Finding ways for turf to grow better

The desire to improve soil has been the aim of farmers going back thousands of years with evidence of everyone from the early Egyptians onwards searching for ways to making their crops grow better.

In those days it was manure that has was applied and while that would now appear to be a fairly basic raw product it was a sign that the science of plant nutrition was in its infancy.

Indeed manure held its own as the “product” for centuries and English entrepreneur, John Bennet Laws, patented a manure which he’d formed by treating phosphates and sulfuric acid in 1842 – thank you Wikipedia – which was the first case of an artificially-created product.

The development of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser in the early 1900s has been phenomenal with over half the earth’s population being fed as a result of synthetic nitrogen fertiilser. The use of phosphate increased from nine million tonnes per year in 1960 to 40 million tonnes per year in 2000.

Billions have been, and continue to be, spent on research and development ensuring that the maximum impact is derived from the minimum input with the protection of the plant at the forefront of thinking. It is the work of those men and women in white coats which will ensure that whatever challenges are thrown at them by the climate or in the shape of new regulations, we will have tools to maintain our sports surfaces.