Tru Mark's Trail Blazing Blog

As sports turf enthusiasts and field maintenance specialists we see the all to common turf "wart", the divot, caused by sports play. Unfortunately the divot repair typically produces an even more noticeable "wart" for several days.

Tom Russell, Golf Course Superintendent, Missoula Country Club, has perfected a divot mix to minimize the noticeable "wart". He has incorporated sand, water, green paint, compost, and seed using a cement mixer.

To help speed up the recovery of the existing turf and help accelerated the seed growth consider a new product by Growth Products called Repair Plus. According to Growth Products Growth Plus is a unique blend of organic nutrients, biostimulants, natural wetting agent, humic acid and growth promoting rhizobacteria< (PGPR). Growth Products states that Repair Plus should be be mixed with top dressings and seed to heal damaged turf roots and accelerate new growth. It will encourage desired grass species to fill quickly and avoid undesirable grass varieties.

Now using Growth Plus and the prescribed divot mix formula your sports fields may not suffer the noticeable turf "wart" phenomenon.

We periodically get calls about adding a growth regulator to the paint during field marking operations. This technique will slow the growth of grass so the lines will not be mowed off as quickly. Several years ago Iowa State University conducted turf trials using two of the most common grow regulators at that time, Embark and Primo Maxx. I've spoken to several turf managers who have used these products and all agree that less is better, 1/2 oz. per diluted gallon of paint seems to work the best. Just make sure you don't double stripe when using the growth regulator. Syngenta Primo Maxx PBI/Gordon Embark

Do you have a favorite receipe to improve your sports turf surfaces? We'd love to you hear your solution and the story behind it.

Labels: Turf _Tips