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NEWS ARTICLES

Headland Bring Greens Back To Life

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Headland Bring Greens Back To Life: Over the autumn and winter of 2016/17, Basingstoke’s Test Valley Golf Club was hit with a serious Fusarium attack which left their greens weakened and scar damaged. Course Manager Dave Ross turned to Alex Hawkes of Headland Amenity to help with the creation of a recovery programme – applied it at the right time to maximise the results by using the Headland WeatherCheck service.

“Looking back at it now, the greens didn’t go into the period as strong as they should have been, leaving them vulnerable to disease” explains Dave, who heads up a team of 4 greenkeepers. “It was clear the damage from the Fusarium attack was extensive so I asked Alex for advice to put together a recovery plan, to try and give the greens a kick start into spring.” Alex recommended C-Complex 5-2-10, an organic mineral fertiliser capable of working in low temperatures making it an ideal spring starter.

Headland Bring Greens Back To Life

Alex explains, “I told Dave how C-Complex could provide a burst of early growth, which could help to grow the disease scars back in. However, to give it the best chance, I consulted the WeatherCheck service to find the optimum window of opportunity. As this was February, I was not overly hopeful however I could see there was an uplift in ‘Growth Potential’ imminent so we organised a next day delivery of the product for Dave to apply – the products performance, coupled with the window of increased soil temperatures, delivered amazing results and gave the greens the kick start they needed moving into the main playing season.”

“It was a new product to us” says Dave, “but it did exactly what Alex said it would.” Following this, between April and September they’ve had success on the greens with a programme of Seamac Ultra Plus, C-Complex and TeMag Elite. “We’ve also kept an eye on the ‘Evapotranspiration’ module on WeatherCheck which gives us an idea of when the greens are likely to experience drought stress. Using this information, we have been using TriCure Granular as a pre-emptive stress reliever on the driest areas, again to great effect.”

Headland’s WeatherCheck is a customer and postcode weather service which features a general 7- day forecast, as well as detailed 3-hourly, daily weather forecasts showing predicted rainfall, expected wind strength and precipitation probability. It also contains many specific agronomic modules, facilitating the turf manager to take a proactive, rather than reactive, approach to programmes and applications.

For more information, visit: www.headlandamenity.com

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New Müthing Mulcher

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New Müthing Mulcher: Available from May 2018, Muthing say their new MU-Collect Vario mulcher offers professional grass cutting and mulching technology for landscaping applications. Simon Richard, UK Agent for the Muthing range, says “The new MU-Collect Vario gives you both possibilities; an optimal mulching result and perfectly tidy surfaces. It is available in working widths of 1.4 and 1.6 m for mechanical driving powers of 20 to 40 hp, and hydraulically driven with 30 to 70 l/min. The M-Vario is able to achieve the best possible mulch quality and shredding performance, while also increasing the load capacity for the carrier vehicle, thanks to an optimised intake and housing form and the ability to steplessly adjust the shredding rates at the cutting bar”

The optimal accessibility of the MU-Collect Vario allows the user to quickly change the implement between the collecting and the mulching functions. A feeder auger brings the mulch material together to ensure reliable operation even under high throughput levels. The special delivery chute prevents blockages due to material backup or full containers. The mulch material can be ejected or drawn in either centrally or on the right (viewed in the direction of travel) depending on the particular vehicle being used. This allows the implement to be mounted just as easily on large mowers as on compact tractors. Various mounting consoles for support arms as well as a coupling triangle in Cat. 0 and 1 are available.

New Müthing Mulcher

The MU-ollect Vario mulcher is equipped as standard with a full-length wear insert, durable Hardox wear runners and the tried-and-tested carbide M-shackle flails. Scarifying blades are also available for the implement. These cut up and aerate the matted layer in the root crown area to improve the soil structure in the long term. An optionally available operating hours counter and screw-in wear parts round off the product.

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Bayer’s New Total Herbicide

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Bayer’s New Total Herbicide: A new pre and early post-emergence total herbicide, for controlling annual and perennial weeds, has been released by Bayer into the Irish market, and is now available to purchase.

Pistol® Flex brings a new active ingredient, to the market for broad spectrum control over a wide range of uses including treatments applied to open soil, gravel surfaces, fence lines, industrial areas and railway ballast.

Bayer's New Total Herbicide

Greg Collins, of the Bayer Turf Solutions Team, explains that the herbicide’s dual active formulation contains 360g/kg diflufenican and 10g/kg iodosulfuron-methyl-sodium.

“This gives a two-pronged approach to weed control, targeting germinating seedlings through residual action, and the leaves on contact.

“The product provides excellent control for even the hardest to tackle weeds and is also compatible for use under a variety of tree and shrub species.”

Resistance management

Greg adds that using Pistol® Flex can help amenity contractors to minimise resistance as part of an integrated vegetation management (IVM) programme.

