Nestled on the east bank of the Fox River in St. Charles, IL, Pottawatomie Golf Course is located in one of the most picturesque parts of the Greater Chicago area and is ranked as the 15th best 9-hole course in the US. Denise Gillet-Parchert has been the golf course superintendent at Pottawatomie for over twenty years.
Regarding how she ended up in the industry, Denise recalls, “I started at Joliet Junior College, and I was going to do floral design. One semester cured me of that! Florists knock themselves out every holiday. They work a million hours before every holiday. I thought, shoot, I don't want to do that. So I took the landscape turf track at Joliet Junior College, and I had to do on-the-job training the freshman year at Cog Hill. I started there just maintaining the flowers and the grounds around the clubhouse. They really liked me there, so they kept me on part-time in the wintertime when I went back to school. I then did my second on-the-job training there, but with the understanding that I did something other than what I did before. So they put me out on the golf course because landscape turf was the same track, the same classes, and I enjoyed it, I liked it and I stayed.”
After working at Cog Hill full-time for four years, Denise held positions at several other courses in the area, including at St. Charles Country Club and Rich Harvest Farms as assistant superintendent. In 1999, she was offered the superintendent's job at Pottawatomie and hasn’t looked back. “May 17th, I will have completed 24 years.”
The location of the course is something that Denise takes very seriously. “We're Audubon sanctioned and we're right next to the river. We're pretty much in town, or just five blocks north of downtown St. Charles. In the back of your mind, every decision you make is, ‘How is this going to affect the environment? How is it going to affect the golfers? How is it going to affect you personally?’ We all want to live long, and you don't want to be using products that you're going to find out cause cancer ten years down the road.”
Denise continues, “I have tried organic (fertilizer), but if I were to put down organic fertilizer, there is a smell to that. You just can't get away from that, and you get complaints left and right about the smell and what you're putting down, and it sends red flags up for everybody. You try telling them that it's organic or it's all-natural products, and it's just a hard sell. So to use something that is quote, ‘good for the environment,’ it kind of came with a stigma of smell.”
Denise came across Soil Technologies’ product line three years ago and purchased enough Thatch Relief and Oasys Ultra to try on her fairways. “I'll be honest with you, the first time I got the products, I didn't use them. I used them the next spring, and things kind of looked pretty good. The way it's applied, because we're so busy at the golf course, from sunup to sundown, we apply it at night, we throw the water down. Nobody knows we've done it. And there's no odor, there's no nothing. And great results. So it's a win-win for everybody, and it's good for the environment.”
2022 saw the program extended to greens as well. "Last year was kind of an anomaly. I think everybody was able to cut back a little bit on their products, but I didn't have a problem with Dollar Spot at all this year (I did three apps on greens and two apps on fairways). And in years past, Dollar Spot was always like my nemesis, that I was constantly spraying for. I believe it's under control now. Whether it's thatch removal, I don't know, but sometimes you don't have to know. You just have to know it works. I don't know whether that's the right statement to make, but sometimes a visual is better than anything: results."
Independent lab testing of her greens revealed that organic matter content was reduced an average of 15.68%. On the feedback she was getting from the lab before using the products, Denise says, "Well, most of the time, the conversation revolved around the pH of the greens. And so it's been strongly suggested to core aerate two times a year. It just isn't possible for us. But the simple fact of the lowering of the organic matter just helps overall with the quality of the greens in the summertime. We have a sand green, four push up greens, one 1:1 mix green, a couple of 80:20 greens. So there's just a plethora of green material or different material for the greens. It's kind of hard to manage nine as one. The sand green we treat a little bit differently. But I found that by lowering the organic matter in the greens overall, it's going to help with irrigation and disease suppression, all of that."
