by HENRY BECHELET
Food for thought
How to approach fertilising for the finer grasses ... and it’s not what you think
In these times of healthy debate, chew on this thought … you don’t have to starve your turf to favour the development of the finer grasses.
Fertilising to favour the finer grasses is more about not over-fertilising than adopting a starvation strategy. The aim of this article is to get you formulating your fertiliser programme with the needs of the finer grasses in mind. With a predominance of the bents and fescues we achieve better quality surfaces throughout the year.
The downward spiral
The problem is that too much fertiliser forces you to rely on intensive verticutting and aggressive mowing to prepare firm, fast and true playing surfaces. Hollow tining and deep scarification become necessary to get rid of the deeper thatch. It is this incessant damage that the finer grasses can’t stand. Such an aggressive method of preparing putting surfaces will inevitably require
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additional fertiliser applications to ensure that the turf recovers from the onslaught. It is constant disturbance coupled with high productivity that brings annual meadow grass Poa annua) dominance.
This is it
We try to minimise fertiliser inputs to reduce the need for disturbance. A more settled and less intensively managed environment will give the bents and fescues a fighting chance. A less disturbed environment will also take some stress to allow you to weaken the annual meadow grass. Let me tell you about fertilising golf greens to favour the finer grasses.
Step back and think
The primary goal with greenkeeping is to create playing surfaces of the highest possible quality. If that means we want to favour a predominance of the finer grasses we will have to set the correct
environment. Ultimately, this should involve minimising the level of disturbance, which is why we reduce fertiliser inputs. We then impart controlled beneficial stress at some point during the summer to pressurise the annual meadow grass at a time of overseeding to let the finer grasses take advantage. We impart this stress with judicious irrigation rather than fertiliser because it is easier to control. This will serve to weaken the annual meadow grass before the new seedlings emerge. Too much stress for too long weakens all the grass species and golf greens are too busy to be weak. (See ‘Changing The Nature of Your Greens’ on
www.stri.co.uk for more detail.)
Just enough
So, we want to minimise fertiliser inputs to reduce the need for incessant aggressive treatments. Minimal (some would say ‘optimal’) means producing just enough growth for the surface to be prepared and be able to withstand play
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