Effective Water Management

By Ken Quandt, Regional Sales Manager

Increasingly, we are seeing water restrictions being put into place throughout the country. Some of them are temporary and localized, but many others are of longer duration and spread over a wide geographic area. These water restrictions can be a big problem for golf courses that require copious amounts of water to keep their fairways, greens and tees in the lush condition that the playing public has come to expect. Low cutting heights, heavy traffic and high salt content fertilizers all combine to make the situation even worse. In addition, many new golf courses have been built on areas that were deemed unsuitable for either farming or the construction of buildings. The soils in these areas are usually either hard clays or extremely porous sand and gravel. In either case, extensive irrigation or fertilization is usually required to produce a decent turf.

The use of Nature Safe fertilizer on a regular basis can help with these problems in several ways:

· The most obvious way is to reduce the salt content of the soil. Most synthetic fertilizers contain a high level of soluble salts. These salts tend to increase the plant’s need for water just like eating salty pretzels or peanuts increases your desire for your favorite liquid refreshment. Nature Safe contains very low levels of salts, so the plant can subsist on less water.

· Nature Safe promotes a much deeper and more fibrous root system on the plant because it contains lots of chelated calcium and phosphorus that is derived from cooked bone meal. These two elements promote root depth and root mass, which in turn, allow the plant to make better use of the moisture that is available.

· Nature Safe promotes beneficial soil microbes that compete with many pathogens that normally weaken and restrict turf roots. This helps to add to the root mass and allows the plant to make the best use of the water available.

· Nature Safe feeds the soil microbes that flocculate the soil and give it a granular structure rather than an adobe brick structure. The better soil structure promotes better and deeper rooting.

· Healthier roots tend to produce a thicker, denser turf that shade and insulate the soil better, keeping the soil cooler. Roots growing in the cooler soils tend to use less water.

· Localized dry spots tend not to be a problem when Nature Safe is used regularly because it promotes the soil microbes that compete with the organisms that cause localized dry spot. Therefore, less water is used in the efforts to get these spots as wet as they should be.

There is no one thing that Nature Safe does to help you effectively manage an irrigation program. All of the factors above are intertwined. When one factor improves, it helps the whole ecosystem improve; but if one factor takes a turn for the worse, it has a negative impact on the whole ecosystem. That is why turf keeps getting better the longer it is fertilized regularly with Nature Safe. As acceptable quality irrigation water becomes more scarce and expensive, Nature Safe, more than ever will be the product of choice.