With nearly four decades in the business, Denise shares some final thoughts, "I've been in the industry a long time, and I've worked for a lot of different superintendents or a few superintendents that had different ways of doing things. One superintendent told me, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' And I think that's kind of your product. After seeing the results of your product, I might not know all the science behind it, but I can see the results, and the results are the important thing. If we can put more natural products down and use fewer chemicals, I think that's the trend of the industry, and the more we do that, the less we're going to be accused of poisoning the environment. I think we ought to use more of it. We're going to use more of it."
Jim Evans GCS, has groomed and maintained the 18 holes at Turnberry Golf Club in the Village of Lakewood IL for the past 30+ years. During his tenure, the course has played host to several USGA, CDGA and PGA events including the Illinois Open, and US Open Qualifying. Professionals and amateurs alike have commented on the condition of the course and its’ consistent greens.
Recently, Jim was interviewed by Xavier Dupoux, the USA National Golf Course Sales Manager for Soil Tech Corp. The following are Jim’s comments about Soil Techs’ biological product, Bac-Pack.
“I know that since we started using Bac-Pack on greens we’ve lowered the amount of fungicide we’re using. Last year, I think we did six apps of fungicides on greens for the whole year and we used to do 8 or 9 or 10. So it’s definitely reduced our fungicide usage, but we’ve also seen an improvement in the quality of the greens.
"When we had a nematode infestation, like 4 years ago, we started using Bac-Pack and within a month we started seeing the greens healing up. It started greening up and filling in all the areas. And then we started taking root samples to determine that the roots were regenerating. Before that we were getting roots where the nematodes were, at one inch. After the Bac-Pack apps we started seeing more root development. The greens just started healing up and filling in. It took all the stress off of them.
"Before the Bac-Pack apps we were doing wetting agents and hand-watering, anything we could do to try to get water into the greens and try to get them to heal up, and that wasn’t working! So, we used the Bac-Pack and they just started healing up. And for the last 4 years or 5 years, whenever we’ve used it, we’ve been doing it every 3 weeks and we haven’t seen any more problems with nematodes or severe thinning areas. It’s just healed up.
"I see the quality of turf is just so much better. The density is better, the overall health of the grass is just greener, healthier, thicker. The density has improved tremendously. The uniformity has improved. Golfers will say, “all these greens are the same….they all putt the same”. Because they’re so uniform, every green is just basically the same. They all look the same, they all putt the same.
"Golfers have noticed. The Chicago District Golf Assn. came out last week and rated the course and they noticed how uniform, they were all putting at 9.0-9.5 uniformly. It’s made managing these greens so much easier. Less input, less work, and just made it easier. It’s been a huge benefit for us.
"And disease control too. I think we’ve seen, before we started using this product, we we’re having trouble with anthracnose. In these areas that were thin, we were seeing a lot of anthracnose infections in the summer, we haven’t seen any of them in 4 years. We don’t treat for anthracnose any more. I don’t know what happened, where it went, but the turf is just healthier and maybe it’s just being able to fight it off more readily.
"Initially, we started doing it every 2 weeks at a pint per acre. And I think it took probably a good 4-5 weeks before we really started noticing how much better the greens started looking. The 16th green was always our worst green and it ended up being our best green. It just turned around within a month. We were trying to figure out why this was happening. We didn’t change anything else in the program other than Bac-Pack. I talked to my son one day, we were driving around, and I said I think this Bac-Pack is what’s providing us this quality turf. I didn’t have any other answer for it.”
"So, then we just continued to use it every year, we put it in the program with Bio-Mega and some wetting agents to try to get it to go down more readily. That seems to really helped get it into the soil more readily. It’s been easy to incorporate into our program, because we are going out every 2-3 weeks anyway. We just put it into the tank. That’s the primary thing we’re doing now: Bio-Mega, Bac-Pack, a wetting agent, and if we need a fungicide, we’ll put it in there, but if we don’t, we just leave it out. That’s why we’ve reduced our amount of fungicide apps over the years.
