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Author: John

Master Greenkeeper John Quinn is the author of Performance Bowling Greens, and several other titles on Greenkeeping, Club and Business Management.

Autumn renovation time

Climate Challenges for Greenkeepers 2. Fixing your green with a proven NotDressing Programme

There comes a point in every long-running problem where the evidence becomes too obvious to ignore. For many of the bowling clubs that get in touch to ask about solving green performance problems, I think they are now at that point with sand.

After another summer of heat, dry patch, weak turf, hydrophobic soil, disease pressure, uneven surfaces, irrigation panic and increasing renovation costs, the question can no longer be: “What top dressing are we putting on this autumn?”

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pH scale

Fixing low pH without Lime

As standard soil analysis offerings are generally obsessed with chemistry, a very low pH is often interpreted as a chemical imbalance, which, of course, it is. The question of why those acid cations are dominant on the soil colloid, remains unaddressed in most cases. Instead it seems that many advisers are jumping straight to the temporary, artificial correction advice to add lime, and as we have seen, for fine turf, that can be dangerous advice.

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