Calcium has four basic functions in the soil which help to create better soil structure and healthy plants.

As we start another season of foliar feeding it is important to remind you about water quality and its effect on Growers Nutritional Solutions 10-20-10 (GNS 10-20-10). The number one factor to be concerned with is the calcium and magnesium hardness of the water.

This spring we have been receiving many calls on mixing Growers Nutritional Solutions 10-20-10 with Roundup ® Ultra for Roundup Ready ® soybeans. Because this will be the third year some customers will be mixing GNS 10-20-10 with the popular post emergence herbicide we can pass on information learned from experience.

Amos tells us he also uses Growers Nutritional Additive as part of his regular spray protocol, and like many of our other vegetable producers, is seeing increased production and other good things.

In an issue of the Minnesota Farm Guide an article entitled "Foliar Fertilizer Feeding Leaves Plants Feeling Full" discussed the idea of using foliar feeding as an accepted agricultural practice.

December 2008, Drs Mulvaney and Khan of the University of Illinois presented at our Growers Sales meeting. They spoke about experiments showing the ineffectiveness of past university methods of determining rates of fertilization. Below are some articles our readers may appreciate.

Since 1955 Growers Mineral Solutions (GMS) has helped farmers increase their profit by raising high quality crops with lower overall costs in a large part by using GMS to foliar feed nutrients to plants.

Steve Esh of Georgia is pleased with his strawberry results using the Growers Program.

Lloyd Goebbert and his brother Lee are responsible for Goebbert's Pumpkin Patch & Goebbert's Farm & Garden Center near Hampshire, Illinois, between Chicago and Rockford. They raise some very excellent looking vegetables including tomatoes, peppers, sweet corn, and of course pumpkins. Loyd feels that foliar spraying with Growers Mineral Solutions (GMS) helps with plant health.

The decision making process of a new Growers customer, culminating in comparison test plots designed by the county agent. The test was conducted accurately and properly by R&K Farms and great care was taken to keep the GMS and dry fertilizer corn plot yields completely separate. The customer was pleased with the results of using GMS and its application process.

"Normally I plant pumpkins by seed. But last spring the crows tore the field out, so I had to start them in the greenhouse and then into the field. I pushed them hard with the Growers and had the finest, biggest pumpkin crop ever and absolutely no problems. They were phenomenal!... "GMS and the Growers Program are true quality, and they work! That's the key."

To set the stage, Huber's Orchard & Winery is located near Borden, Indiana, 14 miles northwest of Louisville, Kentucky. The farm produces fruit on 300 acres, vegetables on 200 acres and trees on 100 acres.

I have been using Growers on my Lititz, PA, farm since the early 1960's, and two of my brothers have been on the Program the same amount of time.

With a 3.5 ton/acre application of high calcium sugar beet lime, the Loll family of west central Minnesota doubled their yield, from 35 bushels to 70 bushels per acre.

Growers customers win Grand Championships with their Growers grown hay.

We are very proud of our two hay growers here in Eastern Pennsylvania who each won multiple awards at Penna Ag. Progress Days Hay Judging in August of 2008. Each of them, besides winning first place with their different entries, also won the Grand Champion Award in their respective sections.

Eighteen year Growers Program veteran, Alton Stephens of Ohio talks about soil tests and his fertility program for 2009.

My sister Theresa and I have a 153 acre farm near Waterford in northwest Pennsylvania. We raise corn, oats, hay, 13 Hereford beef cows, and we milk 40 Holstein Dairy cows. We also breed Registered English Shepherd pups which are sold throughout the U.S. Our web site is: http://kaschak-kennels.tripod.com/

In the spring of 2010 I bought 500 tons of high calcium lime and decided to spread it on some rented land with a poor soil test. I have a 10 ton lime-litter spreader and need to have the door all the way open, or the lime will bridge and not spread correctly. And because of field conditions, I couldn't drive very fast, so, all that together, made the rate 4 tons an acre.