"It fit in with our budget, in fact it helped reduce our budget. As far as the amount of chemicals we’re using. To me it was a no-brainer. It’s providing some real benefits at a lower cost. That’s the way I look at it. It’s saving us money. We’re definitely saving $5000, maybe $10,000 in a year.”
There are thousands of varieties of nematodes, some beneficial and some harmful. Nematodes have adapted to just about every ecosystem on the planet—they live at high and low elevations, in polar and tropical regions, in fresh water, seawater and on land. In the world of soil-based agriculture, most harmful nematodes fall into the sting, lance or gall types. According to the APS (American Phytopathological Society), nematodes account for an estimated 14% of all worldwide plant losses or nearly $100 billion dollars annually!
Root-knot or gall nematodes are the worst culprits of the group. These nematodes form a gall or bump on the root of the plant and live inside it. Although nematodes are microscopic, the galls they form are often quite large. They damage roots so much that they can no longer provide proper nourishment to the plants. It's really easy to see the damage that's caused by the root-knot nematode, and it costs global agriculture a lot of money because it's very difficult to control.
Nematode Control Methods
Methods of nematode control fall into three broad categories: Cultural practices, chemical control and biological control.
Cultural Methods of Nematode Control
Rotating crops is a good way to control nematodes. You may have a crop that’s highly susceptible to nematodes, and then you rotate that field to other crops that are not susceptible. For example, if you have a field that you've been growing tomatoes in for 2-3 years and you rotate that to pasture grasses for 2-3 years, you will systematically and culturally control the nematodes.
The type of root-knot nematodes that damage tomatoes does not colonize the roots of grasses. When you transfer the field to grasses, you're basically creating an environment where the root-knot nematode no longer has a host. If you remove the host, the population will decrease in the field. This is the opposite of monocropping, where you grow the same crop over and over again, allowing the population of nematodes to become progressively more problematic year after year. Crop rotation is a cultural way of controlling nematodes, and it can work quite well. There are even cover crops which produce chemicals that are toxic to nematodes. However, if you have several types of nematodes in your soil, finding a crop rotation that will starve out all of them can be a bit tricky.
Mechanical methods, such as repeated tilling of fallow soil, may also be useful, but may be difficult to implement on a large scale.
Chemical Control of Nematodes
Chemical controls include fumigants and nervous system toxins. Fumigants have to penetrate a large volume of soil to be effective, and some of them volatize quickly. Large amounts of chemicals are often used, leading to increased risk and expense. Methyl bromide, a broad-spectrum pesticide often used for nematode control, is being phased out under the Clean Air Act. This has led to a search for alternatives.
Nervous system toxins can also provide effective nematode control. Because they are not toxic to plants, these chemicals (carbamates and organophosphates) can be applied after plants are growing and nematode damage is visible. However, since human beings also have nervous systems, any chemical treatments that target the nematode nervous system are a potential danger to humans. These chemicals are extremely toxic to humans and other non-target organisms, but there are alternatives.
Biochemical and Biological Nematode Control
Biochemical and biological controls can be used in conjunction with other controls or on their own. By naturally repelling nematodes and improving plant health, these methods may decrease dependence on chemical controls.
SoilTech Corp has two products that can be used for nematode control: Armorex and Nemastop.
Armorex is a full spectrum soil treatment that can help control soil borne fungi and insects in the soil as well as parasitic nematodes. Made from natural oils, it kills on contact and maintains a repellent action against many soil insects, nematodes and fungi. Armorex is exempt from EPA residue tolerance requirements and there are no re-entry restrictions. Sometimes used in place of methyl bromide, Armorex can be used as a soil pretreatment or during the growing season.
Nemastop is used post-planting to control nematodes and fungi. Composed of organic extracts blended with fatty acids, Nemastop can be used on turfgrass, ornamentals and food crops. It’s non-phytotoxic and also carries no residue tolerance.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a widely recognized and practiced approach to pest control in agriculture. What are the principles of IPM and how is it used? In this blog post we’ll cover some valuable information about this comprehensive practice.
