PREVENTION, PRESERVATION AND PLANT HEALTH

In 1961, Gene Young founded Young’s Plant Farm in Auburn, Alabama, with the vision of innovating and adopting new technologies to ensure that future generations could always enjoy beautifully grown plants. Over the last six decades, the space has expanded to three farms in two states to accommodate customers’ different desires for ornamental plants, including annuals, perennials, potted plants and holiday crops.  

As the Director of Horticulture, Tom Costamagna oversees all aspects of growing, including culture, technology and consulting. In his role, he must also help ensure his team is equipped with the best chemistries possible to address any pest or disease issues that may arise throughout the season. They may ship 150-200 truckloads of plants in any given week, so there is little room for error. “Having blemishes or some disease is not really an option,” said Tom. “We have to produce these plants to the best of our capability.”  

Between damaging insects, fungal pathogens and the extreme Alabama temperatures, Tom and his team must be ready for anything that can negatively impact the health and beauty of their plants, from the time they’re planted until the moment they arrive at their final destination. With the help of BASF products and support, Tom and his team have been able to keep up with the intense demands of the ornamental industry and the consumers that buy their plant products.

“BASF and their chemistries have been crucial in my success, academically and commercially.”

—Tom Costamagna, Director of Horticulture, Young’s Plant Farm

Tom credits innovative chemistries from BASF as one of the key contributors to both his own success and that of Young’s day-to-day operations. These chemistries include Avelyo^® fungicide, a new broad-spectrum DMI technology that is safe to use at every stage of plant production, as well as Orkestra^® Intrinsic^® brand fungicide and Pageant^® Intrinsic brand fungicide. Intrinsic brand fungicides from BASF offer superior plant protection through a combination of broad-spectrum disease control and plant health benefits in the form of increased growth efficiency and better stress tolerance. “BASF and their chemistries have been crucial in my success, academically and commercially,” said Tom. “The tools they provide fill gaps [by] controlling a number of insects and diseases that are not manageable [with] other products.”