Fusariummy

No, not MOWVEMBER thank god! With the use of plant growth regulators I have been able to keep the amount of mowing to an absolute minimum this November. This is important because mowing at this time of year just makes a big mess and probably spreads disease around . Movember! This year I have decided to take on the movember challenge. And no, it's not a challenge to see how much grass I can mow in the cold rain. From the website: "The Movember Foundation is a global charity committed to men living happier, healthier, longer lives. Since 2003, millions have joined the men’s health movement, raising $677 million and funding over 1,000 programs focusing on prostate cancer, testicular cancer, poor mental health and physical inactivity." To me, men's health hits close to home. Firstly I'm a man. More importantly, I have lost a lot of great men in my life from cancer, preventable disease, mental illness, and disease resulting from an inactive lifestyle. This sucks....bi...

Last week I shared how I was able to make further reductions in my fertilizer use on the golf course. This week I will discuss how this reduction in fertilizer use will look like as far as my soil tests are concerned. I will also compare 2 soil tests with the amount of fertilizer applied between the two dates to determine where the fertilizer I applied went. This spring I took part in the Global Soil Survey for the 3rd time. I did my soil tests in early April 2015 before the grass started growing so that I would know what fertilizer I would have to add in order to keep my soil levels above the MLSN guidelines . As you can see in the top 2 rows of the above table, the soil test results were all above the MLSN guidelines except for Potassium. I was then able to estimate the amount of each nutrient that the plant would use based on the amount of nitrogen applied. Where K was half, P 1/8, Ca 1/8, Mg 1/20, and S 1/40 the amount of nitrogen applied. Now this assumes that all the clippings ...

Total fertilizer applied per year For the past few years I have made big reductions in fertlizer use on my golf course. How? I started using the MLSN guidelines and based my fertilizer applications more or less on the temperature based growth potential model . If there is enough of an element in the soil, I don't apply it. Plain and simple and it works. Where I used to have a fertilizer program, I now apply it as needed based on the weather and conditions I am trying to produce. What are those conditions? Good healthy grass that grows as slow as possible while putting up with the traffic and other stresses that it is subjected to. A lot of focus is always on pesticide use but the misuse of fertilizer could probably be said to contribute more to pollution and adverse health effects than pesticides so therefore it is important to me to only apply the amount that is absolutely needed. No more. This year we had a warmer than normal summer. The growth potential hovered at near 100% for...