Summer 2015 - 83
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achieving maturity. It should be a
four- or five-month minimum grow
time on this product, and we're at
about the 100-day mark right now
on March 16. We planted right at
the end of last year. So it's well
under way. It looks good. We have
another month and a half to go
before we'll actually be in the field
with a harvester. We've taken some
orders already from landscapers.
It's exciting—something new for
this company."
Depending on the season,
Dargatz said on average it takes 90
to 150 days to produce turf ready
for sale.
"We grow on a nutritionally rich,
light loam soil that lends itself to a
wide variety of end use," he said.
"The soil we grow on allows us to
sell a mature, healthy, weed- and
disease-free turf at an affordable
price. We grow, harvest, market
and deliver to the customer."
Superior Sod employs up to 40
workers during peak season while
producing the finest cool season
grass available, Dargatz said.
According to Dargatz, the sod
industry is unique.
"It's a very involved industry from
the production point of view,"
he said. "It's the only production
agriculture that I'm aware of
where all aspects of the business
are happening every day. When
people see a truck roll up in their
front yard or even a large job like
a golf course, whether it's a big
roll or small pieces, they have that
immediate gratification of their yard
is in and all of that. A lot went into
that.
"We're doing harvest, tillage,
planting, sowing the seed, growing
the crop, selling it and distributing
it, hauling it, doing the trucking
every single day. All of those
aspects in the business are going
on, and it's really unique in that
way. I don't know of another crop
that's grown in agriculture where
that can be said.
"Hopefully the customer is
satisfied. If they are, we've done it
right. That's our goal."
www.superiorsod.com or call
800-344-7317.
Craig Dargatz is general
manager of Superior
Sod in Corona, Calif.
