Differences and similarities in growth rates

It has now been just over 2 weeks since I started measuring clipping yields on individual greens.

Firstly, it's worth noting that we have not recorded any increase in time that it takes to cut the greens in the morning. Yes, it's only been 6 mows compared to thousands in our database but it's insignificant. Not having time simply isn't an excuse to not do this.

As my damaged greens recover they have had higher growth rates due to the increased fertilizer that was applied to try and speed the recovery. My undamaged greens got their regular fertilizer rates based on the growth potential and are growing much slower.

In an earlier post I wondered how I would transition the high growth to low growth. What I have done is simply not apply nitrogen to the greens that are growing too fast. This has been the result.

As you can see the damaged greens are still growing quite a bit faster than the undamaged but now that the undamaged greens are the only ones receiving supplemental fertilizer, their growth rate is trending higher (as it should be this time of year) and the damaged greens growth rate is trending downward. I estimate that at this rate of convergence that they should have similar growth rates in about 2 week's time. It will be interesting to see how they react differently during periods of high mineralization as I suspect that the dead organic matter from all that poa might be elevated on those greens and could lead to excessive growth.

Another thing I find interesting is how the two lines, while different, are similar. When one goes up, so does the other. So even though we have two different growth rates based on fertilizer, they are both impacted similarly to the other things that impact growth like temperature, light, water and snake oil. 😜

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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