Soils Testing

ARE YOU COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR TURF?

By: Mark Mencin, Golf Enviro Systems, Inc.

We all know the need to be more effective in communicating in the work place, at home, and in every day life. But how well do you communicate with your TURF, or more importantly, the soils in which we are expected to grow turf? When was the last time you looked beneath the surface of the turf and paid attention to what your soil was telling you? Okay, so you pulled a few soil samples 3 or 4 years ago and everything seemed fine. Or maybe you had some problem areas last year and couldn’t figure out what was going on and decided to pull a soil test. Sound familiar?

Having just taken a complete physical exam (the first one in about 10-12 years at least) made me start thinking about the fact that as we sometimes ignore what is going on within ourselves, we also tend to ignore or put off what is going on with our soils.

So, as Spring is rapidly approaching, it is time to remind everyone about the necessity and benefits of soil testing. Basic to our physical well being, we need an occasional physical and this also applies to soil.

Here are a few questions you might want to ask yourself:

1. How successful is my fertilizer program?

2. Is my program based on development or convenience, price, ease, etc?

3. When was the last time your soils were tested?

4. Are you tracking history, nutrient balances, and sulfur levels? Are they increasing from the types of fertilizers being applied?

5. Are you doing extensive testing or just the minimum? An extensive soil test would include a standard test using mild acids to extract nutrients from the soil colloids and this would tell us what nutrients are there.

Also included would be a saturated paste test (does not need to be done on all samples, but should be done on at least two samples). Distilled water is used to extract the nutrients, which gives us a better idea of what is available to the plant. These two tests should be combined with a water analysis, particularly if effluent waters are being used. Remember that water is the single largest input applied to turf, and after a period of time, soils will take on the characteristics of the water being applied.

6. Are your samples random or have you developed a program?

An idea for a sampling program for a given year might be to test:

 6 greens

 3 tees

 3 fairways - Per year at the very minimum.

The next year, repeat the tests as follows:

 2 of the original greens

 Add 4 new greens

 Repeat 1 original tee & 1 original fairway

 Add 2 new tees & 2 new fairways

You can develop your own program as budget allows, but have a program and track the results, and compare past results or tests to the new ones. Are there any changes? If so, what is causing these changes?

Soil analysis plays a vital part in tracking your soil nutrient levels.

A few of the many things it might tell us are:

-deficiencies or excesses -nutrient balance

-a measure of PH -base saturation

-cation exchange capacity (CEC) -organic matter % (OM)

-a measure of soluble salts -sodium %

-available P & K

All of these factors, and more, are necessary to developing a successful fertilizer plan or program.

Why wait until problems develop before you try to figure them out? Develop a plan or program based on your testing. Monitor soil nutrient levels; know where they are and where they need to be. Pay attention to what your soils are telling you. You might be surprised and it just might make your life a little easier!

Site last updated: 01/17/2008