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.
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STMA IN ACTION News from the Sports Turf Managers Association 42 SportsTurf | January 2017 www.sportsturfonline.com TOOLS & EQUIPMENT How to choose the best fertilizer for your sports turf This article was supplied by Koch Turf & Ornamental. Fertilizer. It's part of almost everyone's field maintenance program, but sometimes, we don't give it a whole lot of thought. Turf needs nutrients, and fertilizer has them. Simple, right? Not necessarily. According to Eric Miltner, PhD (pictured left), agronomist for Koch Turf & Ornamental, not just any fertilizer will do. Selecting the right fertilizer for your turf depends upon a few important factors. "First of all, a field's conditions and environment certainly impact the type of fertilizer you should choose," Miltner says. "That includes things like location and climate, turf species, season of use and soil conditions. The difference in fertilizer selection has less to do with the type of sports field (football, soccer, baseball) than the turf species present and local climate." Soil also plays a particularly crucial role in proper fertilizer selection. Because fertilizers are used for supplemental nutrition, it's important to know a soil's nutrient levels so that you can select a fertilizer that will provide what the soil cannot. A sandier, low-organic- matter soil must be managed differently than a finer-textured, higher-organic-matter soil. Factors such as cation exchange capacity (a measure of the soil's ability to hold and release plant nutrients) and potential nutrient mobility (leaching) are critical. If this is starting to sound too complicated, don't worry. "Slow- or controlled-release fertilizers can be a great solution for just about any type of sports field and any soil type," Miltner explains. "These fertilizers release nutrients slowly at a pace that the plants can really use them. So, they stick around instead of being flushed from the system. And, controlled- and slow-release fertilizers can be a better investment from the standpoint of nutrient efficiency and environmental quality." FERTILIZER 101 While slow- and controlled-release fertilizers can be a great all-around solution, the fact remains that not all fertilizer blends are created equal. It's important to know what ingredients are in a bag of fertilizer and in what amounts. "You wouldn't buy a piece of equipment without understanding what you're getting," Miltner says. "Fertilizer may not cost as much as a mower or other equipment up front, but it's at least as integral to turf health. Understanding what's in the different fertilizer blends will help you choose the right product for the best possible results." If you're at all familiar with fertilizer, you know that the primary nutrients in a typical bag are nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium (K). Nitrogen is critical for the production of amino acids, proteins, enzymes, nucleic acids and chlorophyll. Its effects are seen in plant color, density and growth rate. It also impacts turf's tolerance to diseases, insects and weeds. "Many fertilizers contain mostly quick- release nitrogen in the form of ammonium nitrate or urea," Miltner says. "Quick-release sources have nitrogen contents ranging from 11 to 46 percent and generally are less expensive than slow- or controlled- release sources. While they help turf green up quickly, they require frequent reapplication. So, they can end up being more expensive in the long run." Phosphorous is critical for energy delivery in cells, as well as building nucleic acids and