ecology

Have you heard about the Park Grass experiment? The one that started in 1856 with different fertilizer treatments applied to a hay meadow in England, with those fertilizer treatments applied year after year to see what happened to hay yields?

I was passing through Corvallis and stopped to meet Tom Cook, who maintains his primarily bentgrass lawn with the greatest of care. Or is it neglect? He has not applied fertilizer to the lawn in 15 years, irrigates during the summer dry period only enough to keep the grass green, mows weekly, hand pulls the most egregious weeds, interseeds with white clover, and even keeps an unirrigated strip of turf in which one can find rat’s-tail fescue (Vulpia myuros).

When I think about disturbance, I think primarily of verticutting and hollow-tine coring and sand topdressing and then brushing that sand in. Such an approach—one with disturbance—requires a faster growth rate too, and higher nutrient inputs, in order to recover from the disturbance.

This photo was taken 174 days after the ‘Tifeagle’ bermudagrass and ‘Wana’ manilagrass were planted as 3 cm diameter plugs on 1 October 2019. These particular pots have been fertilized with nitrogen only since then, with no P or K.

Looking down at Hat Lamai from the 8th tee at Royal Samui. I’ve written about a hypothesis for identifying the most sustainable grass. Paul Johnson wrote with some feedback on this hypothesis, and a few questions.

A fine-bladed manilagrass growing faster than Tifeagle bermudagrass. I’ve written about zoysia growing faster than bermuda. Mike Richardson asked: so, the real question…is that better? “Slow growing” has always been one of my favorite traits of zoysia…

I’m planning to do a better job of coming up with good titles for articles and presentations. The modern master of titles may be Henry Bechelet, who wrote an article about aeration entitled “Rhubarb and Custard.

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.

Frank Rossi and I wrote this article about the Park Grass experiment. This experiment has been ongoing since 1856. It involves fertilizer treatments applied to grassland and the many measurements that have been made over the years on the experimental plots.