soil

After a talk at a seminar about estimating nutrient use, there were a couple questions that I answered quickly. I take the opportunity to elaborate on my answers here. 1. When looking at soil test results, how to consider the availability of nutrients?

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.

In a conversation on Twitter, Carmen Magro and I showed a fundamental difference in thinking about turf nutrition. My approach, which I explain in Everything you need to know about turfgrass nutrition in 1 lecture, is summarised by this statement:

There is a fine article by Karcher and Richardson in GCM about the effect of wetting agents. In the article, they point out something important: It is often stated that some wetting agents move water rapidly through the root zone while other products retain considerable moisture near the surface, but the data to substantiate such claims is limited.

When it comes to fearmongering in turfgrass, I’m not sure there is a bigger one than bicarbonate (HCO3-). One often hears of supposed problems associated with bicarbonate. I’m still waiting to see a soil or turfgrass problem associated with this ubiquitous anion.

This concerns the use of saturated paste (water) or dilute water extractants for assessing soil nutrient content, and specifically if data from those tests are a good way to decide if an element should be supplied as fertilizer.

I measured soil moisture and surface hardness on three fairways, approaches, and greens at a golf course in Thailand in September 2014. The fairways and approaches at this site are seashore paspalum on a sandcap.

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).

Growing up and first working in the turfgrass industry in the United States, I naturally used US customary units: inches and feet, pounds and ounces, fluid ounces and gallons and so on.

This is an extraordinarily good video about grasses, mowing, construction, irrigation, soils, playability, maintenance cost, and more. If you are interested in these topics, watch this interview with Don Mahaffey.