Virginia Turfgrass Journal – The Turf Zone

Craig Zeigler, President of ALM and VTC Board Member, has a story that begins like many other turfgrass professionals. He always knew he enjoyed working outside, and after a three-year stint as an assistant manager at a country club, where he primarily handled restaurant management duties, he knew it was time to find a way to get out of the clubhouse.

Having worked on a golf course during his senior year at Penn State, Craig had many friends who were turfgrass management majors. “I wished I would’ve majored in that, but I was getting ready to graduate with a degree in Recreation and Parks,” he said. Craig enjoyed his golf course work so much that after three years in the clubhouse, he went to North Carolina State University and got his degree in turfgrass management.

He began working on golf courses in 1995 and worked his way up to assistant golf course superintendent in 1996. That turned out to be a fateful year for Craig, as two major hurricanes made landfall in Topsail Beach, North Carolina, exactly where his course was located. Those two hurricanes caused major devastation in the area, and the golf course was no exception. The storm surge brought saltwater onto some greens, and the course lost over 1000 trees as well.

Clean-up and recovery was seven months of grueling work, only to have the course reopen around Christmas with no one left in the area to play. Topsail Beach remained a depressed area for about a year after the hurricanes. This meant revenue for the course was low, and when Craig was presented 100 dollars as his Christmas bonus, he decided it was time to make a change. He moved to Raleigh and tried his hand in the lawncare segment, working as a route manager for a company there.

In one year, Craig grew his route by 30 percent. He realized he could be doing that exact kind of work for himself, so he made the leap. He moved to Virginia Beach and started his own lawncare business in 1998. It was a slow start with many hours spent doing the literal leg work of promoting a new business. Craig says he walked many miles passing out flyers and working hard to grow the business.

Craig’s business, Agronomic Lawn Management (ALM), began to grow and Craig’s brother, Chris, joined in 2007. The company has grown 25–30 percent every year since 2010. One great draw for customers has been their call-in radio show. Craig, Chris, and ALM’s general manager, Bryan Raehl, alternate radio show duties the first and third Saturdays of each month, fielding lawncare questions from callers.

ALM offers lawn treatments (including fertilization, pre- and post- emergent weed control, disease and insect management, and seeding) and tree and shrub care (using an IPM approach). They have 43 employees and over 8000 customers in the Chesapeake area.

One area that Craig and ALM have excelled in is a company culture that values and retains employees. All areas of turfgrass management have faced labor challenges in recent years, and ALM has been intentional in building relationships and camaraderie among the staff. The ALM team has enjoyed some exciting Employee Appreciation Days — including Go Karting, paintball and even shuffleboard — that have allowed staff that don’t normally work side-by-side to get acquainted and build a team mentality. Craig says ALM does not lay off employees in the winter, so they find community service projects to work on as well. Recently, the entire team worked together to plant over 3000 sea grass plants in Back Bay to help with erosion on the dunes. They also pick up trash along waterways and streets — and if that sounds like a chore, you might be surprised to find out that the crew that got excited about shuffleboard actually found a way to compete at roadside cleanup. They turn it into a contest to see who can find the most unique object.

This culture and camaraderie are vital to keeping great staff,

New England Blade – Bill Kreuser, Extension Turf Grass Specialist, University of Nebraska

Generally, I warn against a lot of nitrogen fertilizer in early spring. Turf usually grows at a rapid rate once soil temperatures remain around 50–55F. This explosion of growth is thought to be from freeze-thaw cycles during the winter that release plant available nitrogen. Microbial activity is also low in early spring because the soils are cold. This means the grass roots have less competition for mineral nitrogen, and the grass surges once temperatures are conducive for growth in the spring. The spring growth surge can also be related to late fall and early winter nitrogen fertilization. Applying nitrogen at that time is very inefficient and most of the fertilizer remains in the soil until growth resumes in spring or it is lost to the environment. Adding large quantities of additional nitrogen in early spring can promote excessive shoot growth. This depletes carbohydrate (sugar) reserves before the stress of summer. This is the reason I advocate to use stand-alone preemergence herbicides (PREs) for the first spring app. A combination fertilizer + PRE product is better for a sequential application in late spring-early summer.

