A Little Help From My Friends

This time of year is a great time for observing the golf course. As things slowly wake up drastic differences can often be observed that would otherwise be hidden in the flood of green that always comes in April.

Today while surveying my tees I noticed a million tiny bright green specs of turf. It looked similar to the speckling you would see if you applied a light application of a coarse fertilizer. In this case it wasn't fertilizer that was causing the green specs, it was earthworms. The earthworms consume the organic matter that is contained in the soils and the result is worm castings. These castings contain readily available nutrients that the turf can use. The earthworms also help to aerate the soils similar to the aeration that we perform each spring and fall.

We have earthworms on all parts of the course especially the tees, fairways and rough. There are naturally less earthworms on the putting greens as they are almost pure sand with very little organic matter for the worms to feed on.

Some people consider earthworm castings a nuisance as they can detract from the "perfect" look of a fine turfgrass surface. I see the castings as a sign of a healthy soil and a huge benefit to the entire golf course ecosystem. The trade off is small. A slight imperfect look that most people don't notice for a free source of nutrients and soil aeration. The worms are also a source of food for many birds that frequent the course.

There are many insect and soil borne pests that frequent the golf course. Many that consume turf roots and cause turfgrass death. All the earthworms do it feed your turf and aerate your soils. What's the problem?

To me this kind of natural activity is the true definition of sustainability on the golf course.

Turfgrass speedo is still my most important tool for managing turf growth after 4 years.

It wasn't the easiest year for growing grass , but the conditions were still pretty good. Almost 4 years ago exactly, I came up with the idea of comparing actual clipping yields to the "ideal" clipping yield or the clipping yield adjusted using the Growth Potential Model . Since then, it has proved to be a much more useful tool to manage growth than I originally thought . It has been almost a decade since I started making observations on plant health and playability and how it relates to the clipping yield. I have been constantly searching for ways to get the growth rate right as often as I can and this tool seems to be the best way I have seen so far, and might ultimately, be the best way going forward. To prove this point I will discuss in a future post, the success I've had with pest control in the past few years (for the most part (Not withstanding the times where I think my greens are dead but they actually aren't...thanks T)). Never needed less There are ...

Do you have enough?

I recently discussed how we can use fertilizer ratios to simplify how much fertilizer we apply to help us keep above the MLSN guidelines . When we get a soil test done it is a static amount of nutrients found in the soil. Even if you are above the MLSN guidelines at the time of testing, it doesn't guarantee that you will remain at or above the guidelines as the grass grows and consumes nutrients. There is math that you can use to determine exactly how much nutrient you need to apply to ensure that you remain at or above the MLSN guidelines. For many, this is much too complicated. For that reason I made a quick cheat sheet to help you determine how much of each nutrient you can expect to use each year based off a few different annual nitrogen rates. Nutrient use is based primarily on nitrogen use so the left 2 columns are a few different nitrogen rates. The columns for each nutrient are in PPM and are designed to help you look at your current soil test PPM (mehlich 3) and determin...

How to quantify nutrient content in liquid fertilizer

In a recent post, I discussed how it was actually cheaper to spray soluble vs granular fertilizer. What about if we use pre-mixed liquid fertilizer? How do we even figure out how much nutrient we are applying with pre-mixed liquid fertilizer? Before I learned that you could simply dissolve soluble fertilizer in water and apply it in a sprayer, I was a big user of pre-mixed liquid fertilizers. One of the issues I initially had was figuring out exactly how much of each nutrient I was applying. The math wasn't as straightforward is it was with granular fertilizers. It turns out, it's actually not that difficult but requires an extra step. First, we need to convert the liquid volume into a mass. Many products will have the product density displayed on the label or you can look in the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) for that information as well. No SDS? Should you be using products without an SDS? Even if this information isn't included on the label it is very easy to figure out. All ...

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