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The growing role of PGR’s

April 7, 2020/in News, Press Release/by Louise Challiss

The growing role of PGR’s: Plant Growth Regulators (PGR’s) are a longstanding programme component for those maintaining all types of amenity grassland and managed amenity turf. Clipless NT® from Headland Amenity’s is a Trinexapac-ethyl PGR, which is typically applied from mid-April on outfield or course turf and mid-late May on fine turf. Alex Hawkes, Headland’s […]

How to help rainfall rescue project

April 7, 2020/in News, Press Release/by Ellie Parry

How to help rainfall rescue project: If you’ve some time on your hands, here’s a UK rainfall project that’s caught our eye at Rain Bird Golf. The weather is always a topic of conversation for Brits. Can you, your staff or family members take part in the Rainfall Rescue project and add to our UK […]

The growing role of PGR’s

April 7, 2020/in News, Press Release/by Louise Challiss

How to help rainfall rescue project

April 7, 2020/in News, Press Release/by Ellie Parry

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

The growing role of PGR’s

April 7, 2020/in News, Press Release/by Louise Challiss

The growing role of PGR’s: Plant Growth Regulators (PGR’s) are a longstanding programme component for those maintaining all types of amenity grassland and managed amenity turf.

Clipless NT^® from Headland Amenity’s is a Trinexapac-ethyl PGR, which is typically applied from mid-April on outfield or course turf and mid-late May on fine turf. Alex Hawkes, Headland’s Sports Turf Manager explores how PGR’s work and how many are now finding additional benefits of their use.

The growing role of PGR’s

PGR’s effectively block the production of gibberellic acid – the plant hormone responsible for cell elongation. By lowering levels of the hormone within the plant leaf, PGR’s reduce cell elongation and vertical growth and, instead, redirect the energy within the plant to generate enhanced root development and lateral growth. In its simplest capacity, it can contribute towards a sward that requires less frequent mowing, saving manpower and associated machinery costs. They can be particularly useful for reducing mowing in difficult or dangerous areas such as steep banks.

Because growth is redirected from vertical to horizontal, PGR’s are often employed by greenkeepers and groundsmen alike to increase the density of a given area. Moreover, they have also been shown to optimise the conditions for seeding operations – particularly those in or near competitive swards. With the regulated growth and lower energy consumption of the existing plant, nutrition from the soil profile is optimised for germination and establishment of the new seedling.

At Trent College in Nottingham, Head of Gardens and Grounds Peter Flewitt trialled Clipless NT^® in this capacity, on the schools four cricket squares. “In our environment, we are able to renovate the squares much earlier in the growing season than perhaps other local clubs or the county grounds would. We applied Clipless NT^® at the end of July, a week before we started our renovations and we nicknamed this area our ‘old grass’. We were interested to see if by regulating the growth here, the new seed sown in the vicinity would germinate better due to lower competition – and it worked well.”

Peter continues, “We left the ‘new grass’ to grow through and the difference in their comparative growth speeds was evident – particularly when we mowed for the first time that it was just this new grass being cut. With the Clipless NT^®, used in conjunction with H-Cote™ (slow-release fertiliser) we were able to then manage and sustain the healthy, dense sward we achieved in our renovations through the autumn and winter period when our workload shifts focus onto our winter sports areas. With the wet winter we had, the Clipless NT^® application kept growth in check meaning we didn’t have to take any mowing equipment out onto the soft ground at any stage.”

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How to help rainfall rescue project

April 7, 2020/in News, Press Release/by Ellie Parry

How to help rainfall rescue project: If you’ve some time on your hands, here’s a UK rainfall project that’s caught our eye at Rain Bird Golf.

The weather is always a topic of conversation for Brits. Can you, your staff or family members take part in the Rainfall Rescue project and add to our UK rainfall know-how?

How to help rainfall rescue project

The UK has rainfall records dating back 200 years or so, but the vast majority of these are in handwritten form and can’t easily be used to analyse past periods of flooding and drought. Professor Ed Hawkins is a Reading University scientist who has run a number of “weather rescue” projects but this is the biggest yet.

The Rainfall Rescue Project is seeking volunteers to transfer hand-written data to online spreadsheets.

The project is looking to fill the yawning gap in UK digital rain gauge records between the 1820s and 1950s.

Each of the 65,000 scanned sheets contains monthly rainfall totals for a particular decade at a particular station, approximately three to five million data points in all. If Prof Hawkins’ team can convert this information to a digital format, it could lead to a much better understanding of the frequency and scale of big droughts and floods. And, that will assist with planning for future flood and water-resource infrastructure.

For example, many across the country had a sodden start to the year because of heavy rainfall. Meteorologists suspect October 1903 was just as bad, if not worse, but unfortunately, because all the rainfall data from that time was hand-written, it’s not possible to analyse this data. Likewise, there were some very dry springs and winters in the 1880s and 1890s. Britain had six or seven very dry winters and springs on the trot. If that happened today, it would probably cause serious problems for water companies because they rely on wet winters and wet springs to recharge reservoirs.

Prof Ed Hawkins explains, “Water companies have to plan for a one-in-100 or one-in-500-year drought but we’ve only got 60 years of very dense digital data, and so it’s very hard for them to come up with reliable estimates. We know there are periods in the past that, if they happened again, would probably break the system. The same is true for very heavy rainfall and floods.

You’re not required to rummage through old bound volumes; the Met Office has already scanned the necessary documents – all 65,000 sheets. You simply have to visit a website, read the scribbled rainfall amounts and enter the numbers into a series of boxes. If you do just a couple of minutes every now and then – that’s great,” said Prof Ed Hawkins. “If you want to spend an hour doing 30 or 40 columns – then that’ll be amazing. But any amount of time, it will all add up and be a tremendous help.”

This can literally take 5 minutes – why not use your tea-break?
Take part in the Rainfall Rescue project here.

If you choose a particular year to work on, why that year? Is it the year your golf course opened or the year you held your most memorable tournament? Share your story on Twitter with #rainfallrescueUK. Tag@rainbirdgolfuk and we’ll share your story too!

Jimmy Sandison – Regional Golf Sales Manager – UK, Ireland, Iceland and Scandinavia

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)

The growing role of PGR’s

How to help rainfall rescue project

The growing role of PGR’s

How to help rainfall rescue project

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

The growing role of PGR’s

The growing role of PGR’s: Plant Growth Regulators (PGR’s) are a longstanding programme component for those maintaining all types of amenity grassland and managed amenity turf.

How to help rainfall rescue project

How to help rainfall rescue project: If you’ve some time on your hands, here’s a UK rainfall project that’s caught our eye at Rain Bird Golf.

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