Three years ago I used the country field from the MLSN newsletter subscription list to do a rough geographical analysis of those using MLSN. I found it most understandable, given the information available, to express the reach of MLSN in terms of the number of golf facilities per subscriber in... [Read More]

After I wrote the seven part series about soil sampling for turfgrass, I formatted the posts into an easy-to-read 11 page PDF brochure. The take-home message is yes, we’ve been doing it wrong. Composite sampling is not ideal. Doing so is likely to overestimate the nutrients in the soil, which... [Read More]

When I play golf, I much prefer to walk, so the choice between walking and riding is usually an easy one. These all-terrain vehicles are staged near the first tee, ready for action. I’ll admit, though, that when I visited a course in western Thailand with these ATV carts for... [Read More]

Anything resembling thatch or mat is explicitly excluded from the soil organic matter measurement made on routine soil nutrient analyses. That portion of soil organic matter is excluded because it is not measured. Those big chunks of organic matter are removed from the sample prior to testing by passing the... [Read More]

There’s a ton of work done to modify the soil organic matter of turfgrass surfaces. Fertilizer, water, and increased light will allow the grass to grow and naturally increase the organic matter in the soil. Sand topdressing will increase the mass of the soil without adding organic matter, so that... [Read More]