Posts

I was pleasantly surprised a few months ago when I returned home from a long trip, had some Greenkeeper International magazines waiting for me, and flipping through them found discussion of clipping volume and the turf GvX.

The way we manage the turf affects playability. That’s obvious. Everyone knows that. Knowing that management affects playability is one thing. Doing something about it is another. When you see just how large the clipping volume and OM246 effects on playability actually are, the numbers will surprise you.

TL;DR: 1) Know the standard sand rate recommendations, which range from 6 to 11 mm per year at present 2) Measure the amount of sand you apply 3) Don’t apply the standard amount!

I wrote “Soil Testing and MLSN: smarter goals, better results” for GreenMaster magazine. Read the article in the CGSA’s GreenMaster—Soil Testing and MLSN Here are a couple quotes from the article.

I’ve looked at soil organic matter (SOM) and OM246 test results for putting greens of different species. In the top 5 cm (that’s about 2 inches), there will be some SOM and there will also be undecomposed material.

On August 3 to 5, I’ll be in Australia for the inaugural Country Conference, a joint event of the New South Wales and Victorian Golf Course Superintendent Associations. Nadeem Zreikat and I had a chat about this when we met in Orlando last week.

I’ve shared the posts from 2025 that got the most views, and Joe Gulotti and I talked about these in a holiday extravaganza. Then there are these 10 that got the fewest.

A set of OM246 total organic material samples inadvertently got a grinding and sieving process just like normal soil samples.1 As you probably know, a key distinction of OM246 testing is that soil samples are tested at the lab as is, with no subsampling or screening of the sample.

Don’t overthink your soil biology writes Andrew McGuire in a blog post with that title. I recommend you read the entire article. I’ll include a few quotes here. He notes three common errors around soil biology.

This email inquiry arrived recently: “Hi Micah, looking at the MLSN guidelines and our recent test results, all our levels are above what’s required. Does this mean, we only need to apply N until levels come down?