Turf

Fall 2014 23 Whether you're growing bentgrass, Poa annua, or Bermuda, golf course superintendents are finding the science is now in, and the results are remarkable. Allen Etheridge, a major nursery owner in Georgia, made one change with his Leyland Cypress trees and numerous other landscape plants and reports success in rooting cuttings has vaulted from 55 percent to 75 percent and has now reached 92 percent. "I can produce up to three years of production cycles in a calendar year, and the plants are healthier in each cycle," said Gerald Garrison, a major grower of vegetables and herbs for the Hawaiian Islands. What these and other plant and turf growers have discovered is something best described by German researcher Justus Von Liebig in the 1840s in a theory known as Liebig's Law of Minimum. The law essentially states that a plant's growth is limited by the lowest level of every essential element. In other words, high levels of many nutrients are wasted when any essen- tial element is missing or supplied at a proportionately lower level. Lacking any essential mineral, no matter how seemingly insignificant, will affect the overall growth and health of the plant. As such, both Etheridge and Garrison have rejected the more com- mon N-P-K (nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium) fertilizers for more com- plete, balanced sources that provide every essential micro and macronutri- ent a plant requires in solution. Add in a soluble silicon supplement and their plants are thriving, growing stronger and faster than before. Complete Nutrition vs. NPK For golf course superintendents, there are so many plant and turf growth supplements on the market it can leave their heads spinning. Most typical fertilizers on the market today are based on some variation of the N-P-K formula. However, plants and grass require a total of 6 macronutrients, which in addi- tion to N-P-K consist of calcium (Ca), sulfur (S) and magnesium (Mg) and 10 micronutrients, which include boron (B), chlorine (Cl), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), molybde- num (Mo), nickel (Ni), Cobalt (Co), and sodium (Na). Plants require higher lev- els of calcium than phosphorus. When growing grass in soil, there may be trace amounts of some, or all, of these 16 macro and micronutrients. However, over time soils become increasingly depleted of many of these elements. Adding an N-P-K formulation, per the aforementioned Liebig's Law of Minimum, is only effective in relation to the presence of the remaining essen- tial nutrients. The difficulty in finding a complete nutrition formula has been solving the riddle of how to keep several of the macronutrients—notably calcium, sul- fur and magnesium—in solution. When combining calcium and sulfur, for example, in a concentrated solution they precipitate out as calcium sulfate. Calcium sulfate is an industrial chemi- cal used as a coagulant and desiccant, and occurs naturally as gypsum. There are several calcium-magne- sium and magnesium-sulfur powder supplements on the market, but these take more time to measure, mix and add to nutrient programs. Moreover, they require separate applications to prevent precipitation. In addition to complete nutrition, silicon (Si) supplements are now being recognized as an essential element for optimum plant growth and health. The benefits of silicon include great- er tolerance of environmental stresses such as cold, heat, drought, salinity, mineral toxicity or deficiency, and pro- vide improved growth rates, increased fertility, and improved resistance to insects and fungi. Winning Formula for Growers Even in Paradise, Garrison of Green Applied Sciences sees negative impacts from the environment. Too much moisture, overly intense sunlight, soils stripped of nutrients and invasions of tropical bugs and bacteria. Garrison produces immense vol- umes of vegetables and herbs for the Hawaiian market using every type of soil and soil-less medium involving large outdoor and indoor locations. For Garrison, complete nutrition, including soluble silicon, has helped him reduce the amount of bench time required to grow his products. He said he regularly experiences multiple "growing years" within each calendar year as a result. "Much higher yields, increased growth rates and overall healthier plants come from optimizing plant nutrition and bolstering natural protec- tion plants need to guard from every- thing the Earth and sky can throw at them," Garrison said. The products that Garrison uses are from Richmond, Calif.-based Dyna-Gro Nutrition Solutions. In a process considered a trade secret, Dyna-Gro is the only company to date that has developed a process capable of keeping all 16 nutrients in solution. The product, Foliage Pro, can be used in combination with a potassi- um-silicon supplement Pro-TeKt. The products work so well that Garrison said he intentionally purchases "the skimpiest plants and the smallest cuttings because I know that in a matter of days they will come back more robust than the best plants in that same lot." Visit www.dyna-gro.com. WT INDUSTRY REPORT Dyna-Gro combines all 16 nutrients Complete Nutrition Leads to Winning Turf Formula

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