There are situations where early season nitrogen may be appropriate. In most cases, however, only small amounts of nitrogen (0.1-0.5 lb N/1000 sq ft) are required to positively impact the turf. Use soluble or sulfur coated nitrogen sources. Avoid natural or synthetic organics and polymer-coated products that need active microbial communities to release nutrients.

Here are just a few examples:

* High traffic in spring: Turf areas with extensive use in spring can benefit from small applications of nitrogen application in spring to promote regrowth and recovery. Typical areas would include sports fields and golf courses with a lot of spring play.

* Lightly shaded areas: The lower sun angle in the fall can usually increase shade stress around trees and other structures. This leads to thinning of the turf in late fall. It can be beneficial to supply small amounts of nitrogen in the spring to build density and store sugars before the trees leaf-out. Shaded areas as a rule should be treated with minimal nitrogen, especially when the trees are full of leaves. Too much nitrogen in shade reduces carbohydrate reserves and promotes excessive growth as the turf tries to out-grow the trees.

* New turf stands: Areas of turf that were established last fall likely need more nitrogen fertilization to build density before the summer. These areas should receive enough fertilizer to promote 100% cover before the summer annual weeds take over later in the year. Older turf stands will need less nitrogen in the spring to achieve acceptable color than stands established in the past couple years.

* Achieve even green-up: Sometimes turf stands do not green-up evenly. This could be from different species in the lawn (i.e. tall fescue is generally slower than perennial ryegrass or older cultivars of Kentucky bluegrass). There may also be differences in the soil or dog spots from the winter. In these cases, small amounts of fertilizer will stimulate green-up without placing extra stress on the plant.

Spring is also a good time to soil test for other nutrients. The most important nutrients to test for are phosphorus and potassium. Use a lab that can do the Mehlich-3 soil test method [e.g. UConn Soil Nutrient Analysis Lab www.soiltest.unconn.edu or UMass Soil and Plant Nutrient Testing Lab https://ag.umass.edu/services/soil-plant-nutrient-testing-laboratory]. Fix deficiencies in the spring before the heat and stress of the summer.

Bill Kreuser is Assistant Professor and Extension Turfgrass Specialist at the University of Nebraska. Contact Bill at [email protected]. This article originally appeared in STMA’s Industry News Online.

Arkansas Turfgrass – ATA

2020 gave us a vision for the future and it’s just possible that our show will take on a much different look in the coming years as we adapt to changing industry trends and respond to member needs. To understand where we are going, it is important to remember how we got this far to begin with. During the Awards Luncheon we surprised longtime director Bill Tippit with a plaque to recognize him for serving on the Board of Directors since 2008. Bill has been a dedicated friend to ATA and a loyal supporter. We can’t thank him enough for his valuable contributions, and we wish him well on his retirement. Hopefully he will come back to the show visit if we promise not to work him too hard!

Our joint tradeshow with the Arkansas Green Industry was sold out, and we enjoyed adding a few new vendors to our line-up. We figure if you didn’t see a vendor for it at this show, you probably don’t need it anyway. But seriously, our show continues to be one of the few left that still bring in equipment for you to see. This affords you the chance to see the latest and greatest innovations from equipment manufacturers without any obligation.

The Awards Lunch was a great time to network and enjoy seeing old friends again. This year we celebrated the achievements of three turf professionals who are the top in their field. Two golf courses were recognized in different divisions. Ricky Self accepted on behalf of Cypress Creek and Dustin McNaughten for Burns Park Golf Course. Daniel Baxley accepted the Sports Turf Field of the Year for Benton Parks and Recreation. Congratulations to all of our winners!

