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Philosophy and Fertilization
October 1, 2009 By: Anthony Pioppi GolfdomSuperintendents put a lot of thinking into their fertility programs
THERE ARE MANY VARIABLES that determine the fertilization methods of a golf course superintendent — from soil type, to the demands of members and owners, to water quality.
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Knowing the particular situation is key to feeding turf in a way that keeps the plants and players happy. To ensure their fertilizers are being utilized as best as they can, many superintendents are taking care to take care of their soil, as well.
Like Kevin Smith, for instance, whose task at Bryan Park Golf & Conference Center in Greensboro, N.C., is not easy. The certified superintendent oversees two 18-hole courses at the municipally owned facility and is also the head agronomist for the management company, Pinnacle Golf Properties, which runs Bryan Park. Smith has a mishmash of greens on the two courses with which he must deal. The George Cobb-designed Players Course opened in 1971, and the Rees Jones-designed Champions Course opened in 1991. A portion of the Players Course was used for the Champions layout. In the late 1990s, the greens of the Champions course were regrassed with L-93. In 2005, the Players course greens underwent a major renovation as the turf was stripped away and straight sand was tilled into the profile that was then seeded with a mix of Penn A-1 and Penn A-4 bentgrass from Tee-2-Green.
"We subscribe to soil management, and turf feeding is a real close second," Smith says, with the goal to produce "the most durable, healthy turf we can achieve."
Greensboro, with its heat and humidity, is not the ideal area for turf other than bermudagrass.
"We're in an intense bentgrass environment here," Smith says.
On the Players Course, where the root zone on the young greens is 100 percent sand, Smith's focus is to foster organic activity through such methods as tank mixing a molasses-based product to "promote healthy microbial activity."
Confounding matters for Smith is the water at Bryan Park is pure (in his words), meaning it contains virtually no minerals, and he can end up stripping nutrients from the soil as a result during heavy irrigation. Because of that, Smith keeps a sharp eye on the potassium levels in his soil.
According to Smith, in his 20-plus years as a superintendent, one of the biggest changes he has seen is in the quality of foliar fertilizers.
"They have the ability to get into the plant in a very effective manner," he says.
As for how he's changed, according to Smith, he's not as easy to jump at what's new.
"I'm less susceptible to the flavor of the month," Smith says.
Fertilizing for fast greens
At Lazy Swan Golf and Country Club Village, a nine-hole public golf course designed by architect Barry Jordan that opened in 2008, Pete Sermini has tended to the turf since he arrived with about three months remaining in the grow-in process. His greens are a combination of A-1 and A-4 while the tees and fairways are T-1 creeping bentgrass from Jacklin Seed.
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"It's an extremely aggressive grass; the divots heal quickly," Sermini says, adding that T-1 requires a lot of maintenance and aeration.
Sermini says he manages his greens for speed and has them Stimping more than 10 feet daily. To do that, he walk mows them daily and rolls them three times a week. He also has a defined fertilizer plan.
"Fifteen years ago, we'd put down 1 pound of nitrogen per year. In those days, if you wanted fast greens, you didn't feed them," says Sermini, who adds the program also led to problems with anthracnose and moss.
Now his fertilizer applications are more frequent and lighter.
Sermini also applies an organic blend of humic and amino acids as well as a kelp-based product to help build up organic levels in his all-sand greens.
On the fairways, Sermini uses about 3.5 pounds of nitrogen over the course of the season and a little iron as well. He also applies plant growth regulators. He ups his application to 5 pounds on tees.
"I really have the tees jumping; I want them healing," Sermini says. "I do get surges in growth, but the growth regulators help."
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