Scotts Professional Horticulture

Ask just about any nursery grower and you’ll hear the same story. Controlled release fertilizers can produce great crops, but they have their limitations when it comes to surface application. High winds, storms or gusts from an air-blast sprayer applying pesticide can knock over pots, causing surface-applied fertilizer prills to scatter uselessly onto the ground. Now, Scotts is introducing a revolutionary new controlled release fertilizer product that actually stays in the pot—Osmocote with Fusion Technology.

How does it work? After Osmocote with Fusion Technology is surface applied to pots and watered in, an innovative polymer compound forms a web-like adhesive matrix. This matrix bonds the prills to each other and to the growing media so that even when the pot is knocked down or blown over, the fertilizer stays where it belongs. Rewetting the growing media through subsequent irrigation maintains the Fusion activity, ensuring that the fertilizer will stay in place for an extended period of time.

By staying with the growing media in the pot, Osmocote with Fusion Technology reduces the need for fertilizer reapplication, decreasing fertilizer and labor costs while optimizing a grower’s fertilizer investment. Plus, the Fusion Technology helps plants consistently receive the nutrition they need to achieve superior results, bringing growers more money for their crops at sale time. Because Osmocote with Fusion Technology doesn’t spill from the pot onto the ground, it minimizes the potential for environmental impact due to run off or weed growth.

Fusion Technology is currently available in limited supply in one formulation—Osmocote® Pro 19-6-9, 5-6M longevity. This particular longevity provides nutrition equal to Scotts' high-quality, 2nd generation blended products and better than cheaper "topdress" products. Depending on the crop being produced and the nursery's climate, this five to six month longevity may be able to deliver nutrition for an entire season, further reducing application and labor costs. In the future, Scotts Professional may make Fusion Technology available in additional Osmocote formulations and longevities, providing growers with the ability to further customize their nutritional programs.

To learn more about Osmocote with Fusion Technology, visit NoSpillPrill.com or call your Territory Manager.