Six Game-Changing Reasons to Use Agri-Inject Systems for Golf Courses, from a Dealer’s Perspective

Agri-Inject is known worldwide as a leader in fertigation systems for farmers in every corner of the globe. But they also help golf course superintendents maintain their courses more efficiently with customizable systems that can serve any course in any climate.

Kevin Walsh from Fertizona, Arizona’s largest agricultural fertilizer and crop protection retailer, talks about their golf course division and why liquid injection using Agri-Inject products is a game-changer.

1. Increasing costs make fluid injection a near necessity

With the cost of fertilizer skyrocketing, along with just about everything else, maintaining and treating turf and fields is more expensive than ever. Using liquid injection helps cut down on some of those increasing costs.

Walsh notes, “with the inflation that we’ve been having and supply chain issues we’ve been having, granular products have been extremely expensive and hard to get. Liquid has not been as difficult. Liquid is not as expensive as granular to apply, so we’ve been moving a lot of customers from granular to liquid applications, which changes the whole game for them.”

2. Using injection, there’s much less waste and much less safety risk

Using an Agri-Inject system, you’re only spoon-feeding; you only need to apply what the turf needs, right when it needs it. By not over-treating, the product never gets past the root zone, where almost every drop is absorbed and used. This not only greatly reduces the risk of product seeping into the water table, but also reduces the risk of human exposure.

“With granular, there’s always the human aspect. Humans are lifting 50 pound bags or bigger. They’re having to cut the bags with knives, they have to throw it with a piece of machinery that can break, and it’s easy to over-apply or under-apply,” says Walsh.

“So if you can do it in the night watering, it’s just done. You don’t have anybody being exposed to high-grade nitrogen products, phosphor products, potassium products. You don’t have anybody have any exposure of lifting and cutting bags. You don’t have the exposure of throwing these pallets and getting rid of those into the trash.”

3. Injection is much more convenient, and requires much less labor

Less risk of human exposure to chemicals from granular products goes hand-in-hand with less labor in general. Since the products can be applied through the irrigation system at night during the watering cycle, golf courses can benefit from greatly reduced labor without any negative impact to the turf.  

“This has zero labor, because now you’re injecting it versus throwing it with a spreader.  So when labor shortages are happening, and when prices of product are going up, liquid injection is an awesome option to get the plant what it needs, without you incurring extra costs or extra labor,” notes Walsh.

“Plus, with granular, you have to make sure it gets watered into the turf so nobody has exposure to it. There’s a big inconvenience for golfers when you have to delay tee times or have them walk out on a wet course.”

“Now you’re saving money on product and you’re saving money on labor. You have no trash, you have no expenses as far as extra equipment. This is just one piece of equipment and it will run for years and years and years.”

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4. Agri-Inject helps make the injection process much simpler

Fertigation, for some, is an unfamiliar process, and often it’s one of the most common objections people have to switching from granular to fluid. Walsh and Fertizona work with Agri-Inject to make the process approachable for people who have been overwhelmed by it in the past.

“When you start talking to a superintendent about an injection system, they get a little wary, because the ones in the past, it’s been kind of voodoo stuff to them. They don’t really understand it. They don’t know how it works. They’ve always gone with these very weird ways to calculate how much you should put out,” Walsh says.

“What we’ve done at Fertizona is we’ve simplified the process, and we’ve brought it to where it’s very easy to calculate. We educate customers so they feel like they’re in control of what they’re doing. A lot of places, they just drop off the machine, install it and you never hear from them again. Working with Agri-Inject, they train me, I train my customers and everybody stays on the same page so we’re all confident with the machine.”

“The great thing about Agri-Inject systems, is that they’re very simply designed and easy to adjust. It’s easy to watch what you’ve put out, and if you want to adjust it, it’s just a matter of seconds and you make those adjustments. It can be as easy doing it through a cell phone if you want. Or it can be as simple as turning a dial. That’s been a big key for my customer’s comfort, to be able to work with an injection system and feel confident that it’s going to work like it should.”

5. Agri-Inject systems can be used for almost any type of treatment

Agri-Inject systems can be customized for virtually any type of scenario. In agriculture, this is useful for treating virtually any crop, in any kind of soil, with any kind of product. For golf course superintendents, being able to customize according to their soil quality, water quality and physical irrigation layout makes it an ideal option for any location.

“With Agri-Inject, it’s very flexible,” notes Walsh. The systems are set up for acid, so it gives you a lot of flexibility. There aren’t many limitations to what you can pump with an Agri-Inject system.”

“We have a problem in the valley in Arizona — they have snails growing in the pipes. We can use products through the irrigation system that resolves that issue It kills the snails when they’re a very, very small size. They don’t get to the size to where they’ll plug the sprinklers. If we don’t do that product in the system, we will see those snails grow and plug heads. And that creates a huge labor issue for the superintendent and then the grass dies in those areas and you don’t know it until it’s too late.”

“That really makes the irrigation system more effective and keeps it running properly for long periods of time without being bogged down fixing these all the time.”

6. Agri-Inject makes a ‘bulletproof’ product that stands the test of time

Fertizona has been in business for over 40 years, and Agri-Inject celebrates 40 years in 2023. Agri-Inject’s products are durable, well-built and easy to upgrade. Some systems have been operational in the field for 20+ years and are still operating well. Fertizona, as a dealer of Agri-Inject products, is able to provide their customers with something that no one else in the industry can, and it’s backed by top-notch customer support.

“With Agri-Inject, they create a very bulletproof product. It does not go down very often. It is very good out in the field. It can be out in the heat, it can be out in the cold, it can pump nearly any product, whether it’s acidic or alkaline,” says Walsh.

“Agri-Inject keeps up with all the different modern technologies that are available. If you want them in your system the original system can be built and upgraded to that. You don’t have to buy a whole new system to do that.”