The ATA Conference continues to bring you the most recent research in the industry. Dr. Maria Tomaso-Peterson from Mississippi State educated us on large patch control and foliar diseases in ultradwarf bermudagrass. Dr. Becky Grubbs-Bowling from Texas A&M gave presentations on The Absence of Glyphosate, BMP for Lawns and “What are We Going to do About Poa?” Dr. Richardson contributed many talks in the Sports Turf Session which seems to grow more every year. Dr. Eric Reasor with PBIGordon updated us on the Top 10 Weeds and Their Control as well as addressing herbicide resistance. There are too many to list, but we did change things up and enjoyed an update from Pat Berger about the conversion of Razorback field and Troy Fink, superintendent at The Blessing on hosting major tournaments. We can’t list all the presentations here, but we were proud to offer a well-rounded portfolio of topics. We also offered four workshops this year which proved to be a big success.

Join us in thanking Dr. Karcher for organizing all of education for us and making several presentations. We could not do this show without his connections, insight, knowledge and hard work.

ATA Turf Times – ATA

Tim Orton was a high school teacher and coach for many years before getting into the green industry. “We had to take care of the fields in those days, and I got to where I really enjoyed it.” In 1980 Tim moved his family to Sylacauga so his daughters could grow up in the same town where his wife, Mickey Adams Orton, grew up.

“In 1982, one of the members of my Sunday School class was Taylor Pursell of Parker Fertilizer. One Sunday after class he approached me and said, ‘If you ever get tired of coaching, we would like to talk to you about going to work for us. We think you might do well in sales.’ I coached a football game on Friday night, November 5, 1982, picked up my company car on Saturday, and left for my first assignment on Sunday in Memphis at the Southern Turfgrass Association annual conference and show.

Tim recalls, “Jimmy Simmons was the first to realize I didn’t know my fanny from 3rd base, so he took me under his wing and taught me so much. Not just about fertilizer and chemicals but also about making appointments; about what Superintendents did, and did not, want to hear. Jimmy also taught me a lot about being a gentleman, but I fall short of that more times than I like to admit.”

“A good friend and mentor, Mr. Jimmy Pursell, told me ‘NEVER burn a bridge.’” Tim’s Dad, Rex Orton, a Purchasing Agent for US Steel counselled the same. “When I told Dad I was leaving coaching to go into sales, he told me, “If you tell someone you are going to do something, DO IT! But, if you see you can’t do it, be sure the customer finds out about it from YOU!”

Tim Orton has a long and impressive career in the turf industry. He was a teacher and coach at Williamson High School, the University of South Alabama, Huffman High School, & Fairfield High. He worked with Parker Fertilizer, Pursell Industries, and Pursell Technologies, continuing his employment with Agrium Advanced Technologies. Tim retired from Koch Turf & Ornamental in December.

Looking back, Tim sees how the turf industry has evolved and grown in many ways over the years: “It’s a pleasant surprise; back in the 80’s many of the Superintendents kept their fertilization programs and weed control programs close to the vest. Pretty much like trade secrets. Today’s Superintendent can pick the brain of other Superintendents near and far and count on a good exchange of information and ideas. It is a benevolent brotherhood today.”

Throughout his career Tim performed the delicate dance of balancing family time with time needed on the road working. “I didn’t want to miss my kids growing up, but I didn’t want to get fired either!”

Now that he has retired, Tim has a Bucket List that he plans to check off and add to as time goes by. He hopes to get better at Surf Fishing, keep playing golf with “The Fellas,” travel and watch his grandkids grow up. He enjoys many activities including golf and getting exercise. As might be imagined from his early career, he really enjoys watching high school and college football, basketball, and baseball.

Tim says he has been lucky to get to play so many fun golf courses all over the country during his career. He was at Pursell Technologies and in on the ground floor of FarmLinks when it was conceived and built, so naturally it is dear to his heart and always will be. “I still play and practice there as often as possible and David Pursell and I still play a lot of matches together. I am also really proud that Rodney Guy (Old Cuz), and I were the first to win the Four Ball Tournament at The Deep South Turf Expo in Biloxi. Long after he and I are gone our names will forever be on that beautiful trophy.”

