Tag Archive for: Key

Microclover could prove key

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Microclover could prove key: As drought conditions continue and more restrictions come into force around water usage over the coming weeks, it is hard not to notice that many local authority sports grounds, gardens and public spaces have fallen victim to heat, particularly in terms of visual merit.

However, you may have noticed that amongst the current brown and baron land, patches of green remain – clover – which, as DLF explain, generates its own nitrogen from the atmosphere making it one of the most tolerant varieties to drought and other high stress environments.

Microclover could prove key

Microclover could prove key

Alongside more frequent periods of sustained hot and dry weather, the rise in fertiliser prices is driving seed producers to look for varieties that can be maintained with a more sustainable nitrogen programme. The unique root nodules on clover are formed by the Rhizobium bacteria, capable of converting atmospheric nitrogen into a natural fertiliser available for the clover as well as the companion grasses. Sourced in this way, the supply will also be gradual and ongoing, contributing to more sustained growth when compared to the ‘flush’ that can occur when larger quantities of nitrogen are applied as part of a managed feeding programme.

Microclover is a special bred dwarf white clover which joins in well with other turf species. The smaller leaves and lower growth habit contribute to a dense, uniform appearance as well as delivering strong wear qualities and heat/drought tolerance. All of this means that the inclusion of Microclover can result in a sward that suffers from less weed and disease invasion, and one that requires less water, fertiliser and ultimately cost, to sustain. In trials conducted by the STRI, Microclover is proven to deliver enhanced coverage and improved colour when compared to pure grass swards.

Masterline’s PM82 Microclover Sport mixture from DLF, has been specifically blended with these benefits in mind. PM82 improves turf quality whilst being kinder to the environment thanks to its reduced requirements for herbicide and fertiliser. Alongside Microclover, PM82 also features 40% Double 4turf® tetraploid perennial ryegrass. The deeper rooting nature of DLF’s 4turf® varieties means it can better withstand drought-like conditions and remains green even when the plant above ground is starved of water.

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Progressive key to consistent cutting

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Progressive key to consistent cutting: When it comes to optimum heights of cut for fairways, there isn’t a ‘one-height-fits-all’ approach – but one thing all Turf Managers will be aiming for is consistency, which can be easier said than done when dealing with potentially uneven or undulating ground.

The Progressive range of multi-deck mowers have been carefully designed with this in mind, offering unrivalled contour-following ability for an accurate quality of cut.

Progressive key to consistent cutting

Progressive key to consistent cutting

While a multi-deck mower may not be required in every situation, it can offer a broader scope of use with its ability to accommodate both flat and undulating turf equally. This flexibility delivers a quality cut without the risk of scalping or shredding the plant, helping to retain plant health and reducing potential entry points for pathogens and turf diseases to take hold. Their versatility sees them suited to operation around the golf course, alongside other applications such as sports fields, turf farms and mowing tasks undertaken by local authorities.

The latest addition to the Progressive range is the TDR-X – featuring three independently floating decks which provide a combined cutting width of 3.2m. It all begins with an adaptive swivel hitch at the front, making the TDR-X more agile and ensuring it works with the tractor to follow undulating ground. The cutting height range of 9.5mm to 84.5mm is easy to adjust, with their industry-leading rotary blade overlap ensuring a precise and even cut. Full width rollers on both the front and rear of each deck completes the specification, leaving a professional finish for both golf and sports surfaces.

The TDR-X sits in the portfolio of ‘finishing mowers’ alongside the ProFlex 120 – the most widely used trailed contour mower. The ProFlex features a 3m cutting width across five decks, each of which can be quickly and easily adjusted to give the operator complete flexibility to make a stepped or transitioned first-cut in a single pass.

Along with other machines in the Progressive range, both the TDR-X and ProFlex 120 take advantage of Progressive’s Pro Lift-N-Turn™ technology, allowing the operator to temporarily raise the decks, with the PTO still engaged, making turning and transportation easier to increase overall productivity.

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‘Green’ lawncare key for environment

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‘Green’ lawncare key for environment: There are more than 20 million domestic garden lawns in the UK and one man is driving a campaign to ensure that British gardeners get the latest and best possible ‘green’ advice on lawncare.

“There is a place for the occasional use of chemicals in lawncare but there is also a rapidly increasing range of totally green options that are just as effective.  I want to ensure that the new breed of specialist lawncare advisors promote this green route,” says Richard Salmon, managing director of ProLawnCareUK.

'Green' lawncare key for environment

‘Green’ lawncare key for environment

He has spent his entire career in lawn and grass care and is one of the UK’s foremost experts.   Part of his work is training people who want to establish businesses as domestic lawncare advisors and his two and four day courses focus strongly on the environmentally friendly approach.    He believes that too many professional lawncare advisors rely on strong chemical treatments and over-feeding grass with manufactured, expensive and not kind to the environment Nitrogen.  They do this to ensure a quick-fix and a bright green lawn, deliberately ignoring the more gentle and natural true green alternatives.

