Austin Stovall, Regional Sales Manager with Ferti-lome

Austin Stovall, Ferti-Lome talks about all of the products offered by Ferti-lome.
https://www.fertilome.com/

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This week on the Art of Improvement. If you're a plant lover like I
am, get ready for Austin Stovall. He's regional sales manager for Fertilome High
Yield. It's my chance to askall my home gardening questions. If you
want a great garden summer, spring, winter, you got to ask the
questions to Austin. My conversation iscoming up next on the Art of improvement.

(00:28):
Thank you so much for listening tothe Art of improvement. My guest
today is somebody that has been herebefore but is always welcome. Austin stove
All, regional sales manager for FertilomeHigh Yield High Austin, how do how
are you doing today? I'm great? How are you doing well? I'm
great. But every season, everyreason for you to be here is because

(00:50):
every season we need something for ourplants. You know, I'm a home
gardener and I try my best tokeep plants as long as I can.
And now that we're getting into thehot summer months, you got to tell
me, is it going to besomething that I need to do to change
from spring to summer? Definitely?Yeah, There's there's all kinds of little

(01:10):
tiny things to do to think aboutas you transition from spring to summer.
Spring is great because you have nothingbut great weather, hopefully rain to water
your garden, perfect weather conditions togrow all your plants. And as we
transition from spring into summer, everythinglike that is going to change. Stress

(01:30):
on the plants is going to increase. There's going to be less water available
to them, there's going to bemore and different pests and diseases to be
worrying about. And so it's goodto stop and try and think about what
parts of your garden are going toneed your extra attention and care as we
transition into summer. I always thinkof summer and winter as being almost exactly

(01:53):
the same. You have to sayto yourself, Okay, do I want
to put this plant outside? Andis it Yes, it's gonna love the
sun. But is it the typeof plant that can stay out for more
than a day? Can it standthe cold? Can it stand the heat?
Can it stand direct sun? Andthat's always so hard for me.
Is there anything besides us talking aboutthe plants that you can tell me that

(02:17):
will help when it comes to yourproducts fertile um, high yield, that
might just give us a little bumpof help because you know, getting through
the summer and the winter in Texas, it's just nuts exactly. And you
know, summer and winter those areboth going to be considered dormancy periods for
a lot of plants. And sosomething that can really help plants make those

(02:38):
transitions and get them ready for winteror get them ready for summer is something
called roots stimulator. And what thatis is it's a acid called endolbutaric acid,
and it's a plant hormone that regulatesgrowth. And what that does is
it stimulates auctions within the plant andit basically promotes tip growth, so shoot

(03:00):
growth and then root growth, whichis why it's called root stimulator. Okay,
but is it something that you justlike sprinkle on top of the plant
and then water it or do youhave to do something else? Yeah,
So it's a liquid fertilizer that youmix in with your water, and so
you can do it while you're watering. We have hosen adapters that work great
where you could just spit the productdirectly onto it and then just use your

(03:21):
garden hose to spray and it willwater with that root stimulator. The roots
stimulator, what it will do foryou during the summer months, is that
once you hit summer and the plantshave been happy all spring and they've got
our decent sized root system on them, but when they make that transition to
summer, they're gonna want to godeep and want to look for that water
deeper into the ground. And sothat root stimulator is going to help promote

(03:44):
that root growth and get them thebiggest, healthiest root system that they can
before those summer months come along andreally start putting the pressure on them with
the heat. You taught me somethingnew today, because I do know that
spring is all about the blooming andthe beauty full green. But for some
reason, when you think about plantsare I think, Okay, they love
the sun, but I do forgetthat it's like a million degrees and that

(04:09):
puts a lot of stress on plants. And that's the reason I let them
out for one day and then bringthem back in. But so I love
that, And so where can Iget this root stimulator? And what is
that the name of it? DoI look for that in the store?
Yeah? Yeah, roots stimulator Andit's going to be one of our most
popular products. So any sort oflocal, independent feed store or garden center

(04:30):
is going to have that usually ontheir shelf. A lot of them will
keep it up by the register aswell because they know how critical it is,
especially during these times of the year, so they'll they'll have it ready
to go. And it's in agray bottle with a green and black label.
One it called roots Stimulator. Okay, okay, So I don't know
if I told you this story,but if I didn't, it's so embarrassing,

