All Episodes
Displaying 121 - 150 of 161 in total
Zoysia on putting greens? Why?
Have you ever putted on zoysia greens? Wait, zoysia can be used on putting greens? Yes, it can be, and in many cases it makes a fine choice of grass. However, it has a...
Zoysia seedheads and pitchmarks that last
I discuss two blog posts---one is pitch marks and what I know about reducing damage from them. The other is zoysia seedheads, specifically on manilagrass, and the inte...
Trees, turf, and tropical tournament golf
Chris Chase joined me to discuss the types of grass that work in tropical conditions when there is a combination of high temperatures, cloudy weather, and tree shade. ...
Soil and water management: 3 problems (salinity, sodium hazard, & deficiencies), with solutions
I discuss three primary problems that may occur with irrigation water and soil. These are chemical problems that one might not be aware of without testing. Specificall...
Urea as putting green fertilizer for complete control of tournament greens
Andrew McDaniel and I discussed complete control of putting green fertilizer with urea, including how to make the applications, when to worry about burn, and how he di...
4 tools to measure putting green firmness
This looks at a classic post from a few years ago in which I discussed four tools used to measure surface hardness (firmness) of golf course putting greens. Andrew McD...
Turfgrass rootzones: a carbon-rich, nitrogen-poor world
Joe Gulotti joined me to talk about one of the posts that got the fewest views in 2018. The topic is soil microbes and how they live in a carbon-rich world, and why th...
Elemental nutrient ratios as fertilizer recommendations, and a trip to see zoysia greens in the USA
Andrew McDaniel joined me to discuss fertilizer recommendations for fine turfgrass, not as quantities, but as ratios. We also discussed my trip to the USA, where I was...
Is the extra hole on Kawana's Fuji Course the best in the world? I think so. Plus, tropical #ClipVol
I discussed two ATC blog posts with guest Andrew McDaniel. We talked about the utility of an extra hole, and also the rather special one at Kawana. We also discussed c...
Putting green firmness, speed, and roll quality at the Catalunya Championship
I explain what I talked about during my seminar at the Catalunya Championship, and share the summary charts showing playability measurements related to ball bounce and...
Grass can grow too slow, plus Tom Cook's lawn and 2 tournaments in Spain
I explain how grass is systematically grown faster than the optimum growth rate because errors on the side of slow growth are worse than errors on the side of too much...
Soil organic matter accumulates more rapidly in young greens with lower OM content to begin with
This is an obvious concept but the implications are complex. If soil organic matter accumulates more rapidly in young soils, and if one wants to manage soil organic ma...
What if the soil organic matter was never there to begin with?
I discuss my visit to (and seminar at) the University of Florida, and consider whether soil organic matter content stability over time might be related to the inherent...
MLSN & "deficiencies", tissue test manifesto, & Ireland conference presentations
I discuss two presentations from the ATPI conference in Galway, Ireland, how one might think about soil "deficiencies" when doing soil test interpretation, and discuss...
The Tale of Two Tests (for soil organic matter)
I discuss tests for soil organic matter, and explain the distinction between those tests and a different kind of test for total organic material by depth. I also talke...
A crash course in #OM246 and burn temperature
I made two new videos about burn temperature and what happens to OM246 samples when they are burned in a muffle furnace. I also play a clip about the importance of con...
What's normal for OM2? (the total organic material at the surface of a putting green)
I discuss the total OM on putting greens in the top 0 to 2 cm (0.8 inches), along with fertilizer, disruption, OM accumulation rate, and a new slider at the top of the...
Bentgrass greens: average fertilizer supply vs. nutrient use
I looked at data from 16 golf courses in Japan, and discussed this dataset and how it can be used to compare the quantity of fertilizer added to putting greens to the ...
What's the deal with the variance parameter in the growth potential equation?
This discusses how changing the variance value in the turfgrass growth potential equation will change the shape of the curve as one moves away from the optimum growth ...
Using temperature-based growth potential (GP) to evaluate and compare season length
The temperature-based growth potential (GP) was developed by PACE Turf and has many uses. One of the things I often use it for is to evaluate season length, and to com...
Soil sampling procedures for turfgrass: discussion & survey results
I discuss the 7 question, 2 minute survey, about soil sampling procedures for turfgrass, and I explain why this is an important topic that I've been paying more attent...
Two similar approaches to turfgrass nutrition with one notable difference
I discuss #MLSN and the precision fertilisation approach of STERF, and discuss a blog post that points out how similar these approaches are, and what the one notable d...
Five comments (and my replies) about the OM246 Office Hours
A colleague from Canada wrote with 5 comments after finishing the ATC Office Hours episode about OM246 with guest Chris Tritabaugh. I explain here how I responded, and...
The remarkable effect of [just enough] traffic on an unmown lawn
One of my running routes takes me past an unmown lawn. Yet some of the grass in that lawn is of such a height, texture, and quality, that it could be a golf course put...
Turf Twitter analysis, irrigation frequency and amount, & ATC content survey results
For the fifth year in a row, I've done an analysis of turfgrass Twitter to identify some of the most influential accounts. I discuss this, the ten posts on the blog th...
The top 10 posts of 2021 plus the non-comprehensive awesome list
I discuss the top 10 posts on the ATC blog in 2021, which were mostly about coring, aeration, organic matter matter management, and playability. I also discussed the n...
Does organic matter vary from green to green by a lot, or by a little?
Daniel Hahn asked me if organic matter (OM) varies a little bit, or a lot, between greens on the same course. What was my opinion about that, he asked? Fortunately, I ...
The 2.5 hour OM246 discussion, distilled, summarized, and reviewed
When Chris Tritabaugh and I sat down to discuss the OM246 report, it turned into a two and a half hour conversation. By request, I summarized it in a blog post, which ...
Zoysia, water use, and fact checking
I saw an article in the Global Golf Post that states zoysiagrass "requires … less water .. than bermuda[grass]." I guess there's not much fact-checking in golf industr...
One thing I'd like everyone to understand about MLSN
Grass is alive (hopefully), so it uses nutrients. That means the nutrients in the soil go down over time. When using MLSN the way I do it, you'll make an estimate of h...