Soil Lab Test Results for our Greens
If you’ve played at Burstwick recently you will have seen that a few of the greens are struggling with a losing battle against Fusarium Patch and Anthracnose - these are two turf diseases which massively affect the look and playability of greens in a negative way.
These two diseases have been coming back every year and being honest - it’s getting worse, and we know it.
What the heck are we going to do about it?
Well in the last couple of years, we’ve been applying more wetting agent to reduce stress in the summer months and aid root growth but the turf on our greens is still very unhappy. To help us work out why, we have had a soil nutrition analysis performed on our greens back in July, and this week we have received the results which provide a detailed look at all the nutrients and micro nutrients within the soil. This will help us form a plan moving forward to address the balance and get back some happy grass on the greens.
Why didn’t we do this before?
Being completely transparent, we have had to work with very tight operating budgets in the past so we have had to be very careful with what we could and couldn’t spend on the golf course. Since lockdown we have seen a rise in membership and visitors, so we are now able to substantially increase these budgets which gives us far more flexibility for our greens treatment.
So what does the report say?
The report is quite complex and shows a number of areas for improvement within the soil profile of our greens - mainly the top 20-40mm of the greens. The top and bottom of it is our greens are not strong and healthy at the moment, so are very susceptible to becoming infected with these terrible diseases. And here are the main reasons why:
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The thatch layer in our greens is very tight-knitted (because we have fescue grass) meaning that there is very little pore space for oxygen. We also have a too higher Carbon:Nitrogen ratio which translates to increased fibrous mass tension (that tightness of the thatch layer). Whilst we have done good work in the past with coring ou greens, we need to introduce more variation of methods such as scarifying, verticutting and spiking. This will help open up the pore space within the soil and help the natural break down of organic matter.
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Our greens are not able to use the fertiliser we are giving them effectively, and a large portion of it is just going through the rootzone and into the drainage unused, which means the plant is much weaker than it should be. This is due to inefficiencies in magnesium, potassium and calcium, and an imbalance in pH.
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Microbial action is very low in the top 20-40mm of our surfaces which increases root mass of the plant and helps break down organic matter due to excess carbon dioxide and iron.
We never knew any of these complexities until we had these lab tests performed.
What are the remedies for these issues?
The good news is that while there looks to be a lot of issues, on the face of it, a structured plan can simply solve all of these problems. We have created a plan which, over the next twelve months (and beyond) will involve a lot of investment which we are now able to do and see the benefits from. This plan includes:
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Purchasing the Quad Drop Water Treatment System to balance the pH and bicarbonate of our irrigation water to release natural calcium and magnesium in the soil, increase uptake of Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potassium in the root, and open up pore spaces in the top layer of the rootzone to aid drainage
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Purchasing a greens scarifier to use 2-3 times a year to rip organic matter out of the surface
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Purchasing a towed spiker to be able to spike the greens every few weeks between March and November
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Purchasing a topdressing machine so that we can apply light amounts of sand when we have scarified and aerated
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Hiring / purchasing a Seed n’ Fill machine to better spread topdressing into the surface after coring, so that much less sand is left sitting on the surface
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Using our verticutter more aggressively (at a lower height) to create pourus space in the surface
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Applying 5-8 applications of biostimulants and micro nutrients to increase microbial action and breakdown of organic matter, as well as improve drainage in the top layer of rootzone
What you can expect to see in the future
Unfortunately none of this is an overnight fix, but with the help of a greens consultant who came to the club last week and the soil testing company we have a plan for the next 12 months which should start to see big improvements in the health of the greens, so they are not just good for a few summer months, but back to being consistent throughout the year due to being more resistant to disease. We are prepared to invest a lot of money, time and effort into getting the greens back to where they should be by implementing this plan, and we intend to keep our members continually informed along the way.