Turf Feeding Systems and Efficient Irrigation

Sustainable Soil Engine

The future of agriculture and all areas of agronomy are to bring nature back into the process of growing and managing plants. Just like the medical industry is promoting a healthy body, making it more resistant to disease, healthy soil is an important foundation for a healthy plant.

For example, sustainable soils are the foundation for a sustainable golf course on any landscape. The health of the soil is the most important factor for healthy plants and is an efficient management program for any golf course. Many superintendents and agronomists do soil tests to determine what the soil has and what must be added, but few test the soil’s health with a bioassay. This will evaluate the biology and biodiversity of the soil, as well as determining any possible pathogens.

Soil Creation
The story of Hawaii is a great example of how soil biology creates rich soil.

Over 50 million years ago, volcanoes emerged from the Pacific Ocean and became the Hawaiian Islands. The islands emerged from the ocean were nothing but sulfurous volcanic rock sterile with nothing growing. Winds carried dust with bacteria and birds landed and left manure droppings and inoculated the rock with biology. Then, weather, rain, and biology eroded and decomposed the rock, slowly creating gravel and sand. And then, birds deposited seeds and the cycle of life was started.

The cycle of life is simple, basic, and fundamental to our life. Plants grow, the plants produce leaves and fruit or seeds, which drop to the ground and are decomposed and rot, to be converted into humus and nutrients to be taken up by the roots to feed the plant. This natural cycle is the agronomic engine that feeds plants all over our planet, and it depends on healthy soil biology.

After millions of years, the decomposition of plant material by soil biology in the soil, combined with rich volcanic minerals, Hawaii has very fertile rich soils. All of this was created by soil biology and the cycle of life.

Black Rich Soils of the World
Some of the best soils in the world are in Middle America and Siberia, where grasslands would grow each year and leave roots in the soil to decompose into carbon and organic humus particles. After millions of years this would create black rich soils that would produce great crop yields with no fertilization. These regions were the breadbaskets for the world with their rich black soil.

Rich soil can be created the same way on the golf course by building the soil health. As the soil health and the soil biology increase, the decomposition of organic material will be converted into organic humus. Now we can do it much faster by adding special biotic stimulants to the soil.

Grass will turnover their roots every two or three years by growing new roots, and the soil will have thousands of kilos of dead roots waiting to decompose. With the soil rich with biodiverse biology, the dead roots and other organic matter will be converted into organic humus particles.

Nutrient Efficiency
As the soil health increases, the soil becomes more nutrient efficient and needs less inputs, like fertilizer and water. Organic humus particles are great storage areas or sponges in soil and will attract, hold, and release water and nutrients 10 times more than clay particles. The soil will become a very efficient biologic engine and increase the efficiency of any mineral/synthetic fertilizer that is applied.

Healthier soil biology will also release nutrients like phosphorus and other minor nutrients such as iron and boron, which are in the soil but tied up and not available. These nutrients are free and only need to be released for the plant to use.

Bicarbonate and Sodium Issues
Soil pH is always a big question, and if the pH is high, nutrients will not be available to the grass and will be wasted. Many golf courses have very high pH soils because of high bicarbonates in the water or soil and look to applying sulfur or gypsum as a solution, but building the soil health will buffer the soil pH as well.

Sodium is one of the biggest limiting factors on golf courses near an ocean coast or having poor-quality water quality from wells. Sodium can build up in the soil, by cation linkage to clay particles, and soon become toxic to the plant. It cannot be flushed by rain, and the more it is irrigated, the more damage is done. The grass is poisoned by Sodium. It is like irrigating with seawater.

Feeding the soil through the irrigation with organic additives like humic acid and other organic enzymes has been used with great success on many golf courses to treat sodium issues as well as high pH. This program should become a continuing program of first treatment, and then maintenance.

Soil Maintenance
A soil nutrient maintenance program is as important as the turfgrass nutrient maintenance. You should feed the soil so the soil will then feed the plant. This symbiotic relationship has been researched and is finally starting to be understood.

The plant tells the biology what it needs, and the biology makes it available to the plant. You may not believe it, but that is what has been done in nature for millions of years. Whether it is a jungle, desert, a grass area, or any native area not touched by humans, the plants are fed by this symbiotic relationship between soil biology and the plants and trees. No one feeds the plants in nature; it is done by the relationship between biology and plants. And this natural way is doing a better job than we are.

Roots and Soil Health
Roots are the storage zone for water and nutrients for the plant and are a very important factor for the efficiency of the plant. The healthier the soil, it will build a deeper and denser root system and create a more efficient plant. Good root systems and soil health are two great values for sustainable golf course maintenance and they work together. This combined value is the factor for water reduction, which can be reduced up to 30% in some cases, while producing higher turfgrass quality.

Chemical Reduction
A healthy soil with ProBiotic biology will overpower the pathogen disease biology and reduce the use of chemicals. A healthier plant in healthy soil will not be stressed, not in succulent growth, and will have thicker cell walls, which are all factors to be more disease resistant It will not eliminate chemicals, but it can reduce the use to a lower level, which is another great area of savings.

The soil of most golf courses today is sterile, and they want to keep it that way to reduce the disease. But when soil health is brought back to life and propagated with beneficial biology, an efficient biological engine is added to your agronomic program. This is what is taking place in the native areas around your golf course.

New Engine
The Biological Engine will create more roots, increase nutrient efficiency, increase overall quality, and reduce costs. But, more importantly, you will be bringing nature into your management practice.