(04:51):
so just don't laugh. But whenI first I mean, this is
a long time ago, when Ifirst started loving plants and trying to figure
them out which one I love,which one I could actually let live and
actually grow in my house, Ibought fertilizer and I cannot tell you what
it was, but I fertilized allmy plants and then a week later all

(05:14):
of them were dead. Why areyou laughing? I think everyone's definitely well.
I mean, why is that?I don't get it. So,
you know, plants are just likeany other living thing. They have a
comfortable middle that they want to operatewithin. So it's you know, you
can't just eat carrots until you drop. You got to only eat the right
amount of carrots that you need.So fertilization is interesting with plants because it's

(05:39):
not plant food. Everyone always makesthe assumption that plants eat the fertilizer and
that's where they get their energy from. Well, I thought that, I
did think that, So what isit if it's not that? Yeah,
So it's more like a multi vitamin. You don't need to take fifty multi
vitamins every day. You only needto take one multi vitamin. And the
reason for that is is that thesenitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, all of

(06:02):
these different elements are building blocks tohelp assist the plant build extra structures that
aren't just the usual general plant tissues. So what the way that plants work
is, you know, photosynthesis.They take sunlight and water and they convert
them into sugars and then through thatprocess, there's a handful of different things,

(06:23):
like I was saying, with thenitrogen, the phosphorus, the potassium,
those kind of things that are justthrown in there to help finish up
protein structures and to help build plantshave a nervous system also within them,
and that's what a lot of thephosphorus is potassium is used is building these
communication gateways and all of the differentways that the plant uses to function and

(06:46):
maintain homeostasis. So the fertilizer,you know, fertilizer is not a plant
food. Plant food is going tobe water and sunlight. You got to
think about fertilizer as being a multivitamin that you're doing your plants every day.
I love that. That is sucha great explanation, and it's funny
that, you know, I'm gladto hear other people have killed their plants

(07:06):
because they just loved them too muchand gave it too much fertilizer. But
is there a solution to that sothat others don't have to do exactly what
I did. Yeah, Definitely,the most important thing when it comes to
fertilization is just knowing what fertilizer thatyou need. So soil testing can go
a long long way into making surethat you don't put too much nitrogen or

(07:30):
any of those sort of things down. Another great thing though, if you
don't want to waste your time andeffort going through and sending a soil sample
into a university and having them giveyou the information back and then trying to
decode it. Plants give you agreat great signals on their leaf surfaces with
what they need and what they don'tneed, for example, nitrogen. When

(07:50):
your plant has a lot of nitrogenin it, your leaves are going to
be extremely green and extremely young andvery tender growth. That's very vague.
Don't have those by the way,but go on, and then when they're
lacking nitrogen, that's when they windup yellowing and they're growing very weakly.
And there's you know, so youcan operate within those sort of time frames

(08:13):
and then just kind of give themthe things they need as they show weakness
or strength and those sort of thingslike that. But the soil testing,
if you want to nail it rightoff the bed, that's a great way
to know exactly what nutrients are inyour soil profile and what you need to
add. Well, why would Ineed to add something? I mean,
if I bought the plant at anursery, isn't that what they need?
The dirt that they're in. Yeah, So that's a really good question actually,

(08:37):
because you see your dandelion grow inthe sidewalk and pop up and flour
just fine, but your rose willsit there and struggle for forever, right
And the reason behind that is isthe dandelion has had to live on its
own without anyone's assistance the whole time. Whereas that pretty rose, we purposely,
like a pug, bread it tolook just the way we want it

(08:58):
to. I get it, andso it needs our little bit of extra
help to you know, like justlike a pug needs help with giving birth.
We got to put that little bitof extra effort in because we did
some things to it to make itneed our little bit of extra help.
Ah. I love that. Okay, So now then I have that out
of the way. You said thatif your plant has a lot of nitrogen

(09:20):
in the soil or added, youhave a beautiful plant. And then you
describe my plant the one that itshould be, not dark green, but
a nice green with a white stripe. I don't even know what type of
plant it is, but it justlooks weak. It looks like it needs
something, and it's I keep onthinking I've had it probably ten years.