Tim has been a faithful member of the Gulf Coast Golf Course Superintendents Association, Alabama Golf Course Superintendents Association, Alabama Turfgrass Association, Board Member of Alabama Turfgrass Assn., Alabama Turfgrass Research Foundation,

Pennsylvania Turfgrass – Member Spotlight

Dan Douglas’s 35-year career in Sports Turf Management in many ways parallels the growth of the industry in Pennsylvania. President of the Keystone Athletic Field Managers Organization (KAFMO) since its inception in 1993 and Eastern PA Turf Conference committee chairman since 2018, Dan has been named the Pennsylvania Turfgrass Council’s George Hamilton Distinguished Service Award recipient for 2019. This award is presented to individuals who have exhibited outstanding service to the turfgrass industry. It is considered PTC’s highest individual honor and Dan was recognized by the membership in a formal ceremony at the Penn State Golf Turf Conference at University Park last November.

Dan had previously been honored five times as the Minor League Baseball Eastern League Groundskeeper of the Year, twice as the STMA/MiLB Sports Field Manager of the Year, and in 2001 received STMA’s highest honor, the Harry C. Gill Founders Award. We asked him to look back and share some of his career milestones with others in the field.

 

Early Days

What draws a young man to turf management? Dan started playing golf at the age of eight and so had been around turf most of his life, but at Penn State he started out as a forestry major and then switched to soil conservation. “It wasn’t until one of my general agriculture classes took us out onto the playing field at Beaver Stadium that I got hooked on turf, and more specifically, sports turf,” he recalls.

During Dan’s senior year in 1986, Penn state alumnus Joe Ketterer recruited him to work for a landscape contracting company in Virginia. One of the client sites was George Mason University, which was rapidly expanding their athletic programs and facilities. GMU hired him away from the landscape contracting company so he could concentrate on making their playing fields as safe and playable as possible — priorities that still form the gold standard of sports turf management. “At the time I was one of the first groundskeepers to carry the title ‘Sports Turf Manager’ for a university’s athletic department,” he remembers.

Five years later and just months after marrying his wife, Cathy, Dan Douglas got a call from Dr. Waddington at Penn State to say that the Reading Phillies were looking for a full-time groundskeeper. Most minor league teams didn’t put much effort into their playing fields at that time, so this was a unique opportunity. The owner of the Reading Phillies, Craig Stein, is a Penn State alumnus who shared his vision. Thanks to the support he has received from the Reading Phillies organization, he has been able to make Minor League Baseball groundskeeping a satisfying 30-year career.

 

KAFMO and the PTC

A few years after arriving in Reading, Dan Douglas was approached by Penn State Extension educators Don Fowler and Jim Welshans. The fairly new Sports Turf Managers Association was growing and looking to form state chapters. Don and Jim recruited him to help form the Pennsylvania chapter, which became the Keystone Athletic Field Managers Organization (KAFMO). KAFMO now has over 350 members and is involved in education, scholarships, awards, and raising funds for sports turf research. Dan is grateful to the Reading Fightin Phils organization, his family, and dozens of past board members for making it possible for him to stay directly involved with KAFMO over three decades.

Dan says his initial involvement with the Pennsylvania Turfgrass Council was “mostly me being selfish for the members of KAFMO.” He describes the PTC conferences and trade shows of the early nineties as “legendary” and says the behind-the-scenes experiences he had and the connections he made there were instrumental in the success of KAFMO. As KAFMO was gaining its footing, the PTC, the Penn State Turf program and Penn State Extension provided a strong foundation for its development.

Since 2000,

North Carolina Turfgrass – Ron Alexander, R. Alexander Associates, Inc.

