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Rangeline improves range economics and visuals

March 20, 2024/in News, Press Release/by Adam Lawrence

Rangeline improves range economics and visuals: Sand bunkers are expensive items for golf courses to maintain, given the standards now expected by golfers. This level of maintenance is only justifiable for bunkers that get plenty of use: if a lot of players visit a bunker, then it is worth spending the money to keep it […]

AIM for clean greens

March 20, 2024/in News, Press Release/by Mark Sanderson

AIM for clean greens: A new Syngenta one-box fungicide programme is now available, providing a well-proven, cost effective and agronomically strong season-long disease control strategy. The AIM programme contains three leading Syngenta fungicides, specifically selected to provide an effective sequential strategy for summer through to winter, including Ascernity, Instrata Elite and Medallion TL. Sean Loakes, […]

Rangeline improves range economics and visuals

March 20, 2024/in News, Press Release/by Adam Lawrence

AIM for clean greens

March 20, 2024/in News, Press Release/by Mark Sanderson

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Rangeline improves range economics and visuals

March 20, 2024/in News, Press Release/by Adam Lawrence

Rangeline improves range economics and visuals: Sand bunkers are expensive items for golf courses to maintain, given the standards now expected by golfers. This level of maintenance is only justifiable for bunkers that get plenty of use: if a lot of players visit a bunker, then it is worth spending the money to keep it in primo condition.

But on practice ranges, where bunkers are purely aiming tools, and never get any actual play, bunker maintenance is wholly a waste of money. Thus it is tempting for course operators to dig holes on their range, fill them with sand, and leave them be. But this approach too has its problems: wind and rain will cause the bunker sand to move around and to be contaminated with other substances, reducing, even possibily eliminating, the value of having the bunker on the range in the first place. The newly-launched RANGEline product from ZLine Products, is the answer.

Rangeline improves range economics and visuals

RANGEline consists of sand-coloured synthetic material, which is installed on the range in lieu of bunkers. It is UV coated to ensure that the color can withstand sunlight exposure and seamlessly replicates the aesthetic value of sand bunkers on the range, giving golfers a powerful aiming tool, but it is essentially maintenance-free. The product was formerly known at SRL-16, but has been redesigned to be thicker and denser, so it absorbs impacts better.

“RANGEline helps course operators improve the playability and shotmaking of their practice ranges, without increasing maintenance costs,” says Casey Jones, inernational operations manager of ZLine. “It is very cost-effective – the cost of the product is roughly the same as sand – and over time it will produce an excellent return on investment. Ball picking from RANGEline is much easier than from a sand bunker, as the picking machine can drive over it. Even if the ‘bunker’ is inaccessible to the picker, it is far easier to rake up the balls than to pick them from sand – which has to be done by hand.”

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AIM for clean greens

March 20, 2024/in News, Press Release/by Mark Sanderson

AIM for clean greens: A new Syngenta one-box fungicide programme is now available, providing a well-proven, cost effective and agronomically strong season-long disease control strategy.

The AIM programme contains three leading Syngenta fungicides, specifically selected to provide an effective sequential strategy for summer through to winter, including Ascernity, Instrata Elite and Medallion TL.

AIM for clean greens

Sean Loakes, Syngenta Turf Technical Manager for UK & Ireland, advocated the AIM approach optimises the potential to protect turf from immediate disease risks, while also providing longer term pathogen reductions that more effectively prevents disease outbreaks right through the season.

“Starting the programme with Ascernity, targeted at the increasing issues of summer anthracnose and dollar spot infections, followed by Instrata Elite in early autumn has proven to prevent the hugely damaging early outbreaks of microdochium patch.

“The AIM pack then gives a further follow up of Medallion TL for when conditions cool. That gives outstanding protection against damage through the critical time of limited turf recovery,” he advised. AIM is available for golf courses, sports turf and any turf surfaces covered by the products’ label recommendations.

The AIM strategy is fully supported by the Syngenta Turf Advisor App designed to guide optimum fungicide application timing. That includes local disease risk forecast models and disease pressure levels over recent days and weeks, along with a host of weather data to refine decision making.

“Turf Advisor also provides instant assessment of growth potential (GP) of turf, for appropriate product selection.” Sean advocates the multi-active benefits of systemic Ascernity are best utilised while turf is actively growing, with a GP above 20%, while Instrata Elite remains extremely effective as growth slows to 5%-25% GP.

When growth slows further, the contact activity of Medallion TL effectively protects the leaf from disease infection, while also targeting pathogen spores in the thatch and root crown to reduce the risk of infection.

The further advantage of the AIM strategy is that each application contains different fungicide modes of action. The rotation of fungicides and utilising multiple modes of action is the basis of a good fungicide resistance management plan, he added.

“Targeting disease earlier in the season prevents damage to the leaf, reduces stress on the plant and effectively breaks the disease cycle – enabling fungicide programmes to maintain playing surface quality and longer lasting results throughout the season.

“Early disease outbreaks act as infection source for further spread as the season progresses,” he warned. Even where scars have dried up, millions of spores would have been released that can be waiting in thatch or organic matter for the right conditions to develop and trigger new infections.

“Disease management in the autumn is essentially a numbers game. The potential for disease outbreaks is dependent on both the number of pathogens present, and the conditions for it to multiply rapidly.

“Reducing the initial turf disease pathogen population gives the opportunity for cultural Integrated Turf Management (ITM) controls to be more effective.”

STRI trials in Yorkshire showed how the AIM programme of Ascernity at the onset of microdochium patch pressure, followed by Instrata Elite and then Medallion TL, kept disease down below 3% of surface area affected throughout the season, when infection in the untreated area quickly hit 15% and reached over 25% of disease cover. In high pressure trials at ISTI in Ireland, the AIM strategy was the only fungicide treatment approach to keep disease in complete control.

“The actual timing of each application and number of treatments required will be site specific, according to risks and pressure,” pointed out Sean. “The sequence of using the three products is now very well proven, and more convenient and cost effective in the AIM one-box solution.”

Preventing disease outbreaks from mid-summer gives the best chance to go into winter clean, and come out green in the spring.

AIM is distributed in the UK and Ireland by ICL. The AIM one-box solution is also eligible for extra Turf Rewards points to qualify for turf management products and education resources: www.icl-growingsolutions.uk

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)

Rangeline improves range economics and visuals

AIM for clean greens

Rangeline improves range economics and visuals

AIM for clean greens

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Rangeline improves range economics and visuals

AIM for clean greens

AIM for clean greens: A new Syngenta one-box fungicide programme is now available, providing a well-proven, cost effective and agronomically strong season-long disease control strategy.

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