Microbes are hugely important in bowling green maintenance, but did you know how important they are to human existence? In this talk Rob Knight explains the findings of his recent research which show just how important microbes are to humans. Mostly nothing to do with greenkeeping, but a lot of interesting parallels with the discussions we have here on bowling green eco-systems.
The importance of fungi in bowling greens
Mycorrhizal fungi are of huge importance to the health and well being of your bowling green. In previous articles I have described the symbiotic relationships that grass plants form with fungi in the soil. These relationships are vital to the grass plant's ability to absorb enough nutrients from the soil. This post links to an excellent BBC documentary that explores this subject.
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Guest Post-Ultragrooming
Today we have a guest post from Vinny Tarbox of The Grass Group on the subject of Ultragrooming. Over to Vinny:
Why you can’t afford not to be Ultragrooming your Bowling Green
The question of Ultragrooming is becoming much more of a hot topic with the ever increasing need for consistent play, be more environmentally friendly, whilst also high quality and also to trim costs where possible.
Ultragrooming is a process that removes the puffiness and thatch from your green. With regular use it is the pre-eminent solution to help minimize puffiness in both high density creeping bent and Bermuda (warm season areas) grass thereby reducing the scalping and foot-printing that plagues these new grasses. It will remove unsightly seed heads in Poa annua turf with minimal fuss. On newly established greens it can help reduce the ingress of Poa annua by “grabbing” individual Poa plants before they get a chance to take hold. It will produce a superior fine leafed Poa turf stand when used
regularly on Poa dominant greens.
The Advanced Read more
Mycorrhizal Fungi; an argument against fungicides.
Today I want to get a little bit deeper into the science of bowling green ecology, but I’m getting a little tired of the Ecology title sequence I stupidly started 9 articles ago. Instead of continuing to label them Ecology 1,2,3…etc, I will give them a tag of their own so that if you’re looking for them on the site you just need to type ecology into the search box.
Mycorrhizal Fungi (mycorrhizae) are specialised fungi that work with our grass plants to form symbiotic relationships with the roots. Most soils contain these fungi and each type has its own peculiar host preference. (i.e., each plant species has a specific species of mycorrhizae that it prefers to work with).
The name comes from the Latin word mycor meaning fungus and rhiza meaning root. “Mycorrhiza” is the singular form and “mycorrhizae” the plural and, in soil science the name refers to the tissue that forms when fungi and roots develop a symbiotic (mutually beneficial) relationship.
One of the key benefits to our grass Read more