“The combined active ingredients give a dual mode of action and therefore reduce the chance of resistance occurring.

Flexible applications

“The herbicide can be used flexibly, as a standalone application on bare ground for pre-emergence stages. Alternatively, after the two leaf post emergence stage it can be mixed with glyphosate to enhance performance.

“And due to this robust performance in different environments, the product offers good residual control for three to four months, which may save the operator returning for repeated applications,” says Greg.

Pistol® Flex is available to purchase from Unichem and Sprayclear Environmental and is supplied in convenient 10g sachets to easily add into a knapsack or 500g packs for those that need to treat a larger area.

For more information visit: www.environmentalscience.bayer.co.uk  or contact the Turf Solutions Team at turfsolutions@bayer.com

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Don’t Get Held Hosta(ge) By Slugs

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Don’t Get Held Hosta(ge) By Slugs: Hostas are loved by many gardeners, as they have the most amazing foliage that can offer both dense ground cover and interesting structure to pots. They are resilient and easy to grow, thriving especially well in light to medium shade. They also often have beautiful fragrant flowers, making them a real asset to any garden.  

Growing hostas is easy, as they do not require much fussing, and will grow on any fertile, moisture-retentive garden soil. A bit of organic matter can be added to soil where there is not much shade and the earth is dry, but once they have fully established, after around five years, they will need little to no interference from the gardener.

Don’t Get Held Hosta(ge) By Slugs

The main problem, as any gardener will agree, when it comes to hostas, is the fact that slugs adore them. They can be entirely decimated early on in the season if preventative measures are not taken.

A great, and easy, way to make sure that your hostas are protected, is by watering on nematodes. As nematodes are able to travel through the soil, to where the newly hatched and young slugs dwell, they are able to attack them before they are even in sight, unlike slug pellets. A regular regime of using Nemaslug every six weeks is the most effective way to keep slugs at bay throughout the growing season, and will help to ensure that your hostas survive another year!

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Goodwood Returns To Toro

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Goodwood Returns To Toro: Goodwood has returned to Toro as it continues in its ambition to develop a ‘super fleet’ for its 12,000-acre estate based in Sussex.

The last time we caught up with Phil Helmn, general manager of sports turf and grounds at the all-encompassing Goodwood, he had taken delivery of a fleet of Toro fine turf machinery for The Downs and The Park golf courses in 2015 and said it signalled the start of a more structured approach to machinery operation.

Goodwood Returns To Toro

True to his word, we’re back in touch with Phil as he receives his six latest Toro purchases, all grounds machines to take care of the estate gardens, grassed lawn areas, the motor circuit, airfield and horse race course.

Phil says: “Since I joined Goodwood four years ago, it has been my intention to make the estate 100 percent Toro. It made good business sense to follow up from our fine turf machinery deal and develop the relationship with the brand. It’s far easier to deal with one supplier and share resources.”

Such a large enterprise as Goodwood comes with a wide set of challenges and having a Toro ‘super fleet’ enables three mechanics to become Toro-trained to a high standard to limit sub-contracting and out-sourcing. The estate will also now carry a range of parts for the equipment it operates to “drive efficiency”, says Phil, and allow for an instant response to any issues.

It makes sense then that included in the order of three Groundsmaster 3500-D mowers, a Groundsmaster 4300-D, two Groundsmaster 5910 mowers, and two UTVs – the GTX and MDX-D, is the new MyTurf servicing system.

The Pro fleet management program, myTurf, operates by automatically recording how long the machines have been in operation and how many hours they have accrued when they re-enter the maintenance facility and pass a sensor at the door. This allows the mechanics to calculate preventative maintenance and replacement parts needed, and machine history can be accessed by simply logging in to the system on a computer.

Phil says: “Fleet maintenance is crucial to the performance of the machines, and this is a much slicker way of keeping on top of that.”

Phil says the demonstrations required to make sure the machines he chose were relevant for the different areas, complementing wide ranging criteria, wasn’t actually as complicated a process as one may expect. “We performed due diligence with demos, but the process of deciding which grounds machines to get was actually pretty straightforward. When you know and trust a brand the decision-making becomes easy. For this recent order we opted for rotary mowers. The floating decks eliminate scalping and the rear rollers provides a really good striping effect. The finish is excellent.”

This latest Toro order is the culmination of a few years work for Phil, assessing how best to manage such a large estate and team. He says: “Having one big fleet has brought our four teams of 35 gardeners, groundsmen and greenkeepers together, to share techniques and skills according to the different environments they are using the machines on.

“Back in 2015, when the fine turf fleet arrived, my priority was to ensure the entire Goodwood enterprise was maintained to the same exacting standards. I have used Toro for most of my career and personal experience tells me it’s a quality product and will not let me down. The fact that I can now extend the same standards to the grounds here at Goodwood means we can deliver the best results possible across the entire 12,000 acres.”

For more information, visit: reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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