Gemini Granular herbicide now available to California growers, too!

If you’ve been a customer or distributor of ours for a while, you may be familiar with ICL’s Gemini Granular Herbicide with R-50 Optimizer. If not, it’s time you were. And if you’re a California ornamental grower or a distributor with California customers, your timing is perfect. Gemini Granular Herbicide with R-50 Optimizer is now registered for use in California, providing a boost to sustainable growing practices and pre-emergent weed control.

ICL’s R-50 Optimizer advantage

As stewards of the environment, growers everywhere are looking for more ways to grow sustainably and still get the results they need. That holds true whether you’re a California grower new to Gemini® Granular or you’re outside California looking for a more sustainable granular control.

ICL Growing Solutions Western Region Sales Manager Robbie Abillama explains, “ICL’s Gemini Granular herbicide with R-50 Optimizer allows for 50% less active ingredient without compromising efficacy. With application rates similar to competing products, growers get the same efficacy with less chemicals and better environmental friendliness.”

Exclusive to Gemini Granular, ICL’s R-50 Optimizer improves both the release and distribution of the time-proven, active ingredients in this selective pre-emergent: prodiamine and isoxaben. As a result, when you water in Gemini Granular, more active ingredient moves off the carrier. You create a wider barrier of weed protection, with less active ingredient applied per acre.

“The chemistry of Gemini Granular’s actives is not new, but the combination of the two in a granular form is new for California,” Abillama adds. “It gives the growers one more tool to fight weeds and an additional product to slot into their rotation of pre-emergent herbicides.”

Rate flexibility and residual control

With efficacy ensured, thanks to R-50 Optimizer, the lower levels of active ingredients in Gemini® Granular translate to increased flexibility of application for you, too. As noted on the label, growers have the option of three distinct application rates for low, medium and high weed pressure.

Keith Santner, our ICL New Markets and Field Technical Service Manager for Ornamental and Turf, notes that R-50 Optimizer’s added flexibility represents a significant benefit: “With R-50, we’ve been able to reduce the amount of active ingredient enough that, at the application rates shown on the label, growers can potentially make an extra application during the season if needed and still stay below maximum allowable rates.”

If you’re looking for more bonuses offered by this selective pre-emergent, Gemini Granular’s residual control fits the bill. For ornamental growers in California and everywhere else, Gemini Granular delivers effective pre-emergent control of listed weeds for up to 60-90 days when applied at low rates, as designated on the product label. Go with higher rates, and residual control lasts up to four months.

Extensive list of labeled plants

Distributors and California ornamental growers new to Gemini Granular will find a wide array of ornamental plants label-listed for this new addition to registered California herbicides. With minimal risk of phytotoxicity, Gemini Granular is tolerated by more than 500 ornamental plants, while it controls more than 120 listed weeds, both grass and broadleaf.

“It’s a really good chemistry,” Abillama says. “It’s a product with coverage that controls both grasses and broadleaf weeds, so one product basically targets all of the grower’s weed issues. It’s got very good longevity; it’s got very good safety, and the label has a long list of weeds it controls and plants where it’s safe to use. For California growers, it’s another tool in their arsenal to combat weeds, with a safe, unique product with tried and proven chemistry.”

Matt Gladden, our ICL Growing Solutions Turf and Ornamental Marketing and Business Development Lead, adds, “We’ve been working hard on California approval for years. Gemini launched several years ago, and it’s been a huge success. We’re excited that our distributors now have the opportunity to offer it to our California growers.”

Whether you’re a California business, or a grower or distributor in another region, we’re confident you could use a highly effective, environmentally friendly, pre-emergent herbicide—especially right now. Reach out to your ICL Growing Solutions Territory Manager for more information on Gemini Granular herbicide with R-50 Optimizer. We’ll be waiting for your call.