IPM is a broad approach to pest control that takes into account several common-sense practices and rotation of pesticide applications. By taking information about plant and pest life cycles into account, IPM functions intelligently to control pests in the most economical and least risk-creating way.
Is IPM Organic or Conventional?
IPM is not a single type of pest management, but several strategies used in conjunction with one another. As such, IPM does not belong exclusively to either conventional agriculture or organic agriculture, but can be and is frequently applied in both. Conventional agriculture may use certain commonly held cultural practices alongside a rotation of available synthetic pesticides. Organic agriculture may hold those same practices, but only use naturally derived biopesticides when treating crops. Or, an IPM program may likely use a combination of both types of pesticides.
Principles of IPM
Though one IPM program can differ greatly from the next, IPM generally follows these basic four principles:
Regardless of the types and quantities of the above principles and controls used, the essential component of any IPM program is rotation. Pest control methods are changed frequently and strategically to prohibit pests from adapting and becoming resistant to any one method. When only one type of control is used, pests easily become resistant, and increasing amounts of the same material or practice are needed to control them. By rotating methods through IPM, lower quantities of pesticides and other practices are needed.
Almost all farmers and growers practice IPM to some extent, ideally using every available pest control resource in an economical, efficient way that is most beneficial to the entire environment. Here at Soil Technologies Corp., we make a range of natural pest control products, including Garlic Gard and Nemastop to control pests, but they’re only one part of a larger rotation of methods and materials. We encourage all growers to use these and other products together with Integrated Pest Management in mind.
Biochemical and biological nematode control methods are useful for those who want to decrease the expense and risk associated with toxic agricultural chemicals without reducing yields. There are three basic approaches to biochemical/biological control of nematodes:
Increase Soil Health
A live and healthy soil is filled with beneficial microorganisms which facilitate nutrient transfer for plants. A soil that supports a wide variety of biological life is less likely to be overrun by a single destructive pest.
The variety and amount of soil microorganisms can be increased by amending with well-prepared compost and/or microbial inoculants. Although amendments measurably increase yields, their impact on specific species of nematodes varies. In addition, large amounts of organic matter may be required. Fortunately, the results of adding organic matter continue over the course of years, making it possible to build soil health over time.
Building overall soil health is a long-term project, but increasing plant nutrition and the health of soil near the root zone can be as simple as applying a nutrient solution.
Increase Plant Nutrition
"You are what you eat" is as true for plants as it is for humans. Plants that suffer from nutrient deficiencies are more susceptible to insect and nematode damage and all the diseases that come with them. In the years since the development of standard NPK fertilizers, many growers have come to understand that there is more to plant nutrition than these three major nutrients, and they look for a fertilizer composition that supplies a broad spectrum of nutrients, micronutrients, and beneficial microbes.
The ingredients in INTERCEPT and ROBUST, both by Soil Tech, have been shown to reduce the amount of synthetic chemicals needed for maintaining plant root and foliage health. In addition, plants use the ingredients in these products to increase the health of their root zone, the place where nematodes attack. These products increase the biology of the soil and colonize the root system of the plants so that they produce their own antibiotic microenvironments—the rhizosphere of the root. In the presence of these antibiotics, the nematodes do not attack the root system.
If more targeted nematode control is needed, growers do have alternatives to dangerous agricultural chemicals.
Decrease Nematode Population
Although toxic insecticides and pesticides have been the norm in agriculture for several decades, the climate is changing. For the past 30 years Soil Tech has been helping growers reduce or eliminate their use of harmful chemicals.
ARMOREX, Soil Tech's flagship product, is a full-spectrum soil treatment that is so safe there are no re-entry restrictions. ARMOREX is also exempt from EPA residue tolerance requirements. So although it does sterilize the soil somewhat, it is much safer than other approaches. Using a collection of botanical oils, ARMOREX controls for parasitic nematodes including:
ARMOREX also controls several common soil-borne fungi and destructive soil insects, both by killing on contact and by maintaining a repellent action against many soil insects, nematodes and fungi. Target crops include a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, ornamentals and turf grass.
