These are the slides from my workshops and presentations at BTME this week. You can view the slides here, or go to SpeakerDeck to download any of these slide decks.

Turf Conditions & Optimal Efficiency with the Grammar of Greenkeeping

This full day workshop on 21 January covered the system described in my book A Short Grammar of Greenkeeping.

Green Speed is More Than a Number

I discussed variation in green speed during this one hour presentation. The right side of a green won’t be exactly the same speed as the left side, for example, but what is a normal amount of variation from place to place within the same green? An inch? 8 inches? How about the variation from green to green? Is it more or less than the variation within greens? In this presentation I tried to make two points.

  1. I think it is useful for turfgrass managers to consider the variability in green speed.
  2. The variability in green speed increases dramatically when the speed increases.

Principles of Turfgrass Nutrition: why some nutrients are required as fertiliser and others are not

This one is self-explanatory. We worked through a number of calculations on the flip charts in the room during this half-day workshop, and those calculations are not on the slides. We worked through estimates of mineralization from soil organic matter, and how to get a maximum growth estimate and nutrient use based on N supply to the grass.

Using and understanding the MLSN guidelines for nutrient recommendations

This two hour workshop continued for another hour (for the people who were able to stay) because of all the continuing discussion. The slides pretty much cover what we discussed, although on the flip charts we worked through growing degree days (GDD), the temperature-based growth potential (GP), converting between parts per million (ppm) in the soil and fertilizer application rate (g/m2 or kg/ha) on the surface, and plenty more examples of estimating nutrient use based on how much healthy grass is growing.