Osmocote 5 Stories: Lüers Nursery, Germany

Lüers Nursery (officially called H. Lüers Baumschulen und Pflanzenhandel) in Westerstede, Germany, has 40 hectares of crops. Hedge conifers, conifers, Calluna, deciduous trees, rhododendron, grasses and white spruce (Conica): all in different sizes, pots or ranges. This is a perfect place to set up trials with Osmocote 5. We met up with Thorsten Lüers, owner of Lüers Nursery, to share his experience. Thorsten: “Over the past few years, we have achieved good results by partly fertilizing our crops with Osmocote Exact Hi.End 5-6M. In certain crop sections, we have then applied additional Universol water-woluble fertilizer. Since we’re always striving to further develop our practices, we were very interested in working with Osmocote 5.”

Osmocote 5: Grower’s experiences

Calluna Vulgaris was chosen as the crop for the Osmocote 5 trials.  With around 1.6 million plants in 40 varieties being produced each year, this is one of the main crops of Lüers Nursery. A few of the specials are Calluna Vulgaris Garden Girls “5 Girls”, available in 5 vibrant colors, and “5 Girls Sunset Line” with a particularly radiant foliage in warm autumn colors. Thorsten: “We have been very satisfied with the results of Osmocote 5 this year. The stocks were closely monitored in cooperation with ICL and our substrate supplier, the Stender company. We have a very uniform, well-colored stock with good patterns. Two extreme rainfall events this summer, one of 90 L/m2 and another of 60 L/m2, just two weeks apart, were a major stress test for the Osmocote 5 trial. Especially with Calluna crops. We were delighted to see that the majority of the plants came through the summer unscathed. We want to be able to offer our customers consistent and high-quality crops in large quantities year after year, meeting their high standards.”

 

 

As a customer of ICL and being used to work with Osmocote Exact Hi.End, Thorsten had high expectations of this Osmocote 5 trial. Thorsten: “We like the consistent and good supply of nutrients to our crops. This fully ties in with what we have come to expect from Osmocote.. We therefore decided to pot our entire Calluna and Erica production with Osmocote 5 in 2020, and we intend to carry this on to the rhododendron crops in 2021.”

“We have decided to pot our entire Calluna and Erica production with Osmocote 5 in 2020, and we intend to carry this on to the rhododendron crops in 2021.”