Managing North Carolina soils in order to grow healthy turf can be difficult. In the eastern part of the state, we have sandy, droughty soils, which are low in organic matter, nutrients and nutrient holding capacity (cation exchange capacity). In most of the rest of the state, we have to contend with fine textured soils, high in clay and silt content. While these soils can hold water and plant nutrients, they are also easy to compact and poor in water acceptance and percolation. Further, when they are dry, they can become extremely hard.

Of course, there is an inexpensive tool that turf managers and landscape contractors can use to improve soil quality, thereby assisting them in establishing, renovating and maintaining high quality and utility turf areas. At the same time, this tool is economical to use and extremely functional. The tool (product) is called compost. Aside from being readily available and consistent in quality, compost use in turf applications has been well researched, proving it to be a highly effective product for improving turf growth and soil health. By improving ‘soil health’ through the addition of stabilized organic matter, we can not only improve plant growth, but also improve the sustainability of landscapes.

Compost provides many benefits to the soil, the plants, the environment and to the pocketbook of the end user. It is readily available in most parts of North Carolina and its use should be considered for all of your projects. Excellent compost products are produced by both the City of Raleigh (919-625-3175) and Mecklenburg County (704-621-7372). Compost is manufactured through the controlled aerobic, biological decomposition of biodegradable materials. The product has undergone mesophilic and thermophilic temperatures, which significantly reduces the viability of pathogens and weed seeds and stabilizes the carbon such that it is beneficial to plant growth. Compost is typically used as a soil amendment but may also contribute plant nutrients.

Compost Benefits

As previously mentioned, the use of compost can provide many soil benefits which in turn enhance plant growth. It can improve the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the soil in which it is blended. To illustrate the various benefits of compost, the most commonly identified ones are outlined below. It should be noted that all of these benefits are well documented through university research.

1 Improves soil structure and porosity — creating a better plant root environment

2 Increases moisture infiltration and permeability, and reduces bulk density of heavy soils — improving moisture infiltration rates and reducing erosion and runoff

3 Improves the moisture holding capacity of light soils — reducing water loss and nutrient leaching, and improving moisture retention

4 Provides plant nutrients

5 Improves the cation exchange capacity (CEC) of soils — improving their ability to retain nutrients for plant use

6 Supplies organic matter

7 Supplies beneficial microorganisms to soils and assists in their proliferation

8 May encourage biological disease suppression

9 Encourages vigorous root growth

10 Allows plants to more effectively utilize nutrients, while reducing nutrient loss by leaching

11 Enables soils to retain nutrients longer

12 Contains humus (humic substances) — assisting in soil aggregation and making nutrients more available for plant uptake

Turf Applications

The classic landscape construction project usually starts with an area of land that has been stripped of true (native) topsoil. Frequently, the general contractor sells off or improperly stores the topsoil from the construction site, rendering it unavailable or of questionable quality. The classic remedy for this situation has been to specify the importation of topsoil removed...

Arkansas Turfgrass – Arkansas Turfgrass Association

Burns Park Golf Course: Municipal Golf Course of the Year

Burns Park Golf Course is a 36-hole, full service, public facility located along the Arkansas River in North Little Rock Arkansas. As part of the 1700-acre Burns Park, the two golf courses encompass approximately 160 acres and are operated by the City of North Little Rock. The Championship Course was designed and built in 1958 and the Tournament Course was redesigned and opened in 1995. Burns Park offers two inexpensive, well maintained and challenging courses for the public.

In 2014, Dustin McNaughton was hired as the Golf Course Superintendent. In 2016, the mayor appointed a new Director of Parks and Recreation with the goal of making Burns Park Golf Course the best public course the State. With the new energy and fresh ideas, the courses have improved dramatically over the past 5–6 years.

Spring and early summer of 2019 proved to be a very trying time for many golf courses in the area and Burns Park was no exception. Extremely wet conditions and the prediction of the Arkansas River reaching flood stages altered plans for the golf course. Close monitoring of river conditions and anticipated record flooding put all City employees on Emergency Alert.

