Fusariummy

I had a blast speaking in Atlantic Canada last week about fertilizer. Photo: Micah Woods Soil biology has always been one of those things that confuses the hell out of me. It's a complicated thing and there are plenty of people that will tell you how you can make your soil biology better (whatever that means) but the consistency of results and expense just don't make sense to me. If soil biology was that easy, everyone would do it. If you ask any turfgrass scientist about soil biology they will probably admit that it plays an important role in plant health but there are very few things that we can specifically do to make positive changes in soil biology as far as science in concerned. Results from products that promise to improve soil biology are mixed and this fact is part of the reason I think that a lot of people don't use these products. I also think that a lot of people use these products because we do appreciate the importance of soil biology and as usual, want to tak...

Last week I decided to learn to code so that I could pull weather data off the internet and into my spreadsheets. This would allow my weather related models to update by themselves without me having to intervene. I have enough stuff to do than worry about updating weather data manually when computer can do it for me. After some trial and error I was able to pull past weather data and a 7 day forecast for any location on earth into my spreadsheet and analyze it to calculate evapotranspiration, growth potential and the dollar spot potential. The spreadsheet can be found on the following link; https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WYICvWKBySCNHL6Q3G9Oqd3XGw3stvlLzzKucLRW0mo/edit?usp=sharing Follow the directions carefully and please, do not request to edit this file. Simply go to File -> Make a copy and you will have your very own version to edit. Further instructions are on the spreadsheet. Having this data at your fingertips makes decision making easier. You can see how much water...

Growth potential was a game changer for me when I first learned about it in 2013. It was the first time that I was able to easily get a general idea of how grass grew in my specific climate and allowed me to fine tune my operation and leave behind the guiding principles of turfgrass management that heavily relied on broad generalizations. Instantly I could customize my plans and make adjustments that would take the weather into account. It wasn't until last winter when we had catastrophic winter damage that I also learned how it could be a valuable tool to communicate with my membership about recovery progress and other maintenance decisions that I make. During the recovery process I was trying everything I could to try and speed recovery but as research on the subject would suggest , "it becomes increasingly apparent that timing of spring seeding and air temperatures following seeding are fundamental factors affecting the success of re-establishing putting greens." So w...