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Attraxor® keeps Poa at bay at Kirkhill

March 17, 2023/in News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

Attraxor® keeps Poa at bay at Kirkhill: Scott McKittrick, Course Manager at Kirkhill Golf Club, has revealed how Attraxor® has helped him to suppress Poa annua and has resulted in the greens playing firm, true and fast. Kirkhill Golf Club is a parkland course, founded in 1910 and designed by the renowned course architect and […]

Research into environmental cost of managing knotweed

March 17, 2023/in News, Press Release/by Sharon Starkey

Research into environmental cost of managing knotweed: Complete Weed Control has part funded New Swansea University research that looked at the long-term environmental impact into different methods to control Japanese knotweed. The invasive species has been calculated to cost more than £165 million to manage every year in the UK alone. Its presence can blight […]

Attraxor® keeps Poa at bay at Kirkhill

March 17, 2023/in News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

Research into environmental cost of managing knotweed

March 17, 2023/in News, Press Release/by Sharon Starkey

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Attraxor® keeps Poa at bay at Kirkhill

March 17, 2023/in News, Press Release/by Lucy Nicholls

Attraxor® keeps Poa at bay at Kirkhill: Scott McKittrick, Course Manager at Kirkhill Golf Club, has revealed how Attraxor® has helped him to suppress Poa annua and has resulted in the greens playing firm, true and fast.

Kirkhill Golf Club is a parkland course, founded in 1910 and designed by the renowned course architect and five times Open winner James Braid. The course is located on the outskirts of the city of Glasgow in the South Lanarkshire area.

Attraxor® keeps Poa at bay at Kirkhill

Scott originally joined Kirkhill Golf Club as an apprentice back in 1995 and was rewarded with the Course Manager position just seven years later. He now oversees a team of six members of staff and explained the importance of keeping standards consistently high.

“We are in a very competitive area and are surrounded by many golf clubs,” he said. “I’m pleased to say that we always get great feedback, and we hold our own. We must be different and entice people to join and that involves always being at the top of our game.”

Therefore, when he was recommended a potential solution to tackling a large percentage of Poa annua on the greens, he was keen to trial it.

“Our greens consist of approximately 60%-70% annual meadow-grass and because of this we would have to be aggressive with the turf. We would double cut and roll, and it took a lot of time and labour.

“I spoke to Ramsay MacGregor (Amenity Specialist for Agrovista Amenity) and he told me a lot about a product which he believed to be brilliant at supressing annual meadow-grass seed heads. After talking at length, I thought it would be great for us if it did exactly what it said on the tin.”

The product Ramsay introduced to Scott was Attraxor® – a BASF product which has been shown to effectively regulate growth of managed amenity turf. The active substance, Prohexadione, inhibits the gibberellic acid pathway, which results in a reduction of turf height and turf biomass. Furthermore, as well reducing clippings it also suppresses the seed heads of Poa annua.

Key advantages include:

Attraxor® is formulated for rapid foliar uptake – as quick as 4 hours from application.
Superior performance against Poa annua pioneering.
Attraxor® can be used earlier or later in the season at cooler temperatures compared to other growth regulators.
Consistent growth regulation of turf grass species.
Root formation is also promoted through the use of Attraxor® whilst turf colour and quality are enhanced.

Scott initially applied Attraxor® at the recommended minimum rate of 375 g/ha and was instantly impressed.

“The first time we tried it last year, the Poa was going crazy. We applied Attraxor®, came in the next day and we couldn’t believe it. It looked as though it had literally wiped the whole Poa out. When you got close you could see that it was still there, but it was severely dishevelled. From that moment, we knew it was a game-changer.

“In that first year we mainly used the product to firefight the Poa seedheads, so as soon as we saw it was coming back, we hit it with Attraxor® again. However, this year we have taken a more regimented approach; applying it at a higher rate of 500 g/ha. This has reduced the seed head production and has worked really well. The ball roll is no longer affected by the Poa, and the greens play brilliantly – they are exactly where we want them to be.”

By attending an Agrovista Amenity education day, Scott found that he wasn’t the only one reporting good results from Attraxor®.

“The education days from Agrovista Amenity are important because they provide an opportunity to see how products and technology are developing,” he said. “There have been a couple of seminars that have focussed on Attraxor® and it brought together lots of greenkeepers who have all been using the product. It was great speaking to them and finding out what rates they use, what they might be mixing it with and what results they are seeing.

“The general consensus was that it is a brilliant product and is great for supressing Poa annua seed head production.”

For more information about Agrovista UK, visit www.agrovista.co.uk/amenity

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Research into environmental cost of managing knotweed

March 17, 2023/in News, Press Release/by Sharon Starkey

Research into environmental cost of managing knotweed: Complete Weed Control has part funded New Swansea University research that looked at the long-term environmental impact into different methods to control Japanese knotweed.