The course remained open and playable through Memorial Day (May 27th) but was forced to shut down completely at noon on June 1st as the flood waters crossed the road leading to the course. By the time the river crested, much of the course was under water, including 11 greens.

As soon as the water started to recede, and damage could be assessed, maintenance personnel began the task of cleaning up. Priority number one was to remove debris, sand and river silt from the greens that had been submerged.

As the sun dried the course, the final layers of silt were removed from the course by verti-cutting, heavy raking and brushing. The greens that had been under water were damaged and put on an aggressive fertilization schedule and within 30 days all but parts of two greens had made a full recovery.

In case the flooding wasn’t enough, in mid-June, with still wet conditions, heavy winds uprooted several huge trees and left debris throughout the course again.

Several golf courses in our area have recently closed, but with the knowledge and hard work of our Golf Course Superintendent and the hard work of a relatively small maintenance crew, Burns Park Golf Course is improving and thriving.

 

Cypress Creek Golf Club: Semi-Private Golf Course of the Year

Cypress Creek Golf Club is a public golf club that features Zoysia tees and fairways along with TifEagle Bermuda greens and 419 Bermuda rough. Utilizing five different sets of tee boxes for players of all skill sets and offering a variety of different membership options, Cypress Creek also welcomes the general public to come and play. While open year-round, we orchestrate several tournaments through the year while also investing in Junior golfers to attend different events during the season to spark their interest in the game. Target clientele ranges from young to old, members and nonmembers, families and children as well as couples. We arrange weekly scrambles and honor our veterans with tournaments throughout the year.

Amenities include our revamped fleet of Club Car golf carts equipped with state-of-the-art touchscreen GPS to enable the golfer to quantify yardages from tee to green and help gain the most precision out of their game. Staff includes a certified Club Professional on site, always able to troubleshoot and diagnose your swing with personal lessons. A transformed clubhouse offers everything from apparel, balls, bags, and gloves to food and a full-service bar. A friendly staff is found waiting and prepared to make sure you find everything you need. Their aim is to ensure the guest have the best experience possible.

Mississippi Turfgrass – Barry Stewart, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Sports Turf Science, Mississippi State University

Unlike most other crops, turfgrass soils are rarely exposed to tillage and therefore many turfgrass soils become compacted due to traffic. Our cultivation program is our best defense against soil compaction and the myriad of problems it can cause. In turfgrass, nearly everything we do — mowing, fertilizing, topdressing, rolling, playing games, etc. — happens on the horizontal plane. Turfgrass cultivation is one of the few things that happens on the vertical plane (I borrowed this from Dr. Trey Rogers at Michigan State). As we maintain and use turf soils, downward forces are applied and soil particles are pushed closer together. Soil pores, particularly macropores, are eliminated and the bulk density of the soil increases. If we think of an “ideal soil” we think of one that has 50% pore space and 50% solid space. When we consider that quartz is the dominant mineral in soils, then our ideal soil would have a bulk density of 1.33 g/cm3 given that the density of quartz is 2.65 g/cm3 (83 lbs/ft3). A bulk density range of 1.2 to 1.5 g/cm3 is a good working range for healthy turfgrass. Once bulk densities creep above 1.6 g/cm3 root growth begins to be affected and at bulk densities above 1.9 g/cm3 root growth nearly stops. Roots are not drills, they grow in the pore space, and compacted soils have less and less pore space, particularly macropore space and therefore limited root growth.

The second benefit of cultivation is the control of thatch and organic matter accumulation. In cultivation we break up the organic material accumulating at the turf surface. Sometimes the material is removed when we harvest the cores after aerifying or sweep up the clippings after we vertical mow or fraze mow. By keeping the rootzone in a favorable state of aeration, organic matter accumulation will be kept to a minimum as oxidation will proceed at its maximum rate. As organic matter accumulates and compaction happens, the rootzone is less well-aerated and organic matter decomposition slows down and organic matter accumulation increases. This leads to more moisture being held in the soil making it more vulnerable to compaction, and we begin on a downward spiral in which turf cover is lost. Topdressing is another tool in this battle with organic matter accumulation and will be the subject of a future article.

