Environment

This is a continuation of the fall nitrogen topic that I deliberately raised in a couple of blog posts. See these for some background: Spring reflections on autumn impressions On fertilizer, and whether it should change by season Many turf managers get great results with late fall nitrogen applications.

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.

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.

In the autumn, some turf managers make applications of nitrogen (N) at relatively high rates. Specifically, the applications supply more N than the turf can use at that time – I’m using at that time to mean within the next month after the application date.

16th green and 17th hole at Tublamu Navy Golf Course If you didn’t know it was there, you would miss the right turn off Thailand’s National Highway 4. There’s no sign for the golf course on the main road.

In presentations at the Eastern Pennsylvania Turf Conference and Trade Show (view handout here), I introduced the nutrient use and nutrient requirement talks by discussing the Park Grass experiment at Rothamsted.

The 1st at Ootacamund Gymkhana Club (founded 1896) is strikingly reminiscent of the 10th at Augusta National. This long dogleg left plays steeply downhill in a wide corridor between tall evergreen trees.

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.

I read a post on the Golfdom Daily about soil pH in which it was suggested that it was important to maintain soil pH in the range from 6.5 to 7.