One of my goals this year was to introduce some organic fertilizers and compost into our maintenance regime. We were able to achieve the first part of this goal by spreading an organic fertilizer at a rate of about a half pound of nitrogen after our spring fairway and tee aerifications. We used a couple different brands mainly to experiment with the smell and both brands had a pretty mild oder. From what I can tell, the more you pay for the organic fertilizer the less it seems to smell. This is definitely something we will continue to use and experiment with as a way to feed our turf as well as the soil. We will be experimenting on the range this next week with a different brand that could have a little stronger aroma.
This past week we were able to achieve the second part of our organic goal by using some compost on the course. After doing some research and finally finding a good supplier, we had about 25 tons of compost delivered to the course. We will begin this year by spreading this load of compost out on some of our high traffic areas as well as areas that tend to dry out a little sooner than others. Compost serves many purposes on the course and our hope is that it will help us keep a higher quality turf grass without a bunch of synthetic amendments. Compost can help build better soil structure as well as help with moisture retention thus potentially needing less fertilizer and less water. Right now we are spreading it with our two greens top dressers and hope to either purchase or borrow a larger fairway top dresser as we try to incorporate more compost on a larger scale.
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| Compost ready to go out on the course |
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| A handful of goodness! |
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| Tom taking another load out to the course. |
- Posted by Austin Daniells, Golf Course Superintendent
