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What a year of mowing adds up to
When you measure the clipping volume, one of the many valuable things you can do is sum the measurements from each mow to get the annual total. When you have the annual total, you can start adjusting the growth up and down to produce more consistent surfaces.
Last updated on 2026-07-15 2 min read
What a year of mowing adds up to
The wettest air this summer
I have been looking at some of the most extreme locations to grow grass. One aspect of that is the amount of water in the air. I downloaded hourly weather data for a number of cities, then calculated the daily average temperature and the daily average dew point temperature, and then looked only at the days in the first month of the most recent meteorological summer.
Last updated on 2026-07-13 1 min read
The wettest air this summer
First month of summer dew point depression
Dew point depression is a convenient way to look at how humid the conditions are. This has some practical application to turfgrass growing conditions and just how much heat and disease pressure the grass is facing.
Last updated on 2026-07-10 2 min read
First month of summer dew point depression
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About

Micah Woods is the CEO of PACE Turf, an information service delivering science-based solutions to turf management problems, customized for each member’s location. He is also the founder and Chief Scientist of the Asian Turfgrass Center (ATC), established in 2006, through which he provides turfgrass advisory and soil testing services to golf clubs and sports facilities around the world. Since 2009, he has been an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Tennessee.

Micah keeps his eyes on the ground, studying turfgrass wherever he is in the world, and that practical grounding shows in writing praised for its accessible style. He is the author of more than two hundred articles in publications ranging from GOLF Magazine to Soil Science, along with books with intriguing titles like One Bucket at a Time and 芝草科学とグリーンキーピング: マイカの時間 The BOOK.

Interests
  • Turfgrass nutrition
  • Turfgrass selection & performance
  • Efficient greenkeeping
  • Soil nutrient analysis
Education

  • PhD in Horticulture, 2006

    Cornell University

  • BSc in Horticulture, 1998

    Oregon State University

Top posts

Explaining GvX: growth versus expected growth
Getting started with clipping volume
The turf GvX: growth versus expected
Maps of average temperatures in the USA
Turfgrass GvX, nitrogen harvest, and fertilizer adjustment
How much organic matter is too much?
Project
The GvX equation
The Brede equation
You won't believe this common maintenance practice doesn't reduce organic matter at all
Sand topdressing by exact depth: how to work it out
Four reasons zoysia should be a poor choice for California
Grass in a tropical park

Frequent topics

Click for list of articles on any of these topics

aeration bentgrass Bermuda bermudagrass bobble test calcium climate ClipVol coring data analysis disease ecology Environment fertilizer golf green speed greenkeeping growth potential irrigation Japan lawns Light Manilagrass MLSN Mowing nitrogen OM246 organic matter Paspalum Philippines phosphorus playability podcast potassium research rturf Salinity sand science seminar soil soil test Spain stimpmeter surface hardness temperature Thailand topdress tournament turf hacks turf info Turf reads Turf tourism TurfGvX video water weather web/tech Weeds Zoysia

ATC Library

Use the article filter to search the library.
M. S. Woods (2021). The Secret MLSN Operations Manual.

Project Source Document

M. S. Woods, L. J. Stowell, W. D. Gelernter (2020). A survey of soil nutrient analyses from turfgrass sites in Asia, Europe, and North America. OSF.

PDF Cite Code Dataset DOI

E. H. Reasor, J. T. Brosnan, M. S. Woods (2020). A new method to measure bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) golf course putting green ball roll uniformity. Journal of Testing and Evaluation.

Cite DOI

M. S. Woods (2020). Composite soil sampling for turfgrass. ATC Technical Report.

PDF

M. S. Woods (2019). Measuring clipping volume is easier and more useful than I expected. MIGCSA Course Conditions.

PDF Cite

M. S. Woods (2019). The turfgrass genki level. ATC Technical Report.

PDF

M. S. Woods (2018). One Bucket at a Time.

Project Source Document

M. S. Woods (2018). Making sense of turf nutrition with MLSN. Greenkeeper International.

PDF

M. S. Woods (2018). MLSN cheat sheet. ATC Technical Report.

PDF Cite

M. S. Woods, R. Deewatthanawong, S. Chanapan (2017). Nutrient use, water use, and growth of manilagrass, hybrid bermudagrass, and seashore paspalum turfgrass in central Thailand. 2017 ASHS Annual Conference Abstracts.

Cite Video Source Document

See all publications

Projects

*
All Clipping volume MLSN R Soil testing Videos Writing
Soil tests

Soil tests

We provide soil testing services for clients around the world through Brookside Labs, and have an active research program in the area of turfgrass nutrition, soil and plant analysis, and sampling methods.

OM246

OM246

Measure exact topdressing effect, and requirement, by checking total organic material by depth.

Books

Books

My books about greenkeeping, turfgrass science, clipping volume, and MLSN.

Shiny Apps

Shiny Apps

Web applications for R that make calculations or show data.

Grammar of Greenkeeping

Grammar of Greenkeeping

I’ve made some movies with my friends to explain how the grammar of greenkeeping works. You may enjoy watching.

PDF Video
Rturf

Rturf

I’ve been doing some teaching, or demonstrating, how I use R software for data analysis in turf-related matters. See the full list of rturf posts. The initial project is about stimpmeter measurements and ClipVol.

ClipVol

ClipVol

Measuring the growth rate by clipping volume. Really.

Turf Twitter

Turf Twitter

Analyzing the tweets and the accounts of the turf industry on Twitter.

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Global Soil Survey

Global Soil Survey

A project that investigated soil nutrient levels of good-performing turf all over the world.

MLSN

MLSN

Minimum levels for sustainable nutrition—MLSN—is a modern method for interpreting soil tests for turfgrass.

Books

The Secret MLSN Operations Manual
This is a compilation of the best content from the MLSN newsletter. It’s all about this modern method for soil test interpretation for turfgrass—how it works, how MLSN was developed, answers to common questions, and some fun stories about this project.
Project Source Document
The Secret MLSN Operations Manual
One Bucket at a Time
You don’t have to measure the clipping volume. But if you are interested in doing so, I’ve written quite a bit about this topic, and I’ve put the information together here so those who are interested can find it in one place.
Project Source Document
One Bucket at a Time
芝草科学とグリーンキーピング (マイカの時間 The BOOK)
Golf is a sport and is played on grass. The greenkeeper works with the grass to produce the best possible playing surface for golf. But just as each golf course has its own design and setting into the landscape, so also the grass on each golf course is growing in its own soil, in a particular climate, with an innumerable list of differences from any other golf course.
Source Document
芝草科学とグリーンキーピング (マイカの時間 The BOOK)
A Short Grammar of Greenkeeping
These are the fundamental principles of greenkeeping, if one agrees that greenkeeping is all about the growth rate of the grass and modifying that rate to get the desired surface conditions.
PDF Cite
A Short Grammar of Greenkeeping

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