You walk through the door of the doctor’s surgery and, without looking up from his desk, he throws a bottle of pills at you and says, “Take these and
surgery, he asks you to sit down and tell him what your problems are, and what your expectations are. He then examines you, takes samples, does a few tests, and asks you to call back in a week so that he can discuss the results with you
you’ll be better soon”. Or, you visit a different practice, go into the
WHO DO YOU BELIEVE? W
ithout exception everyone reading this will say that they would believe the second doctor. Well,
doesn’t your turf deserve the same care? When a salesman calls do you take the first ‘medicine’ that he shows you from his catalogue or do you have a fertiliser salesman who will discuss your objectives? What standards do your members expect? Do they give you a budget that relates to their expectation? Do you have specific events that you and your members want the facility to peak for? Then, suggest soil samples should be taken. If your own health deserves the doctor who cares, then so does the health of your turf. When I visit a new venue, wherever in the world it is, I like to take the soil samples with the Turf Manager. It gives me the opportunity to get to know him, and him the opportunity to tell me about his turf, his members, his staff levels and all the other issues that confront a turf manager every day. It also provides me with the opportunity of finding out how I can be as helpful as possible. Amongst other things I note the grass varieties, I notice how well the site drains, these two aspects are essential when it comes to making the correct recommendations. Different grasses require differing nutritional programmes and, whilst good drainage is great for the members, it generally means that the nutrients leach quicker than on a site with poor drainage.
It should also be remembered that the better the sampling the better the report, and then, the more accurate the recommendations. The sample should be taken to a depth of approximately one inch below the current depth of the roots. There is no point in testing down to two feet when the roots are only two inches deep. The turf is not going to be affected by any nutritional imbalance a distance away from the root hairs. Recent research by Yara Phosyn has demonstrated that nutrients can only be drawn the following distances - phosphorus 1mm, magnesium 5mm, potassium 7.5mm and nitrogen 20mm. The samples on a golf green should be
taken at five points; I like to take them in the shape of a five on a dice, on larger areas the principal is the same, take the samples from evenly spaced locations around the site. For testing I remove the turf from the top of the plug. The reason I do this is because we want to measure the organic content of the soil, this measurement can be affected by grass left on the top of the soil. The five samples from each green or pitch should then be mixed to give a representative sample of the whole area. An often-asked question is when should I
take the samples? The ideal is just prior to the application of fertiliser; the reason is that a recent application of fertiliser will give an incorrect indication of what is going on in your rootzone. An obvious point; never forget to clearly label the samples!! The best testing in the world is no good if you don’t know where the sample came from!
The samples should be tested for pH,
LOCK UP CHART - An excess in one or more of these nutrients Chart1 Phosphorus Potassium Calcium Magnesium Zinc Manganese Copper
Iron May
cause a lock- up in one of these:
Phosphorus Potassium Calcium Magnesium Zinc Manganese Copper Iron
Cadmium Cobalt Sodium
Cadmium Cobalt Sodium
Client Name: Greenwood Soil Results Date:
22.04.09 Lab. ID
A123456 GREEN 1 A123457 GREEN 17 A123458 GREEN 4 A123459 GREEN 9 A123460 GREEN 12 A123461 GREEN 16
Averages 98 Sample ID pH
5.7 5.6 5.3 6.2 5.4 5.5 5.6
ANALYSIS PERFORMED BY LANCROP LABORATORIES CEC OM N
4.6 6.1 6.6 8.6 5.9 6.5
5.1 5.1 5.1 3.9 5.8 4.1 4.9
1928 1683 1914 1427 2123 1500 1763
P
19 27 31 34 27 27 28
K
127 73
111 92
141 95
107 Ca Mg
751 559 585 930 814 547 698
69 48 55 50 64 53 57
S 7
17 9
12 7 7
10 Zn Mn
17.1 16.1 30.0 24.0 29.8 18.2 22.5
71 26 76 39 83 57 59
Cu
6.0 3.0 6.1 5.8 7.8 3.5 5.4
Fe
1632 2110 1727 1275 1417 1867 1671
B
0.9 0.5 0.7 0.9 1.0 0.9 0.8
Chart2 Na
meq/100g % ppm ppm ppm ppm ppm ppm ppm ppm ppm ppm ppm ppm 7.1
16 13 15 16 17 15 15
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140