science

There is an interesting article about carbon by Bryan G. and Tyler J. Hopkins in Crops & Soils magazine. Here’s a quick summary, put together with a series of quotes from the article.

I’ve written about reactive greenkeeping being at least a viable option, and have implied that it is preferable to proactive greenkeeping. With a little effort, one can get information (data) about the weather, the amount of water in the soil, the quantity of nutrients in the soil and the quantity of nutrients used by the grass, the growth rate of the grass, and so on.

If you work with warm-season grasses, you will want to have a look at this article by Reasor et al. on the variability of hybrid bermudagrasses used on putting greens.

Of the many interesting things in the report by Gelernter et al. on the GCSAA’s second nutrient use survey, I was especially intrigued by the part about soil testing. First, a little background.

At first appearance, the demand-driven fertilization of STERF seems almost the same as the growth potential (GP) and MLSN approach. If you are not familiar with this approach from STERF, you can download their Precision Fertilisation – from theory to practice handbook, written by Tom Ericsson, Karin Blombäck and Agnar Kvalbein.

On sand putting greens, it is. The problem caused by sodium is a reduction in the downward movement of water in soils. This is caused by the deflocculation of clay in the soil.

I did an experiment in a greenhouse in which I grew creeping bentgrass in four different sands. I collected all the clippings and measured what was in them. And I tested the pH of the sands, and I did soil tests to measure the soil nutrient content.

I’ve been asked this question more times than I can remember. It usually goes something like this. We had the soil tested, and it turns out we are quite low in P (or K or Ca or Mg).

I was browsing the Sir John Bennet Lawes timeline and discovered this excellent video with plant ecologist Jonathan Storkey introducing the Park Grass Experiment. The Park Grass experiment at Rothamsted was started in 1856 and has been continuously monitored ever since.

Why use and pay for nutrients that the grass does not need or the soil does not require? That question, along with the title of this post, are quotes from the classic article by Zontek et al.