SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/162108
Tools&Equipment pH, reduce sodium and release nutrients that are tied up and not available to the plant. A soil test in most areas of the US will show phosphorus in the soil, but it may not be available for the plant. Phosphorus today is a very expensive and important nutrient, and all of the fertilizer salesmen want to sell you phosphorus, but why not just make it available, because it's free. How do you increase the soil health? It's simple and there are two simple steps to follow. First, stop killing all indigenous beneficial biology by using less chemicals and pesticides. The only biology in some sports fields are disease pathogens. It's like a hospital that is filled with disease. When the soil is healthy with bio-diverse biology it will overpower and reduce disease pathogens. It's like putting border collies around your chicken house. They will prevent any coyote from getting close to the chicken. It is that symbiotic relationship that will build a barrier with the plants. Plants that are strong and not in stress are succulent are disease and insect resistant. Healthy Plants have thick cell walls, which are resistant to fungus, and require less or no fungicides. Feed the soil Many companies offer products and programs that will improve your soil health. You can add any number of organic products to your fertilizer and inject it through fertigation or you can simply spray apply it. There are humic liquid products which feed the indigenous soil biology or bio-inoculants to inoculate the soil with special beneficial biology, like micro Rizal bacteria. This bacteria is well known for creating a network web around the root system to release nutrients for the plant as well as promote dense root systems for the plant. Turfgrass will turn over its entire root system every 2 or 3 years, leaving tons of dead roots in the soil waiting to decompose and rot into humates. A healthy soil will quickly convert dead roots into humic substances. A humic particle will attract and release ten times the water and nutrients as a clay particle. This will create tons of little sponges that will hold and release water and nutrients in your soil. It will also keep the soil open to allow it to hold and pass water freely. Watch this video by Ray Archuleta with the USDA to learn more. http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=9_ItEhCrLoQ . This shows how healthy soil will absorb and hold water better. Sodium Sodium is a problem in many areas of the west and can build up in the soil. This is a big problem when the irrigation water has 100ppm to over 500ppm of sodium. The more the fields are irrigated the sodium keeps building up and the grass keeps dying. The solution is in the soil and water. A healthy soil will prevent sodium from being tied up in the soil. Humates and other organic products can be injected through irrigation to release and buffer sodium from the soil. Serious sodium problems need serious solutions, and the best product for that is Sodium Blocker a clear liquid that does a great job for water and soil with very high sodium. This is a proven product that can be sprayed or injected. The product uses proven technology and is done every day with great success. These are real methods and real technologies that work, and will improve your sports field while reducing the maintenance costs by 20% to 60%. But more important, it can reduce your water use up to 50% with your existing control system, by improving the plant and soil health and just turning down your irrigation time. n 3-stage walk-behind snow thrower Aeration equipment from Campey Imants The Koro Recycling Dresser from Campey Imants, as the name suggests recycles the existing soils/rootzones and re-dresses the surface, helping to level the surface after play, and refresh the rootzone by decompacting and redistribution of material. The Recycling Dresser is possibly the most effective aeration tool on the market that leaves the surface in play. Amelioration of new materials into the existing soil structure is also possible. The Imants Shockwave is the original linear aerator at its best with working depths between 3" to 14", working in compacted sports fields where most vertical aeration tools cannot. Protected by a torque limiting pto a huge aid to drainage and root development. "The Shockwave is something I plan using many times year after year, its ease of use and small surface disruption is only a small part of the benefits I saw from it. I wasn't expecting the results I saw, it was hard to imagine something so simple could work so well in relieving compacted soil," says Chris Morrow, Field Supervisor for the Dallas Cowboys practice facility. The Imants Rotoknife could be the fastest linear aerator working between 1" to 6". A series of discs slice the ground, decompacting and promoting a free draining surface and promoting root development or tillering a ground driven unit that works well in conjunction with other aeration methods. The surface is immediately playable after use. Campey Turf Care Systems 36 SportsTurf | September 2013 Cub Cadet's newest innovation will have you saying "bring it on" to even the most extreme winter forecasts. The new 3X, the flagship of Cub Cadet's X SERIES extreme line of snow throwers, clears snow up to 50 percent faster than the 2X two-stage snow thrower. The 3X three-stage snow thrower easily cuts through 18 inches of heavy, wet snow. The patentpending three-stage system works by first gathering snow, ice and slush and moving it toward the center. Then Cub Cadet's new high-volume accelerator cuts and chops through winter's worst, accelerating it into the high-performance discharge impeller, where it's thrown up and out of the high-impact chute. These three stages work together to move more snow faster while putting you in complete control of speed and maneuverability. Cub Cadet www.sportsturfonline.com