total organic material

Measure exact topdressing effect, and requirement, by checking total organic material by depth.

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.

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.

I’ve updated the OM246 calculator to v2 with two substantial changes. One is an entirely new tab for unit conversions between different ways of expressing sand rates. I like mm. Others use kg/ha or tons/ha.

A substantial amount of organic material accumulated at the surface of a Tifdwarf bermudagrass putting green at Rota in the Northern Mariana Islands. I don’t recall if I read this exact statement, or if it occurred to me when I read something else about invigilation.

Everyone understands the segmentation of OM246 samples by depth. That is in the name of the test, after all. Most people understand that OM246 testing is a mass loss on ignition of all the material.

There’s a ton of work done to modify the soil organic matter of turfgrass surfaces. Fertilizer, water, and increased light will allow the grass to grow and naturally increase the organic matter in the soil.

These are some key things I’ve learned after studying soil organic matter (SOM) for a few years. This is about organic matter in the context of playing conditions—how a ball reacts when it hits the surface.

I’ve been thinking about measuring organic matter and about the quantity of sand required as topdressing for any turfgrass surface. For samples taken near the turfgrass surface, I would like to measure the mass loss on ignition, and call that the total organic matter.