Golfdom, January 2012

E F F E C T S O F O R G A N I C S organic and biologically amended fertilizers on two golf courses It also provided background information for the Willow Creek Country Club in Sandy UT used exclusively for this part of the experiment Three organic fertilizers and three biologically amended soil inoculants that contain nutrients were applied to a fairway for two years and evaluated against three synthetic fertilizers The organic fertilizers consisted of Milorganite 6 2 0 classic Milorganite Milwaukee WI Sustane 5 2 4 Sustane Natural Fertilizers Cannon Falls MN and PTS1 an experimental material whose analysis and company are confidential Biologically amended materials included Growth XL 16 4 8 3 Tier Technologies Orlando FL Turf Pro liquid 05 02 0 and Turf Pro dry 18 0 01 Organic Products Groveland FL The synthetic fertilizers were Andersons 33 0 0 material Andersons Golf Products Maumee OH and Utahs Finest brand 23 3 16 and 20 4 20 materials Great Basin Turf Layton UT Programs for applying the organic and biologically amended fertilizers were based on manufacturers recommendations 34 TURFGRASS TRENDS January 2012 www turfgrasstrends com to control snow mold Synthetic fertilizers were applied at the same rate of nitrogen N to normalize the treatments but differences in other nutrients occurred Granular fertilizers were applied by hand while liquid treatments were foliar applied with a pressurized backpack sprayer Turfgrass quality was assessed each month on a 1 to 9 visual scale with 9 being best 6 lowest acceptable and 1 worst quality Turfgrass color was also measured each month using a chlorophyll meter that estimated the chlorophyll content in the leaves on a 0 to 999 index scale with higher numbers equaling darker green plots Greenup was also evaluated each spring on a 1 to 9 visual scale with 9 having the darkest green turf Turfgrass quality All organic and biologically amended treatments provided acceptable turf quality from June to October in 2009 and most had acceptable quality from April to October in 2010 That was not statistically different from the synthetic control Turf Pro treated plots had significantly higher quality in April 2010 while Growth XL and PTS1 organic Continued from page 33 Effect of fertilizers on chlorophyll content of perennial ryegrass creeping bentgrass fairway turf in 2009 and 2010 Error bars indicate standard deviation of the mean n 3 FIGURE 1 FERTILIZER IMPACT ON CHLOROPHYLL CONTENT