Soil test showdown
A recent PACE Turf update mentioned this research project by Jackie Guevara and Kevin Frank: Effects of different soil testing interpretation philosophies on creeping bentgrass and annual bluegrass putting greens.
“Cool,” I thought, “a soil test showdown!” Or something like that.
This is looking at what happens with turf quality and color when turf is fertilized based on three different methods:
soil test, interpret by SLAN, apply nutrients based on SLAN
soil test, interpret by MLSN, apply nutrients based on MLSN
soil test, ignore the results, add only N
After the first year of this research, no matter which method was used, there were no differences in turf color, quality, or NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index). In that way, the soil test showdown was a draw in the first year. But SLAN won for applying the most P and K.
I was looking for some more information about this project and was pleased today to find the MSU Hancock Turfgrass Center Virtual Field Day video, where Jackie explains the project and the results.
You can also jump right to the discussion portion of this presentation, where Jackie, Kevin, and Thom Nikolai talk about the key conclusions so far.