This article is written with warm season grasses in mind. The need for cultivation will vary with grass type and soil type. In general, native soils have a greater need for cultivation than sand-based soils. It is ironic that sand-based turf is more likely to receive cultivation than a native soil, but this is probably not surprising given the cost to establish and maintain grass on sand construction. Bermudagrass and zoysiagrass make up the vast majority of sport turf surfaces and require more cultivation. Some St. Augustine and centipede grass that receives traffic may also need occasional cultivation, but this should be done carefully. To ensure rapid recovery from any cultural practice mowing, make sure we have temperatures favorable for turf growth, 70 degree nights or 150 days with plenty of water available.

Core Cultivation / Hollow Tine Cultivation

Hollow tine cultivation is the cornerstone of any cultivation program. It should be a “showstopper” in that it should be a scheduled event. My mind’s picture of the benefit of core cultivation is that as our turfgrass soil becomes compacted, the elevation of our surface would decline. When we pull cores, we create a new large pore (the hole) and bring material back to the surface. As the cores are broken up and drug back into the holes not all of the material will fit into the holes and some will remain on the surface adding elevation to the surface. If the cores are collected and new material is top-dressed onto the site,

Arkansas Turfgrass – Barry Stewart, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Sports Turf Science, Mississippi State University

Unlike most other crops, turfgrass soils are rarely exposed to tillage and therefore many turfgrass soils become compacted due to traffic. Our cultivation program is our best defense against soil compaction and the myriad of problems it can cause. In turfgrass, nearly everything we do — mowing, fertilizing, topdressing, rolling, playing games, etc. — happens on the horizontal plane. Turfgrass cultivation is one of the few things that happens on the vertical plane (I borrowed this from Dr. Trey Rogers at Michigan State). As we maintain and use turf soils, downward forces are applied and soil particles are pushed closer together. Soil pores, particularly macropores, are eliminated and the bulk density of the soil increases. If we think of an “ideal soil” we think of one that has 50% pore space and 50% solid space. When we consider that quartz is the dominant mineral in soils, then our ideal soil would have a bulk density of 1.33 g/cm3 given that the density of quartz is 2.65 g/cm3 (83 lbs/ft3). A bulk density range of 1.2 to 1.5 g/cm3 is a good working range for healthy turfgrass. Once bulk densities creep above 1.6 g/cm3 root growth begins to be affected and at bulk densities above 1.9 g/cm3 root growth nearly stops. Roots are not drills, they grow in the pore space, and compacted soils have less and less pore space, particularly macropore space and therefore limited root growth.

The second benefit of cultivation is the control of thatch and organic matter accumulation. In cultivation we break up the organic material accumulating at the turf surface. Sometimes the material is removed when we harvest the cores after aerifying or sweep up the clippings after we vertical mow or fraze mow. By keeping the rootzone in a favorable state of aeration, organic matter accumulation will be kept to a minimum as oxidation will proceed at its maximum rate. As organic matter accumulates and compaction happens, the rootzone is less well-aerated and organic matter decomposition slows down and organic matter accumulation increases. This leads to more moisture being held in the soil making it more vulnerable to compaction, and we begin on a downward spiral in which turf cover is lost. Topdressing is another tool in this battle with organic matter accumulation and will be the subject of a future article.

This article is written with warm season grasses in mind. The need for cultivation will vary with grass type and soil type. In general, native soils have a greater need for cultivation than sand-based soils. It is ironic that sand-based turf is more likely to receive cultivation than a native soil, but this is probably not surprising given the cost to establish and maintain grass on sand construction. Bermudagrass and zoysiagrass make up the vast majority of sport turf surfaces and require more cultivation. Some St. Augustine and centipede grass that receives traffic may also need occasional cultivation, but this should be done carefully. To ensure rapid recovery from any cultural practice mowing, make sure we have temperatures favorable for turf growth, 70 degree nights or 150 days with plenty of water available.