“We all want verdant green lawns but trying to force this to happen by applying excessive Nitrogen is neither beneficial to the lawns or environment nor is it sustainable.    Steady rain, and even snow, does deliver useful amounts of nitrogen for free.  The problem comes from torrential rain that can wash it away again.”

There are three cornerstones of his training courses: ensuring lawns are compaction free, having access to balanced nutrition and some basic lawn management tips that home owners can undertake.

The benefits of a lawn being compaction free are:

  • Allowing roots to grow deep in search of natural nutrients and water.
  • Allowing rain to percolate down to the roots and not waterlogging the lawn.
  • Preventing the grass from suffocating and dying through lack of oxygen.

“A compaction free lawn will have a healthy soil microbial population,” says Richard.  “The soil is a larder full of natural nutrients vital to grass and delivers it in a form that the roots can take up.   This way there is no need for synthetic fertilisers.”

With this combined treatment package lawn owners should mow little and often.  Richard believes that mulching is best as nutrients are retained in the leaf and put pack into the soil.  In excessively dry weather irrigate using harvested rainwater.  This combination will create a thick sward that keeps weeds and moss at bay.

“Our 20 million domestic lawns, collectively, cover an area larger than any UK National Park.  Lawn owners have a responsibility to ensure that their small part of such a large area is treated with the utmost respect and care for the environment.  It is important that when lawn owners seek professional help and advice, they are not offered a chemical package that runs counter to this objective.  Once trained they will find that being able to promote themselves as environmentally responsible lawncare experts will be a major sales boost,” says Richard.

Courses run throughout the year in Cambridge

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Protecting parks key to Levelling-Up ambitions

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Protecting parks key to Levelling-Up ambitions: If progress is to be made on the Government’s flagship “levelling-up” agenda the nation’s parks must be protected from further loss, according to green space charity Fields in Trust. Their annual ‘Green Space Index’ report suggests Britain’s local parks and green spaces have a significant role to play in restoring a sense of community and local pride as well as contributing to health, wellbeing and climate change resilience.

Local authorities in the Government’s priority levelling-up areas have, on average, 10% less green space provision when benchmarked against the amount communities need to thrive. The amount of green space per person in these priority levelling-up areas is set to decline by 2040 as population grows. The unequal distribution and access to local parks is stark and felt the most in those left behind neighbourhoods which are already missing out on the physical health, mental wellbeing and environmental impacts of local green space. Earlier research from Fields in Trust valued the health and wellbeing benefits for park users at more than £34 billion each year. Regular users of parks have fewer visits to their GP resulting in an annual saving to the NHS of £111 million.

Protecting parks key to Levelling-Up ambitions

Protecting parks key to Levelling-Up ambitions

Fields in Trust’s Green Space Index analysis demonstrates the disparities between nations and regions that the Levelling-Up programme is attempting to rectify. Fields in Trust found that Yorkshire and the Humber and the north west region fall well below a minimum standard for green space. Scotland, at 41 square metres per person, has more green space provision than both England and Wales. As a region, London’s green space is very accessible, but the region has the least green space per person, at just 19 sqm.

Speaking at the Westminster launch of the charity’s new analysis, Clive Betts MP, Chair of the DLUHC Parliamentary select committee and a Trustee of the Fields in Trust charity said “The role of green infrastructure in planning and healthy place-making should be central to government ambitions to rebalance geographic inequalities. Yet 2.8 million people already live more than a ten-minute walk from a public park, with levelling-up target areas having around 10% less green space than the average across Britain”.

Alongside their value for community health and wellbeing, local parks have a vital role to play in supporting our environment. These spaces improve air quality, capture harmful carbon and boost biodiversity.

Levelling-up requires a focused, long-term plan of action if it is to act upon the drivers of spatial disparity. Ensuring all neighbourhoods have accessible provision of parks and green spaces can help address a complex set of targets set by Government – which include improving pride of place, developing climate resilience, and improving local community infrastructure.

Fields in Trust’s analysis suggests that, unless local parks and green spaces are protected in the long-term, any levelling-up interventions will be transitory.

Liverpool West Derby MP, Ian Byrne, said: “Liverpool City Council’s landmark partnership to protect all of their parks with Fields in Trust demonstrates a solution that will benefit both people and place – not just for current residents but also into the future as Liverpool’s population is set to rise. The bold vision will ensure everyone in Liverpool lives within a ten-minute walk of a park or green space which will be protected, forever.

During Covid, we have seen the huge importance of green spaces for all within our communities and this collaboration between Fields in Trust and Liverpool City Council will hopefully be a catalyst for many other local authorities to do exactly the same and enshrine their green spaces with Fields in Trust to protect them for future generations.”

