Golfdom, September 2012

The hard sell The benefits of fertigation are you get spoon feeding so you dont get an excess or flush of growth You spoon feed all the time which is much healthier for the plant overall rather than putting down a large amount of fertilizer that may be more than the plant can use at one time King says You get fertilizer applied where you get water applied he continues So if you have accurate application of your water you also have application of your fertilizer You can also inject multiple products simultaneously with some fertilizer injection systems In fact superintendents can inject a mix of wetting agents biologicals fertilizer and acids through fertigation You can buffer your salts and bicarbonate in the water through injection King says Injection is often referred to as fertigation but sometimes its just simply injection Its not necessarily a fertilizer Sometimes you can inject an acid There are safe acids that can be injected through the irrigation system to help you with water quality issues Jeff Langner is a brand manager for THE BENEFITS OF FERTIGATION ARE YOU GET SPOON FEEDING SO YOU DONT GET AN EXCESS OR FLUSH OF GROWTH YOU SPOON FEED ALL THE TIME WHICH IS MUCH HEALTHIER FOR THE PLANT OVERALL RATHER THAN PUTTING DOWN A LARGE AMOUNT OF FERTILIZER THAT MAY BE MORE THAN THE PLANT CAN USE AT ONE TIME JOHN KING Ewing irrigation Profile Products based in Chicago He says his company makes a product called Aqua pHix a buffered chelated acid that can be injected into the irrigation system through fertigation to help balance pH in the soil and improve water quality King adds that reduced labor costs are another benefit of fertigation There are labor savings that you realize with fertigation or injection because youre not having to put a person out on a tractor with someone else loading them King says Hicks agrees Theres a huge cost savings on labor he says We do not get the rapid growth wed get with a granular Its a more steady slow growth he says Nothings perfect But fertigation may not be the right choice for every golf course As effective as it is it does present challenges Not everybody has a good enough irrigation system to inject Hicks says When I say a good enough irrigation system Im talking about distribution uniformity If your system is not efficient if it doesnt have good distribution uniformity then your fertilizer application through injection is going to be off target or uneven Your injection will only be as good as your system is thats for sure At Rustic Canyon Hicks says one of the challenges he faces by fertilizing through fertigation is that he cant control where it doesnt go When he irrigates whatever is being pumped out through the irrigation system goes everywhere including to greens tees and fairways Hicks says some of his fellow superintendents tell him theyre hesitant to fertigate because they cant isolate their greens from the fertigation process When Im fertigating I dont have a separate system I would have to put out 300000 to 400000 gallons of water to get the fertilizer out of my lines Hicks says But the inability to isolate the application is not enough to deter him from fertigation The way I look at it most of the fertigation applications are very minimal Hicks says I just lower the rates on my foliar applications on the greens We do soil sampling and tissue testing Its a constant monitoring King offers another word of caution Things can go wrong Its often an unmonitored process while its taking place Its happening at night when youre irrigating your golf course You could blow a line on your injection system inside the pump station and end up with a pump room full of fertilizer on the floor he continues That happened to me more than once Spoon Fed Continued from page 23 Cover and Protect Bridges with BridgeRunners Eliminate costly maintenance or repair or resurface damaged areas Excellent dry and wet traction Genuine rubber in 3 4 or 6 widths in lengths up to 16 with optional interlocking tabs for longer installations Linear Rubber Products 1 800 558 4040 www rubber mats com Warehouse Direct Pricing BridgeRunners Landscape Pavers Locker Room Flooring 24 Golfdom September 2012 PHOTOS COURTESY Ewing iRRigaTiOn TURf fEEding SYSTEmS