Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Fall Feed and Pre emerge

This is the time of year  in our region to apply nutrients to our turfgrass in order to prepare it for the upcoming winter months.  Turfgrass managers generally apply a good dose of Potassium to help the plant combat the upcoming cold temperatures and other stresses.  Potassium is Mother Nature's natural winterizer.  It maintains proper water pressure within plant cells while effectively lowering the freezing point within the cell.

Our fertilizer of choice for this fall is a 12-0-22.  If you remember from previous articles the first number in the analysis ratio represents the amount of nitrogen in the bag.. We applied a .5# of N/M  in a slow release form known as XCU to help provide color and moderate growth through October.  The last number represents the amount of potassium. If you can do the math you know that we applied a full pound/M over the golf course.  We chose a soluble form of KCl for 50% of our potassium and a polymer coated KCl product for the other 50% that will slowly release to the plant though out the fall.

What about that middle number?  The middle number represents the amount of phosphorous in the bag.  Phosphorous should not be applied unless soil tests indicate a deficiency.  Our soil test indicated that we only needed a .5# of phosphorous for this year and we applied this amount in another application earlier in the summer.

We will be applying a new pre emerge developed by Bayer.  The trade name for this product is Specticle and the active ingredient is indaziflam.  This product has shown superior control of annual bluegrass and many winter broadleaf weeds.  If the product performs as advertised the golf course should be weed free this upcoming spring resulting in fewer chemicals being used to control weeds during our spring transition.

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