“We’ve been doing it since 1988, and we’ve never really changed our focus,” says president Joel Simmons. “We’ve been focused on these ideas since the very beginning, and it’s never really wavered.”
The golf course industry has experienced a trend toward organics, Simmons says. EarthWorks distinguishes itself from “organic” trends by focusing on “carbon based fertility” programs that focus on feeding soil to stimulate microbiology. “We coined the phrase ‘carbon based fertility’ probably 15 years ago to basically qualify the fact that we’re not suggesting that this is an organic approach, albeit to an extent it is,” Simmons says. “But it’s not about being organic. It’s about managing the soil in the way a soil is supposed to work and keeping that carbon-to-nitrogen ratio.”
Numerous other companies are now focusing on carbon based fertility, Simmons says. But EarthWorks sets itself apart because, in its nearly 30 years in existence, it has performed approximately 15,000 soil tests annually and regularly consulted with turf managers about their agronomic programs. It has also manufactured highly engineered products, some of which contain up to 30 raw materials, in order to provide soil with a solid carbon base and improve soil health — which promotes overall turf health.
EarthWorks is a member of the Humic Products Trade Association, of which EarthWorks chemist and longtime business partner Lawrence Mayhew was an early member. “Within that realm, as a member of that organization, you have to adhere to very strict standards of quality and claims,” Simmons says. “A lot of companies out there are making grandiose (claims) as to what their products are and what they can do.”
Through resources such as EarthWorks’ website, its Soil First Consulting arm and its Soil First Academy — a touring GCSAA-accredited soils class that Simmons teaches — superintendents can learn more about the science behind proper soils management and dodge some of the misinformation that other companies may be providing them.
“We really want to make the soil the first thing that people think about because we can create a physical environment that allows for better drainage, allows for better nutrient mobility, allows for better checks and balances for pathogens, but most importantly what it does is it creates that environment for soil biology that can do all those things,” Simmons says.
EarthWorks’ carbon based fertility programs provide available carbon sources to the soil so that microbes can proliferate at the correct carbon-to-nitrogen ratios, Simmons says. When superintendents apply solely synthetic fertilizers, they burn the available carbon out of the soil and microbes start to work slowly. Although many EarthWorks products do contain synthetic ingredients, all of them consist of multiple forms of carbon to ensure soils achieve the right nutrient ratios.
“We view EarthWorks products as an investment in the future,” says Justin Mandon, superintendent at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, Calif. “Our expectations are ever present as we maintain turf year-round on the California coast. As we build soils through EarthWorks products, we’ve seen an overall reduction in inputs and an increase in stability. When your soils are working for you, they provide time, something you can’t put a price on.”
Superintendents consistently relay to Simmons and his colleagues that EarthWorks’ products and programs have freed up their schedules. Maintaining a consistent carbon base by providing even fertility levels without massive peaks and valleys allows their agronomic programs to generally work more effectively, Simmons says.
EarthWorks fertilizers and programs allow superintendents to build up the biology that becomes damaged from various persistent stresses, such as traffic, compression and compaction, salt fertilizer applications and pesticide applications, Simmons says.
“We not only have a very strong Soil First foliar line, a line of liquids,” Simmons says. “We also have a very strong line of dry products, and we do an awful lot of construction work, either new construction or reconstruction, on golf courses. So we’ve been doing those things for a long time, and we’ve been talking soils for a long time.”
Patrick Williams is a Cleveland-based writer and frequent GCI contributor.