(09:41):
Maybe it's just old. Maybe youknow, can you revive a plant that
you've had forever? Yeah, definitely, especially perennial plants like that, do
they do a great job of bouncingback even after years and years and years
of neglect. A great product forthat actually is called Tree and Shrub Food,
And what that is is it's justit's a basic fertilizer that contains all
of your macro and micro nutrients thatare going to help bounce that plant back

(10:05):
to a more healthy and vigorous growth. And the same thing with that that
root stimulator. If you can combinethe root stimulator and a fertilizer like Tree
and Shrub Food, you can reallyget that plant to bounce back and come
into a new vigor and really comeinto its own again. I know that
you're here to talk about Fertile Homeand High Yield and if you just now

(10:26):
started listening, this is Austin stoveAll. He's regional sales manager for Fertilm
High Yield. You can help mewith my plants too, So that means
you know a lot about plants also. And the reason you know about plants
is because you need to know what'sgoing to make them happy and what's you
know how to get them out oftheir funk. So everybody knows that there

(10:50):
are certain times of the year becauseyou hear it on TV, you hear
it on the radio about their lawn. But is there anything and this is
spring, but is there any thingthat you can really do in the summer
to help you lawn. I alwayslaugh at that because I mean we are
in Texas. Yeah, yeah,the lawn during the summer. So what
will happen with the lawn during thesummer is that grass is going to go

(11:11):
through that same thing, the droughtstress, all of these different things that
are going to impact the grass's abilityto grow and allow things like weeds and
stuff like that to start to maketheir foothold a little bit better because the
grass is also struggling. Great productsthat help the lawn with all of that
kind of stuff is there's all kindsof different sort of weeder we you know,

(11:33):
like weed out, all of thesedifferent sort of products that are going
to remove pressure on the grass inorder to allow it to keep growing healthily
through those tough summer months. Soso doing things to the grass the same
thing you would do with your gardenwith the fertilizing, with the making sure
that there's no extra pressure on thegrass and allow it to keep growing.

(11:56):
And so you know, product likeweed out, what that's doing is it's
going to keep those dandelions and thosethings out of the lawn, and those
dandelions and all those other guys areway better at absorbing moisture, absorbing nutrients
and all of that stuff than ourgrass varieties that we've again propagated to be
pretty and to be vigorous growing,but maybe not necessarily outcompete all of the

(12:20):
plants around them, even though itloves to make its way into our vegetable
in our garden beds. And Iknow, I know, I'm going to
take this time because I have youhere in the studio to ask about a
plant that I told you that Igot, and it doesn't have anything to
do with any of your products.It's just my free information. You've got
to do it. So remember Itold you a while back, I said,

(12:45):
someone gave me an orchid, andyou said, oh great, you
sent me all your pictures showing offand I'm like, oh great, I've
only had mine a week and theflowers are starting to just wilton fall off,
and so you told me to cutthe stem. And then after a
while, I mean, that's beena long time, a few months.
Anyway, I keep looking at thatplant and this is ridiculous, and this

(13:07):
is only for me unless you justgot an orchid. But I keep on
thinking, it doesn't even look real. Why does it not look real?
I can't tell if it's growing,not growing, it's it's sturdy, it's
strong. The leaves are you know, firm, How do I know?
What are you doing? So orchidsare an epiphyte, which means that they
grow in trees. And because they'regrowing in trees, their roots don't have

(13:31):
access to the soil profile like mostplants do, where they have easy access
to all of these different nutrients andstuff like that. And so because they're
growing on the tree surface, theyneed to be very conservative about all of
their actions that they do, everylittle bit of growth that happens. And
so orchids especially grow especially slow,and so it becomes really important to make

(13:54):
sure that you're maintaining that. Likeyou said, that fake look. If
it looks fake like that means it'shappy because its leaves are turgid, it
means it, you know, aslong as it's green and looking, then
that means that it's it's doing goodand it's happy and healthy and it's just
growing very very slowly because that's justtheir natural habit in the way that they
behave. If you want to geta little bit of that extra growth and

