With less than two months to the start of the 2019 season, our green has been given the thumbs up by experts from Symbio, the soil and plant health company, who provide our compost tea (a highly concentrated microbial solution that helps improve soil structure) and other treatments. They also provide annual soil analysis.
Our green shows little sign of any disease and the only shortage is calcium, needed to develop plant growth and protect plant cells from toxins. This will be rectified with a granular feed in the next few weeks.
Root growth is particularly encouraging with grass roots reaching down below eight inches as shown in the picture.
Neil Robinson, one of Symbio’s technical sales manager, noted that our green had recovered well from last year’s challenging conditions of late snow in March, a deluge in May and a long, hot drought in June and July.
The new grass seed (an 80/20 mix of fescue and bent) applied last autumn is taking well and should help improve green speed once well established.
Rob Archer and his team of greenkeepers have been working throughout the winter when weather permitted Sorrel rolling (spiking) the green to help get more oxygen into the turf and cutting when required. This work will accelerate in the coming weeks with the forecast of milder conditions.
Symbio took more samples when they visited the club in early February and have produced a programme of treatment for the spring and summer months.
One interesting fact from February’s visit is that we have a lot of iron locked into our soil (you can just about see a little red tinge in line with Neil Robinson’s little and middle fingers).
Iron helps ‘green up’ the grass and also hardens it against wear. This iron should be released from the soil with the correct treatment in spring and early summer.
