The primary metabolic function of turf is to use sunlight, water, and nutrients to manufacture its own food; and food in turf is in the form of carbohydrates. The traditional approach to fertilizing turf—throwing large amounts of N, P, and K at it—only works when there is sufficient leaf surface for photosynthesis and when the turf is not under stress. That approach can be cost-effective for feeding roughs, but it is an inadequate approach to feeding closely-mowed fairways, tees, approaches, and greens, especially during periods of environmental stress. You wouldn’t feed a steak to a patient in an ICU. Similarly, to provide nutrition to turf mowed at or below .125” requires an approach that takes into account the metabolic functions of the turf under stress.

For turf to manufacture its own food requires that its metabolic functions are not compromised. However, compromises do occur in practice. The first compromise occurs when leaf surface is removed by close mowing. That limits the plant’s ability to capture sunlight for photosynthesis. The second compromise occurs when the weather is stressful—hot, humid, dry, or excessively wet conditions will all stress the turf, and turf under stress cannot produce its own proteins or growth hormones. Finally, the life cycle of cool season turf means that, on a net basis, carbohydrates are stored in the cool periods of the year and expended during the hot periods. The turf is living on “savings” in the summer. A fertility program that stimulates excessive growth in the summer stresses the plant and expends valuable carbohydrates when that growth is mowed, leading to a path of rapid senescence and death.

Compared to a conventional fertility program, a comprehensive Nutrition Program provides complete nutrients (macro, micro, and trace elements) in small, readily available amounts. It also provides vitamins, amino acids, auxins, and cytokinins to support the plant’s metabolic functions, to increase cell division and root growth, and to increase the turf’s photosynthetic capacity. A comprehensive Nutrition Program provides optimal nutrition to keep the plant healthy and increase its stress tolerance and disease resistance without stimulating excessive growth. Controlled growth in the summer is just as important for maintaining plant physiological fitness as it is for maintaining fast putting speeds. On greens, tees, and approaches, plant vigor is not measured in terms of clipping yield; it is measured in terms of turf density, color and quality and in terms of stress tolerance and disease resistance.

The Emerald Isle Solutions™ complete Nutrition Programs described in Keeping it Green provide both seaplant extract and complete True Foliar™ nutrients to increase plant physiological fitness and produce superior turf quality, even under the most stressful conditions.