(14:16):
a little bit of umph. Wehave an orchid food that we also have
in our house plant fertilizer line,and all that'll do is just kind of
give that orchid that extra little bumpit needs. And what you'll see happen
is you'll get new leaf growth,and that new leaf growth will come in
just a tiny bit faster than itnormally wouldn't, and that'll give you the

(14:37):
courage and the happiness you need torealize that it is, in fact still
alive, and then it's a realplant. I honestly thought it was fake
because I was like, maybe I'mmistaken, and this is not a real
plant. I have never had aplant that just stays perfectly beautiful, but
the same yes, yeah. Andthen the trouble with orchids, too,

(14:58):
is is that a lot of timesyou don't realize that it's going bad until
it's too late, because they havethat perfect, happy, healthy look to
them. And so what will happenis you know, you think, oh,
it's fine, Oh it's fine.Oh it's fine, and then you
neglect it for a month or somethinglike that, and then one day you
look at it and its leaves arelimp, kind of wrinkly, and no,
I don't want that ever happened.Yeah, it's at that point.

(15:18):
That's when you know you've waited toolong. That's that plant is super super,
super thirsty. It is really reallywants some water and all that kind
of stuff. But the good thingabout orc is is because they live in
trees, they're super hardy. They'rethey're used to the neglect, they're used
to the abuse. And so whathappens is you just need to baby it
for a little while and then thoseleaves will become turgid again. It'll start

(15:39):
producing new growth, and depending onhow well you did that throughout the year,
you'll be rewarded with the blooms whenit comes time for that species to
bloom. I don't believe it,but I'll take your word for it.
I don't I don't see any growth. I don't understand it. I've just
never seen a plant like this,and this is my first and I just
keep looking at it, going itdid No, it didn't, it didn't

(16:02):
grow. It didn't grow. Theother the other fun thing with that too,
is when it does come time tobloom. So what you want to
see happen, especially with Palinopsis orchide, which is probably the one we're talking
about, is the one you getfrom from the grocery store or whatever.
You always see them everywhere, abig giant they're also called a moth organ,
big giant flowers that look like amoth. And that particular species is

(16:25):
really good at telling you how wellyou're taking care of it with its blooms
that it puts out, because thatspecies loves to flower. And so another
big thing that people always come upon as an issue is they can't tell
the difference between a root coming out, a new root, and then a
new flower shoot. And so thebig difference there is when a root comes
out, it's a very light greenat the tip almost white, and then

(16:48):
is growing in a very triangular fashion, whereas a new flower spike when it
comes out, is gonna be bulbousand green. And then what that'll do
is then that's that flower stock isgoing to take a month or two to
grow. So while you're sitting therewaiting on to get these beautiful blooms,
you'll be seeing the stick growing outof it for a month or two.

(17:11):
At that's okay, I can't wait. This is an experience that I thought
I had already failed at, butobviously it must be doing. Okay.
I soak it once a week andthen I check it and it still hasn't
grown, but it's not dead,so everything's on track. I guess,
Austin, where do we get fertilmproducts? So Fertilome is going to be

(17:36):
at all of your independent places.So the very cool thing about fertil Loam
and high Yield products is that weare only available at independent nurseries and garden
centers. And the big, bigimportant fact about that is that we are
locally produced and we sell to peoplewho are active in their local communities.
So all of these local feed storesand things like that that you see and

(17:59):
visit are going to be donating moneyto your local school district. They're going
to be putting their effort into thecommunity that they operate within, versus Home
Depot and Lows and some of theseother big conglomerate stores like that where they
take all of their money at theend of the year and they put it
back towards their corporate ownership, whichif you own stock and Home Depot and
Lows, it's good for you.But you know, one thing that we

(18:22):
haven't talked about is bugs and pests, and that really does happen a lot
during the summer. I've noticed Ikind of freak out when there's any kind
of gnat that's around my plant becauseI think, I don't know why.
I think of it like an animal. I'm like, why are their gnats
all around it? You know what'shappened? Is it dying? What have
I done to create this? Andthe sneakiest ones are the ones that actually

