GOLF


The one thing that shocks me, thinking back to 1974 when I started my career, is that I was using Mercil fungicide, and mercerised


lawn sand which both had an element of mercury within!


twenty-four hours, we had massive patches where we still had a lovely fescue sward, but the bents just got wiped out. At that time, there was a lot of research going on with various mushroom composts. A company from Belgium contacted me and told me they might have a solution using a product that is used in the tomato industry that is made up of a mushroom compound. We trialled it and had some success, so we carried on with that over the years.”


“With the experiences I gained whilst in Holland, I decided to give compost tea a go here. I don’t believe any one product really makes a difference on its own: it’s an accumulation of things. You can throw compost tea at it, but if you are not aerating and doing all the other beneficial processes then it’s not going to work. If you are not taking the right precautions with the bacterial life you are putting back into the soil, there’s no point. Putting compost tea


on one day and the next spraying it with a wetting agent is madness. You have to be careful and plan these things out and, touch wood, I’m not going to say it’s the be-all and end-all, but certainly since the introduction of compost tea here at North Cliff some five or six years ago, the disease that we have suffered from has been significantly reduced. Now and again, I still must rely on a fungicide, especially in the last couple of years with the onset of anthracnose





›  ›  ›  › 


DRIVE PROTECT


Ready to be amazed? Book a free demo today! Call us on +44 (0)1933 652 235


PC February/March 2020


41


“


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  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156