soil

This is a two part mystery, the first part of which I’ll speculate as to the answer, and the second part for which I’ll ask for expert advice (or guesses!

We have worked with PACE Turf to develop the Minimum Levels for Sustainable Nutrition (MLSN). These new guidelines ensure ample amounts of mineral elements are present in the soil to meet the requirements of turfgrass.

Even in soils that contain relatively low amounts of plant-available calcium, that is still enough to supply all the calcium the grass requires. Why is that? Turfgrass uses relatively small amounts of calcium, somewhere in the range of 1.

This soil profile, showing how the soil has been modified after about 70 years of management as a golf course putting green, is absolutely fascinating. This photo is from a course in Sydney, Australia.

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.