fertilizer

When applying fertilizer to turfgrass plants, there are two general types of application: liquid and granular. Granular products are applied in a dry form, while liquid products are applied as a spray application.

I was a golf course superintendent in Japan from September 2000 until August 2001. Now, ten years later, it is interesting to see some of the photos from that year and to remember what it was like.

Have you seen this picture before? I used this photo in an announcement for turf science seminars I gave in Japan, and a golf course superintendent asked me what is shown in the photo.

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.

There are two monthly magazines that go to almost every golf course in Japan. One is Golf Course Seminar, published by Golf Digest Japan, for which I write a column about turfgrass science; the other is *Monthly Golf Management, by Ikki Publishing, who also produce the annual Greenkeeper almanac.

Golf course putting greens and other high-use turf are generally grown in a sand rootzone. In Asia, many courses also have tees, fairways, and sometimes even rough areas plated with sand as well.

Many of the finest turfgrass surfaces in Asia are zoysiagrass, from the fairways of Singapore Island Country Club’s New Course, shown here, to the fine lawns of the Manila American Cemetery and the putting greens at Wack Wack CC, to more than 80% of the golf courses in Japan — zoysia is the grass of choice.

Cation exchange capacity (CEC) is important because it is a measure of the nutrient holding capacity of a soil. I was reminded by this paper A Simple Method for Estimating Cation Exchange Capacity Across a Wide Range of Soils, showed the results of experiments on estimating CEC on a range of fifty different soils from around New York state.

Phosphorus is an essential element for healthy turfgrass plants, but phosphorus can also contribute to algal growth in natural water bodies, so turfgrass managers should try to apply only the amount of phosphorus that is required by the grass.