.  Pageant^™ fungicide, FreeHand ^® 1.75G herbicide and Tower^® herbicide, and Ultra-Pure^™ Oil and PureSpray Green^® horticultural oils have emerged as leaders in their respective pest management categories.  We are proud to add yet another ‘best-in-class’ product to our arsenal, Pylon^® insecticide/miticide.  Pylon, which contains the active ingredient chlorfenapyr, is an industry-leading miticide and is known for outstanding control of thrips, including western flower thrips and chilli thrips.  Effective November 1, 2009, Pylon will transition over to BASF from OHP.  I would like to personally thank all the fine professionals at OHP for their stewardship of Pylon over the past seven years.  I hope we can continue to support and grow Pylon’s presence in the market as successfully as OHP.

BASF is no stranger to chlorfenapyr as an insecticide.  American Cyanamid (later purchased by BASF) originally discovered this molecule and initially developed its uses back in the 90’s.  Our Pest Control Solutions business counterpart has been selling chlorfenapyr for termite and insect control for the last several years in the PCO market.  BASF’s Biology group (our R&D arm) has been working with researchers across the U.S. to test Pylon on various insect and mite pests in order to expand the label for ornamental uses.  We will continue to develop Pylon and update our label uses for the ornamental market.  We are very excited to represent this highly effective insecticide/miticide.

In case you haven’t noticed, BASF has come a long way over the past couple of years since we launched into the ornamentals market in January 2007.  In that short time frame, we have received five EPA registrations, acquired and assimilated the entire line of Whitmire MicroGen horticultural products, and welcomed back four BASF products into our product portfolio.  On top of that we have produced technical information collateral that is second to none: the Pest Management Guide (in English and Spanish), FreeHand 1.75G training DVD (in English and Spanish), the Chase Horticultural Research Disease Control Options wheel, on-line training modules, technical bulletins, success story bulletins and product sell sheets.  Feel free to navigate around our website and download any of the literature you find useful.  Go to the Home Page to contact your BASF sales representative directly if you need any technical advice or assistance.

It has been a very busy 33+ months.  And the hard work is paying off!  Growers and landscape managers are telling us they love our new products.  They are getting control of their most difficult pests with our products without breaking the bank.  I call that a great value – outstanding performance at a fair price – and in these challenging economic times, who doesn’t like a good value.

Thanks for stopping by.  Until next time – Happy Growing!