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My work with the Asian Turfgrass Center involves lots of travel, research, writing, and teaching. I usually travel to four countries each month, although this month is a treat, with only three: USA, Thailand, and Japan. As I do this work, the things that especially interest me are choosing the grass species that will be most suitable for the environment, ensuring that the grass is supplied with just enough fertilizer, but no excess, and in general to manage the turf to create a high quality surface while doing so with a minimum of water, fertilizer, pesticide, and energy inputs. I'll illustrate the importance of this through some examples from my work in Asia, and relate that to examples from Iceland, England, Spain, Oregon, and lots of other places. This won't be an especially technical presentation, although there will be a few facts and numbers shown. It will give an overview of turfgrass science as I see it from my traveling perspective.
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Turfgrass science: new developments in an exciting field, carefully illustrated and explainedMicah Woods, Ph.D.Chief Scientist | Asian Turfgrass [email protected]/2014_mirabella.html
14 October 2014Mirabella Portland
15 countries Places visited since September 2013
seashore dropseed at sea level, 20° South
Bel Ombre, Mauritius
kikuyugrass 7,350 feet above sea level
Ootacamund, India
fine fescue at about 9,500 feet above sea level
Yamanashi, Japan
fine fescue at 64° North Westman Islands, Iceland
ATC research facility in 2008, more than 50 grass varieties Ayutthaya, Thailand
Digitaria grass and clouds
Bangkok, Thailand
seashore dropseed and clouds
Samet, Thailand
North Americamore sun
Asialess sun
grasses and microclimates in Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii
bermudagrass putting green, poor performance in shade
Hilo, Hawaii
manilagrass (Zoysia matrella) putting green, high shade tolerance Hilo, Hawaii
bermudagrass turf, thrives in sun
Hawaii Kai, Oahu
Manilagrass lawn Manila, Philippines
Manila American Cemetery
Manila, Philippines
Manila American Cemetery
Manila, Philippines
Manila American Cemetery
Manila, Philippines
perennial ryegrass Barcelona, Spain
PGA Catalunya, more than 10 turfgrass species grow in this region Girona, Spain
ATC research facility in 2008, different grasses and soil types Ayutthaya, Thailand
Rothamsted Manorhttp://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/Research/ParkGrassGallery.html
Harpenden, England
Harvesting plots, 1940shttp://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/Research/ParkGrassGallery.html
Harpenden, England
Park Grass January 2005
Park Grass soil samples from 1876
Rothamsted archives
Soil and leaf tissue containers
Rothamsted archives
Park Grass May 2006
Plot 1d, ammonium sulfate annually, no lime
Park Grass, May 2006
no fertilizer since 1856 Park Grass, May 2006
Plot 6, complete fertilizer Park Grass, May 2006
It seems we are inundated with new technology for golf turf management. Technology can be a vital aspect of
turf management, yet it can also be distracting. When technology distracts us from the basic biological and eco- logical principles, we lose the value of resource efficiency.
Current research can inform our decisions about technology, but often it is short term and gives rise to dogma, i.e, stating an opinion as if it were fact. However, understanding fundamental principles often requires a longer period of study and, when properly assessed with variable technology, can lead to informed decision-making.
Few would argue the value of long- term ecological research, especially when it can continue to be relevant to modern management. We would argue that the most important experiment of this type has been underway outside of London since 1856 at the Rothamsted Experiment Station.
BACKGROUNDIn 1856, 11 fertilizer treatments and two unfertilized control plots were laid out on a meadow at the Rothamsted estate in England. Rothamsted was owned by John Bennet Lawes, the holder of a patent on superphosphate and a fertilizer manufacturer. Lawes had great interest in agricultural experi- mentation, eventually selling his fertilizer business interests and establishing the Lawes Agricultural Trust.
Lawes engaged Joseph Henry Gilbert as a chemist in 1843, and together they would transform agri-cultural theory over the next 57 years. The experiment in the meadow, managed as pasture, at Rothamsted (the Park Grass experiment) is thought to have been Lawes’s favorite.
This classical Park Grass experi-ment is ongoing more than 150 years after the first fertilizer treatments were applied. The results of this experiment and the conclusions we can draw have
multiple applications to modern turf- grass management. Yet the Park Grass Experiment seems to go unnoticed by turfgrass scientists and managers.
The Park Grass experiment was initiated when there were 30 United States, before the Civil War, and before Darwin published Origin of Species. For 154 years the fertilizer treatments have been applied and plots harvested and analyzed. The seven-acre experi-ment was originally conceived to inves- tigate agricultural questions such as hay yield and quality by removing herbage twice each year. It became apparent from the start that the fertilizer treatments affected not only the yield of the plots, but also the very plants and grasses that grew on them. From an ecological perspective, the effect of fertilizer treatment on the botanical composition of the plots would be most relevant to turfgrass science.
Fertilizer treatments include nitrogen, from different sources and at different
Green Section Record Vol. 49 (00)Month 00, 2011 Page 1TGIF Record Number
A close-up view of potassium (K) versus no potassium and dandelion growth. Copyright Rothamsted Research Ltd.
A spring view of dandelion growth in a plot receiving potassium (K), and no dandelions in the adjacent plot receiving no potassium. Copyright Rothamsted Research Ltd.
The Park Grass Experiment and the Fight Against DogmaSometimes the value of a turfgrass management practice takes a long time to become apparent.
BY MICAH WOODS AND FRANK ROSSI
Woods & Rossi. Green Section Record, 2011.
We need to know 3 quantities
L-93 creeping bentgrassIthaca, New York
1. How much of an element is
present in the soil?
2. How much of an element is
needed in the soil?
3. How much of an element does the grass use?
ReferenceMinimum Levels for Sustainable Nutrition
Soil Guidelines
The Minimum Level for Sustainable Nutrition (MLSN) Guideline is a new, more sustainable ap-proach to managing soil nutrient levels that can help you to decrease fertilizer inputs and costs, while still maintaining desired turf quality and playability levels. The MLSN guidelines were devel-oped in a joint project between PACE Turf and the Asian Turfgrass Center. All soil analyses were conducted at Brookside Laboratories, New Bremen, OH.
Nitrogen requirements are best determined based on turf growth potential, which incorporates
Course Management, p. 108-113, March, 2005).
September, 2014
MLSN Soil
Guideline
pH >5.5
Potassium (K ppm) 37
Phosphorus (P ppm) 21
Calcium (Ca ppm) 331
Magnesium (Mg ppm) 47
Sulfur as sulfate (S ppm) 7
http://www.paceturf.org/journal/global_soil_survey
Studying the soil conditions that are producing good turf
Global Soil Survey year 1 locations
choosing grasses & maintenance inputs to produce good turf Hua Hin, Thailand
seminar.asianturfgrass.com/2014_mirabella.html
