The master planned communities of Southwest Florida are known for their elaborate landscapes. Millions of annual impatiens flowers in nearly every color of the rainbow shout out for attention from roadsides, gated entries, and home lawn landscape beds. Keeping the grass green and the flowers healthy is a daunting task, especially going into the fall season. Just as the rest of the country slows down its landscaping efforts, landscape crews in the resort towns of Naples and Fort Myers gear up for yet another tourist season.

To give his new sod and flowers the best chance for survival, Brian Chevalier, job foreman for Club Care, a landscape installation company based in Fort Myers, applies NutriSmart from Performance Nutrition to the soil before planting. An organic, granular biological humate product that fixes nitrogen from the air and unlocks it from the soil, NutriSmart delivers nitrogen directly to the plant. NutriSmart may be used as a stand-alone product or may be blended with a fertilizer to make nutrient delivery more efficient.

"NutriSmart works well," said Chevalier. "It produces strong roots. It's a good head start for the plant to mature. It gives it a good root base and adds green foliage to the plant."

Chevalier isn't alone in his success with NutriSmart in the landscape. Glen Thompson, southern sales manager for Performance Nutrition, reports similar comments from other professional landscape contractors who use NutriSmart for their turf and ornamentals.

"They tell me, 'My problem areas go away and my grass and plants consistently look good,'" Thompson said.

NutriSmart is a granular product that may be applied with normal spreading equipment. "It is a dust-free Leonardite that can be blended with conventional fertilizers or as a stand-alone product. Humic acid products are normally very dusty and hard to apply. Because it is pan granulated, and very consistent in size, it blends and spreads well. We like to see between 400-500 lbs./acre applied over two applications annually, (200-250 lbs./acre/application.) These rates have proven to be efficient and cost friendly to the customer," Thompson said.

"NutriSmart is beneficial for fall planting and year round," Thompson said. "The landscape professional benefits by using NutriSmart because he is conscious of the environment. A true professional looks for ways to enhance the environment and is always trying to improve the neighborhood he works in. We all want cleaner waterways and less pollutants while providing quality turf and plant material. NutriSmart does both."