You are probably already using the MLSN whether you like it or not.

The MLSN guidelines are by definition the MINIMUM levels of Sustainable Nutrition. This means that the soil nutrient levels should be above the guideline to have healthy turfgrass. As the MLSN is much lower than conventional guidelines, you will more than likely have higher amounts of nutrient in the soil if you are using different nutrient guidelines. Therefore, if you are using a different guidelines AND have more than the MLSN guidelines in your soil you are also within the recommendations of the MLSN and technically a user of the MLSN.

If your soil tests are higher than these figures you are using the MLSN

There is no maximum or ideal amount for the MLSN, just the level where you should not go below.

What is different with the MLSN to most other guidelines is the philosophy surrounding the guidelines. This includes maximizing the nutrients already contained in your soils. You do not have to do this to be a user of the MLSN. You just need to have soil test levels above the guideline.

The philosophy of using the nutrients contained in the soil are important to the MLSN because if you are near the guideline at the time of testing, you will likely drop below the guideline unless more nutrient is supplied as the grass grows. All the complicated math and nutrient ratios are there to ensure that you don't go below the guideline.

As one of the earliest adopters of the MLSN and someone who has experimented and often gone below the guidelines I might actually be one of the few people in the world who technically doesn't use the MLSN!

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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