Core Cultivation / Hollow Tine Cultivation

Hollow tine cultivation is the cornerstone of any cultivation program. It should be a “showstopper” in that it should be a scheduled event. My mind’s picture of the benefit of core cultivation is that as our turfgrass soil becomes compacted, the elevation of our surface would decline. When we pull cores, we create a new large pore (the hole) and bring material back to the surface. As the cores are broken up and drug back into the holes not all of the material will fit into the holes and some will remain on the surface adding elevation to the surface. If the cores are collected and new material is top-dressed onto the site,

North Carolina Turfgrass – Barry Stewart, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Sports Turf Science, Mississippi State University

Unlike most other crops, turfgrass soils are rarely exposed to tillage and therefore many turfgrass soils become compacted due to traffic. Our cultivation program is our best defense against soil compaction and the myriad of problems it can cause. In turfgrass, nearly everything we do — mowing, fertilizing, topdressing, rolling, playing games, etc. — happens on the horizontal plane. Turfgrass cultivation is one of the few things that happens on the vertical plane (I borrowed this from Dr. Trey Rogers at Michigan State). As we maintain and use turf soils, downward forces are applied and soil particles are pushed closer together. Soil pores, particularly macropores, are eliminated and the bulk density of the soil increases. If we think of an “ideal soil” we think of one that has 50% pore space and 50% solid space. When we consider that quartz is the dominant mineral in soils, then our ideal soil would have a bulk density of 1.33 g/cm3 given that the density of quartz is 2.65 g/cm3 (83 lbs/ft3). A bulk density range of 1.2 to 1.5 g/cm3 is a good working range for healthy turfgrass. Once bulk densities creep above 1.6 g/cm3 root growth begins to be affected and at bulk densities above 1.9 g/cm3 root growth nearly stops. Roots are not drills, they grow in the pore space, and compacted soils have less and less pore space, particularly macropore space and therefore limited root growth.

The second benefit of cultivation is the control of thatch and organic matter accumulation. In cultivation we break up the organic material accumulating at the turf surface. Sometimes the material is removed when we harvest the cores after aerifying or sweep up the clippings after we vertical mow or fraze mow. By keeping the rootzone in a favorable state of aeration, organic matter accumulation will be kept to a minimum as oxidation will proceed at its maximum rate. As organic matter accumulates and compaction happens, the rootzone is less well-aerated and organic matter decomposition slows down and organic matter accumulation increases. This leads to more moisture being held in the soil making it more vulnerable to compaction, and we begin on a downward spiral in which turf cover is lost. Topdressing is another tool in this battle with organic matter accumulation and will be the subject of a future article.

This article is written with warm season grasses in mind. The need for cultivation will vary with grass type and soil type. In general, native soils have a greater need for cultivation than sand-based soils. It is ironic that sand-based turf is more likely to receive cultivation than a native soil, but this is probably not surprising given the cost to establish and maintain grass on sand construction. Bermudagrass and zoysiagrass make up the vast majority of sport turf surfaces and require more cultivation. Some St. Augustine and centipede grass that receives traffic may also need occasional cultivation, but this should be done carefully. To ensure rapid recovery from any cultural practice mowing, make sure we have temperatures favorable for turf growth, 70 degree nights or 150 days with plenty of water available.

 

Core Cultivation / Hollow Tine Cultivation

Hollow tine cultivation is the cornerstone of any cultivation program. It should be a “showstopper” in that it should be a scheduled event. My mind’s picture of the benefit of core cultivation is that as our turfgrass soil becomes compacted, the elevation of our surface would decline. When we pull cores, we create a new large pore (the hole) and bring material back to the surface. As the cores are broken up and drug back into the holes not all of the material will fit into the holes and some will remain on the surface adding elevation to the surface. If the cores are collected and new material is top-dressed onto the site,