(18:48):
get in the dirt and start todo their business without me knowing about it.
Yeah, that's going to be allyour grubs and stuff like that.
All of those grubs produce beetles,and so as we transition from spring to
summer and stuff like that, thatis when insects are in peak reproduction.
They're they're making babies as fast asthey can because they're trying to get all

(19:08):
of the growth that they can induring those good summer and spring months.
So things like horn worms will bemore prevalent, especially with vegetable gardens and
stuff like that, and then you'llalso wind up with things like borers and
cabbage loppers, corn earworms and beetles. And the great thing about all of
these pests is that they're all controlledwith a few of our products, one

(19:32):
called spinosad soap and then another calledtriple Action. And these are my two
favorite products to handle these pests andall of that kind of stuff because they're
so broad use and they're so safeto use around the home and all that
kind of stuff. So spinosa andsoap, what that is is it's a
protein from a bacterial species that theinsects have and that we don't as far

(19:56):
as like a way of like controllingthem, And so it's very safe to
use in your vegetable garden and stufflike that. And the great thing about
spinosad soap is that it does havea slightly systemic ability to it. So
we'll move into the leaf tissue,and even if you didn't spray the bug
when you went out to spray,when it comes along later and it starts

(20:18):
munching on that leaf tissue, it'lleat some of that spinosaid and wind up
killing it off. And so thatspinosad soap is a great one. And
then the other great one that tripleaction. Bugs are great at developing resistances
to all kinds of different products.That's why there's always new chemistry on the
market. That's why everyone is alwaystrying to keep up and create the news,
latest and greatest thing. Because we'rein a race with biology when you're

(20:41):
talking about to put it right,and so a great way to combat some
of that biological adaptation that these bugshave is to rotate what products you're using.
So to move from a product likespinosad soap over to a product like
triple action, rotating back and forth. Because let's say you spray your spinosied

(21:03):
soap and there happens to be afew bugs that didn't react right to it,
they live through the whole process.Then you come through with a different
product like triple Action, which isa pyrethrin mixed with neme oil, And
what those products are going to dois they're going to synergistically work together to
kill all of the bugs in thegarden and get rid of all of your
pest problems and not just you know, the majority of them and then letting

(21:26):
the other ones bounce back. SoI like to rotate between those two and
the triple action. The NME oilis great within that because what that'll do
is it repels the pests. Sonot only are you getting the kill factor
with the product, you're also goingto be preventing them from moving back in.
That nime is a great repellent andit's also a great fungicide preventer as

(21:48):
well too. This transition period,during the you know, the month of
May, we wind up with alot of rain and all that kind of
stuff, and that rain brings fungusproblems, so that knee oil does a
great job of not only preventing bugs, but also preventing things like black spot
and powdery mildew and all of thosekind of things were moving in as well
too. You know what, weare getting close to the end, and

(22:12):
I didn't get a chance to askabout my azalea. But I do have
one tiny question to ask, andthen you got to come back in a
couple of months so we can dothis again. But I am a person
that when a plant gets too big, I fear cutting it in half or
chopping the top off or whatever.And I didn't do that to my azalia

(22:37):
plant last summer or less spring orless summer after it was blooming. Is
that a plant that I can justcut back? Yeah, Azalia does a
great job at being a hedge,So Azalias, you can hedge very nicely.
The most important thing with that isto just make sure you fertilize enough
and to make sure you have vigorous, strong growth. Azaleas and all those

(22:57):
guys all this winter all suffered horribledamaged mind and tissue that you know,
we had that it was like eightydegrees one day and then the next it
was like twenty six. And somost you know, azaleas are tough.
They can handle quite cold climates.But because of that drastic transition from the
super hot to the super cold,a lot of them lost a lot of

(23:18):
branches and stuff like that. Andso a great way to make them pretty
again is to just simply hedge themback like you're talking about, prune them
down to a smaller size, andthat new growth will come in and make
it all nice and beautiful again.There's always next year because it's not doing
well well. Austin Stowball, regionalsales manager for Fertilome High Yield, I
thank you. You are not gettingout of this. You're coming back in

(23:41):
a couple of months. I reallyappreciate your time. I appreciate you,
Thank you so much,