4 minute read
Seeds & Fertiliser
Perfect pitch
Greener greens
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This season has seen head groundsman of Kingston Grammar School, Matt Perry, focus his attention on the outfields and four cricket squares of the independent co-educational school just outside London.
Managing the school's 22-acres using seed from the DLF portfolio, it is a combination of ProMaster 79, ProMaster 80 and ProMaster 36 from the Masterline range that Matt has used to deliver a first-class finish for the young cricketers who play here.
DLF seed has been used at the school for the past five years, creating the perfect playing surfaces for winter sports, tennis as well as the cricket.
“Over time, we’ve sown mixtures from both the Johnsons Sports Seed and Masterline ranges, with an unwavering confidence that whatever we use is going to perform,” explains Matt, who heads up a team of three.
“We conduct a full renovation on the football surfaces in spring to prepare for the cricket season, with overseeding roughly every six weeks throughout the season where it’s needed. For this we selected ProMaster 80 Renovator, purchased from Core Amenity, which gives us strong, equal establishment and a resistant and hard-wearing sward to cope with the pressures of a high wear season,” he continues. As the name suggests, PM80 Renovator is ideal for the renovation of worn playing surfaces – featuring 25% Tetragame 4turf tetraploid and 75% diploid perennial ryegrass for a disease resistant, drought tolerant and nitrogen efficient mix.
As the temperatures cool, Matt switches to ProMaster 79 as a 50% tetraploid mixture for more effective autumn/ winter overseeding. “It's proven to deliver great colour and great recovery on our outfields through the colder months.” Completing the programme is ProMaster 36 Wicket which establishes quickly and gives a dense, resistant sward on the cricket squares.
For the past six years, the greens at Rushmore Golf Club near Salisbury have been chemical free. Alongside cultural practices and an overseeding programme, much of the success to achieve this says Course Manager Jamie Acton is due to products from the Suståne range of organic fertilisers which have delivered outstanding plant health, strength and resilience.
“When I took over almost 10 years ago, I inherited quite a heavy feeding regime, largely based on synthetic fertilisers,” explains Jaime.
“I had used formulations from Suståne in previous roles, and knowing what they could do, began ‘weening’ the greens away from the synthetic feeds and the additional chemicals this programme required, and onto a primarily organic regime.” Working closely alongside technical representatives from local distributor AGS, the Suståne programme has been refined over the years depending on the soil’s requirements – now consisting of 6-2-4 Turf Revival in the summer and 5-24+Fe for feeds throughout the cooler months.
Suståne 6-2-4 is specifically formulated to provide the right nutrients to assist with post-maintenance recovery and plant stress. In addition to water-soluble and organic sources of Nitrogen, 6-2-4 features Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizae which has been enhancing the germination of Jaime’s bent overseeding programme. “We apply 6-2-4 every six to eight weeks at 25g/m2 which tends to correlate with our overseeding work meaning the seed is sown straight into that nutrition. The plant is strong and resilient enough to cope with the pressures of that period, including disease, and specifically Anthracnose.”
Jaime continues, “In the autumn and winter we continue the dormant feeding with Suståne 5-2-4 which keeps microbial levels up, allowing us to protect against disease rather than having to react to it. The small amount of Iron in this formulation also helps to give us good winter colour.”
“With our Suståne programme, we are feeding the soil rather than the plant, getting the nutritional needs right from the ground up and allowing the plant to take everything it needs to remain strong and healthy.”
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