Technical - Soil Biology
In the first of a series of articles, Symbio’s Managing Director Martin Ward looks at how healthy soil works and why natural grass systems remain friable, drain well, disease free and colonised by perennial grasses
Soil Biology
The soil biology revolution
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Since the 1920s, when inorganic fertilisers were introduced to override natural nutrient uptake, sports turf soil has been prone to excessive fungal disease, dry patch, thatch build up and black layer
B 122 I PC OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015
ack in the 1960s, when the USGA specification for golf greens was formulated and, later, when sand became the growing medium of choice for winter sports pitches,
mechanical and chemical grass management ruled.
Heavy use of fertilisers and fungicides became the norm and a wide variety of machinery was developed to aerate and replace the rootzone material that became compacted and unable to drain and support good grass.
Whilst there is no denying that new construction methods have made vast improvements to playing surfaces for winter sports pitches and simplified the management of golf and bowling greens, developments in understanding and use of the biology of rootzones may be poised to simplify grass management and make even greater improvements to the quality of grass playing surfaces.
As part of a series of articles, we will question some of the fundamental management practices developed to counter the limitations
of purely chemical and mechanical management and look at the benefits enjoyed by hundreds of turf managers that manage biologically active soil.
Questions to be asked are
- How to keep essential beneficial soil biology alive?
- Is hollow coring necessary?
- What are the alternatives to fungicides for disease management?
- Is it inevitable that we end up managing poa annua?
- Is organic matter part of the problem or part of the solution?
In this article, we will look at how healthy soil works and why natural grass systems remain friable, drain well, disease free and colonised by perennial grasses.
Grass is part of a food chain. Plants photosynthesise, taking energy from the sun, carbon and nitrogen from the air, producing carbohydrates, proteins and sugars. In grass,
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