The invasive species has been calculated to cost more than £165 million to manage every year in the UK alone. Its presence can blight property purchases for households across the country.

Research into environmental cost of managing knotweed

This has led to the development of different ways of trying to control it but with sustainability becoming increasingly important, understanding the effect of these management methods is vital.

A new study, led by biosciences lecturer Dr Sophie Hocking and looking at the entire life cycle and long-term impacts of different management approaches, has just been published in online journal Scientific Reports.

Dr Hocking said: “In light of the current climate emergency and biodiversity crisis, invasive species management and sustainability have never been so important.

“Both of these are intrinsically linked – we know that invasive species can cause substantial negative ecological, social and economic impacts, and the way we manage these species should mitigate against this in a sustainable way to ensure we are not doing more harm than good.

“Although there has been more research into how we can best manage the plant, little is known about how sustainable these approaches are.”

Ian Graham, managing director of Complete Weed Control, stressed the significance of using science to inform best practice adding: “Industry is responsible not only for delivering high-quality outcomes but also for doing so in a manner that takes environmental and social factors into account. This new study will help inform us, ensuring our methods remain the most sustainable.”

Complete Weed Control played a significant role in supporting and funding prior research conducted by Professor Dan Eastwood and Dr Dan Jones, which initiated the most comprehensive knotweed control field trial globally in 2012. The trial examined the leading physical, chemical, and integrated methods of managing the knotweed species. The research was conducted in collaboration with Complete Weed Control and Advanced Invasives, a spinout company led by Dr Jones.

This field study provided valuable information for Dr Hocking’s work. Using a life cycle assessment (LCA) – a methodology for assessing environmental impacts associated with all the stages of the life cycle of a commercial process – to find out the relative environmental impacts of a range of chemical and physiochemical knotweed management methods.

The researchers went beyond a focus on the use and end-of life of these methods and assessed the environmental impacts of different management methods including the production of materials and herbicides required to achieve knotweed control; something that is often overlooked when we evaluate sustainability. For the study, the team selected methods commonly used for knotweed management and used real-world data on time consumption, amount of materials used and economic costs to evaluate their relative environmental impacts.

Of the methods tested, they found that the simplest approach – glyphosate-based foliar spray control methods – used the least materials, had the lowest environmental impacts, the lowest economic costs and is, therefore, the most sustainable approach to tackle knotweed management. The findings are of significance to those working with or are affected by the presence of Japanese knotweed on their land.

Dr Hocking added: “Currently there is a big conversation around the sustainability of herbicides and the ecological and human-health impacts of this. Social perceptions of the ways we manage invasive plants are really important, but we need our understanding of sustainability to be rooted in empirical evidence. We hope that this research will contribute to our wider understanding of the sustainability of different approaches in invasive plant management and help to inform current knotweed management practice.”

This research has been mirrored in the real world as Cardiff Council recently conducted an alternative weed control trial comparing glyphosate with the alternative methods of weed control currently available in the UK.

The scientific trial assessed the viability of two alternatives to the glyphosate-based approach used by the majority of local authorities in the UK. Complete Weed Control delivered the services using its WEEDit technology to inform the independent research which found glyphosate has a smaller overall environmental footprint than the two alternatives trialled, which were acetic acid (a highly concentrated vinegar) and a hot foam treatment (a plant-based product which combines hot water with a biodegradable foam).

Ian Graham concluded: “I am proud to say that our organisation is widely recognised for delivering the highest level of service to our customers across the UK and Ireland, with a strong commitment to continuous improvement and meeting environmental requirements.

“This latest partnership with Swansea University and Advanced Invasives aligns with our commitment to investment in research and technology and our dedication to excellence and sustainability within the industry.”

For the latest industry news visit turfmatters.co.uk/news

Get all of the big headlines, pictures, opinions and videos on stories that matter to you.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for fun, fresh and engaging content.

You can also find us on Facebook for more of your must-see news, features, videos and pictures from Turf Matters.

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Attraxor® keeps Poa at bay at Kirkhill

Research into environmental cost of managing knotweed

Attraxor® keeps Poa at bay at Kirkhill

Research into environmental cost of managing knotweed

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Attraxor® keeps Poa at bay at Kirkhill

Attraxor® keeps Poa at bay at Kirkhill: Scott McKittrick, Course Manager at Kirkhill Golf Club, has revealed how Attraxor® has helped him to suppress Poa annua and has resulted in the greens playing firm, true and fast.

Research into environmental cost of managing knotweed

Research into environmental cost of managing knotweed: Complete Weed Control has part funded New Swansea University research that looked at the long-term environmental impact into different methods to control Japanese knotweed.

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