Fields in Trust have received similar commitments to protect access to local parks from the City of Edinburgh Council who want to ensure residents have local green space protected forever. Wrexham County Borough Council is adding to their protected portfolio of green space as part of a drive to net zero.

Chair of Fields in Trust, Jo Barnett, said: “We know that parks and green spaces play a vital role in people’s health and wellbeing, yet the Green Space Index demonstrates uneven provision across Great Britain, and our most vulnerable communities are impacted negatively.

Although the scale and interdependency across the levelling-up portfolio is intensely complex, parks and green spaces deliver impacts across the range of social policy agendas yet remain undervalued for the multiple benefits they contribute to our communities. The climate crisis adds a new impetus to protect urban green space and as our work in Liverpool shows local authorities are recognising the important part green space plays in our neighbourhoods, towns and cities and stepping-up to ensure it is future proofed.”

The Green Space Index is an annual report from the charity Fields in Trust which analyses provision of park and green spaces. The report was first produced in 2019, and this year is the Index’s fourth edition. People can find out more about the green space provision by using the interactive web app on the Fields in Trust website.

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ICL products key to new pitch construction

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ICL products key to new pitch construction: A range of ICL products have helped Lincoln City FC’s new Fibresand pitch get off to the best possible start.

At the start of the 2021/22 season, Lincoln City had its pitch at the LNER stadium completely rebuilt. The huge project included a new gravel carpet, drainage system, multiple sand layers and the amelioration of Fibresand for added stability.

ICL products key to new pitch construction

ICL products key to new pitch construction

To do the new construction justice it was vital that the pitch received the correct products, and it was at this point that Head Groundsman Craig Housley liaised with Craig Lalley, Technical Area Sales Manager for ICL.

“A new Fibresand construction can take a bit of time to settle,” said Craig Lalley. “Therefore, when putting the programme together with Craig, we wanted to really concentrate on achieving good rooting to aid playability and recovery.”

Within a six-week window before the start of the season, Craig focused on three products in the form of Sierrablen Plus with Pearl Turf Starter, H2Pro TriSmart wetting agent, and Vitalnova Links biostimulant.

The first product applied was Sierrablen Plus with Pearl Turf Starter and was incorporated into the growing medium. “The organic acids that are produced by the rooting utilises the phosphorus and the magnesium from the Pearl technology which really aids early establishment and good strong rooting,” said Craig Lalley.

Through independent trials, data has revealed significantly increased rooting when Sierrablen Plus with Pearl is used as part of a seedbed preparation and during turf-laying. Furthermore, there was a 2.5 x increase in rooting when compared to another existing high-performing product.

To complement the grass seed and the Sierrablen Plus with Pearl Turf Starter, Craig then turned to TriSmart wetting agent. Containing three water management technologies consisting of surfactant and polymer blends, TriSmart is renowned for providing great water penetration, an even water spread through the rootzone and can improve the water holding capacity of sandy rootzones.

Craig Housley said: “Moisture management was key when the seeding first took place to aid moisture around the leaf which can help with seed germination. We needed that seed to be established as fast as possible.”

Craig confirmed that the two products had an instant impact: “I had never heard of the Pearl technology, but Craig Lalley told me that it would be ideal for a new construction and that it would really help with the germination of new seed. We decided to give it a go and I have never known grass to come through so quickly, uniformed, and strong – the sward health was exceptional.”

Four weeks after seeding, Sierrablen Plus with Turf Starter and H2Pro TriSmart were applied, Craig recommended ICL’s Vitalnova Links biostimulant which is a new unique formulation consisting of the popular Vitalnova Blade and Vitalnova SMX.

ICL products key to new pitch construction

ICL products key to new pitch construction

Vitalnova Links was tank mixed with TriSmart, and Craig Lalley explained why this was applied monthly: “It is a great soil drench spray. Vitalnova Links aids microbial stimulation, reduces biotic stresses and further develops the rooting; while TriSmart continues to manage the moisture and ensures that the pitch doesn’t dry out in warmer temperatures.

“Ultimately, we had quite a small window to utilise these products and ensure that the pitch was at an excellent standard in time for the start of the season. I believe we successfully achieved that.”

Craig Housley, who is continuing to adhere to an ICL integrated turf management programme, believes that the products have massively benefited the newly constructed pitch.

“Everyone knows that it takes a while for a new Fibresand pitch to really grip itself together, but I have been really surprised at just how good the pitch has been in its first year,” he said.

“We’ve also managed to maintain excellent grass coverage. In terms of playability, the pitch has benefitted the players and the style of football the manager wants to play. He has fast players that turn very quickly and to have the pitch underneath them with that kind of stability has really made a difference.”

Please contact ICL on 01473 237100 or visit www.icl-sf.co.uk or www.icl-sf.ie if you are in Ireland.

For more news and insightful views, you can follow ICL on Twitter @ICL_Turf

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