ProLeaf Ag

The soil beneath our feet plays a pivotal role in nurturing the food system, with over 90 percent of our sustenance springing from this fertile ecosystem. However, changing land uses and rapid advancements in modern technologies have put soil under immense pressure, at times jeopardizing its productivity. This often results in reduced crop yield and/or quality that leaves growers at a disadvantage of tightening profit margins, not to mention the rising costs of farmland and inputs, especially within the last several years.

An agricultural expert and enthusiast, Jason King grew up around agriculture and was raised on the farm. He better understands these challenges facing the growers. His extensive experience working with growers as a crop consultant gave him the true sense of a knowledge gap existing in the farming sector that prevents them from achieving high agricultural outputs and profits.

An ideal solution is to increase the yields and quality through more nutrient-dense soil, and King decided to serve as an independent crop consultant for growers in Lancaster County and surrounding regions, helping them achieve this milestone. The result — ProLeaf Ag, a leading vegetable and produce consulting company that specializes in assisting growers to boost soil biology and succeed from the ground up by nurturing nutrient-dense soil.

“At ProLeaf Ag, our mission is to multiply production and enhance crop nutritional value through soil, plant, and disease consultation and education,” says King.

A proven holistic and data-driven approach is at the heart of its excellence, helping growers ensure soil health and balance to help make it more resilient to pests and diseases for better yield and higher profitability. ProLeaf Ag utilizes various soil, water, and plant tissue tests to determine soil and plant conditions and offers soil-friendly dry fertilizer blends and biological products that result in improved and highly nutritious produce. The solutions include time-tested methods, from extensive cover cropping, to dry blends/plant foods and biological products, like dry mineral blends of calcium and soft rock.

ProLeaf Ag’s strategic partnerships with renowned players in biological crop solutions, like ISP Technologies and Marrone Bio, for example, enable them to deliver premier plant foods and biological products and recommendations. This includes a top-tier micronized carbon solution, CARBON375 that serves as a foliar or soil-applied plant bio-stimulant. It facilitates quick plant response for nutrient uptake, fast plant metabolism, and root signaling.

King takes a systematic approach to client engagement, which is a key differentiator that makes him an ideal partner for small and large-scale produce farmers alike. The process starts with on-farm field scouting or a virtual consultation via Zoom or FaceTime to assess soil and plant health and current challenges. This is followed by collecting soil samples for testing. The test results help gain insights into the soil's current conditions, driving better decision-making to enhance soil biology for elevating crop yields and profitability. King recommends specific fertilizer applications and other inputs for improving soil nutrition and optimizing productivity depending on soil and crop types, and the client’s yield and quality objectives.

Maintaining long-term client relationships is also a key factor that keeps the company a notch above its competitors. King keeps an open line of communication with clients to identify their improvement goals compared to the previous years, therefore helping to ensure high-quality and high-yield production. By capturing crop images and analyzing plant tissue samples for produce like greenhouse tomatoes, for example, to steer the quality and production in the right direction. Monitoring results across seasons and comparing them against the prior year's data to track growers' goal attainment. King also conducts farm visits to assess crop health and challenges and gather client feedback, helping to ensure satisfaction with outcomes.

Demonstrating his commitment to optimizing production, quality, and client satisfaction is a recent instance where King helped a client to improve plant health and production. The struggling greenhouse tomato grower was facing plant health and pest issues, leading to a severe drop in production and quality. ProLeaf Ag conducted plant tissue analysis and recommended a custom-tailored program encompassing specialized fertilizers, biologicals, drip irrigation, and foliar. The client was astounded by the visible transformation--healthy plants with vibrant green new-growth and vigorous foliage and superior-quality tomatoes.

ProLeaf Ag's successes epitomize its profound value to farmers, stemming from personalized consultancy and detailed recommendations. The company continually strives to be on the cutting edge with new products and trends, and new ideas to yield highly nutritional produce and drive better ROI for clients.