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Low Input Turf Management

The Scandinavian Turfgrass and Environment Research Foundation (STERF ) invited greenkeepers, turf grass agronomists, consultants and all others to probably the most interesting turf grass seminar this year. Researchers from US, UK, Norway and Denmark presented the latest from fine fescue research, and experienced greenkeepers from Ireland, France, Sweden, Scotland and Denmark revealed their thoughts and experiences with fescue.

The group visited Elisefarm Golf Club, established in 2005. It was the first golf course to bring back fescue to Sweden in recent times, situated in Höör, just north of Malmö. After that the group visited the more than one hundred year old Copenhagen Golf Club, resided just north of the capital of Denmark in the wonderful open, mature woodland with hundreds of deer walking about the course.
Day two was a presentations and discussions day at the University of Copenhagen.

More information about the outcomes of the event here.

The importance of microbes to us

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.

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mychorrizae

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

mychorrizae

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