No magic bullets in plant nutrition

Jim Riopelle wrote an excellent article in the January/February issue of Turf & Rec magazine.

You’ll want to read the full article. Here are a few quotes:

I’ve experienced the good times in our industry but more recently have seen a beleaguered industry, as our core players age, younger people don’t play, and revenues struggle to keep up with expenses …

So I thought it was time [to offer] a few practical solutions to help courses survive—what looks like—a permanent downturn … I will list a few based on my 35 years of experience as a golf course superintendent …

We have marvelous technology available to us today that needs to be utilized to its fullest potential. I’ll give a shameless plug to the “Greenkeeper” app (free) and “Turf Log” (inexpensive) that are both wonderful apps for greens departments …

There are no magic bullets in plant nutrition. Decipher your soil test results and get back to basics when it comes to plant nutrition … If your soil test results don’t show P or K deficiencies, then why purchase a fertilizer that contains them? …

Retain a good mechanic. They are worth their weight in gold.

I found out about this article last week. Jim wrote to me right after I’d sent the 12^th MLSN newsletter—subscribe here, or read MLSN newsletter #12 here.

In response to your MLSN newsletter #12 I offer the following article I wrote and was published in Turf & Recreation Jan/Feb 2020 issue. My article starts on page 21. I thought it might be useful considering you mentioned cost savings in the newsletter.

BTW, I wish MLSN was around 30 years ago. The money I could have saved. I can’t even think about it. Keep up the great work!