If you are trying to address a specific nematode problem, let Soil Tech help you design an integrated plan of attack that will protect your crops without endangering your growers.
Soil Tech has been in the microbial business for decades. That gives us a depth of experience that other manufacturers just don't have, and it also gives us a lot of satisfied customers! If you want to know more, click on over to our customer video testimonials on Turftech BioMin and listen to a 15 year user tell us about the many benefits he's seen with this product. Turf color improved right away, and soil and turf quality have continued to improve over the years of continued use. This very satisfied customer has also found TurfTech BioMin economical to use because it has eliminated so many other costs, includingbrown patch treatment, pre-emergent & post-emergent controls, Poa controls and seedhead control.
While there are many insects that are considered pests and may pose a threat to crops, there are many more insects that are actually beneficial to plants and eliminate other harmful insects. In this blog post, we’ll explain what beneficial insects are and how to protect and use them to benefit your crops.
What are Beneficial Insects?
Beneficial Insects are insects that perform positive functions in a growing environment. This commonly includes pollination or pest control. Beneficial Insects can occur naturally in an environment, or they can be added to increase positive effects in a growing environment. Utilizing the effects of beneficial insects is an economically valuable practice in any agriculture setting.
Encouraging beneficial insects by protecting them or adding more of them into a crop environment is a common component of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Specific beneficial insects are encouraged for their ability to prey on a harmful and unwanted type of insect. Examples may include using beneficial wasps to control beetles, or using ladybugs to eliminate several different varieties of arthropods.
Other common beneficial insects include:
By first identifying the insect(s) that may cause harm to your crops, you can find beneficial insects that are the natural enemies of those pests. The advantage of beneficial insects over other forms of pest control is that they will continue to prey on unwanted pests with little to no work on the part of the grower.
How to Encourage & Protect Beneficial Insects
If you’ve identified a beneficial insect that preys on a species that is harming your crop, there are several ways to encourage and protect beneficial insects so that they will continue to perform positive functions in the environment. As long as beneficial insects are happy, you’ll have a self-sustaining means of pest control that will work for far longer than a single application of conventional pesticide.
One way to use beneficial insects is actually to buy them in large quantities from a commercial retailer, then distribute them in a field or closed environment such as a greenhouse.
But whether you’re adding more beneficial insects or simply supporting those naturally occurring in the growing environment, it is essential to encourage these insects by both supporting their ideal conditions and ensuring that they are not harmed or killed by other materials you add to your crops.
Doing research on the specific type of beneficial insect you want to encourage is essential to creating an environment that will continue to support that insect. You might add companion plants, such as those in the Apiaceae and Asteraceae families, to attract more beneficial insects and keep them around your crops.
You must also be conscious of the potential consequences to beneficial insects from other pesticides and materials that you apply to your crops. Many pesticide applications intended to kill harmful insects will inadvertently kill beneficial insects as well. Thus, if you are using another method of pest control, it is wise to protect beneficial insects by trying a method of control that won’t kill them.
One common and effective means of controlling pests is to use an insect repellent along with the effects of beneficial insects. Repellents will drive away unwanted pests without killing the insects you want to stick around. Here at Soil Technologies Corp., we carry Garlic Gard, an excellent repellent against a wide variety of plant parasitic insects. Because it does not kill insects, you can protect your beneficial insects and continue to see their positive effects.
What are plant hormones and why are they important? Here we will introduce a few common hormones and their functions, including cytokinins for root development.
What They Are
Plant hormones, also called phytohormones or plant growth factors, are signal molecules essential to plant growth. Unlike animals, which have glands to secrete hormones in the body, plants produce hormones in every cell, in low concentrations. These hormones have different functions in the physiology of the plant, from determining the formation of stems, leaves, and flowers to regulating fruit and even the death of the plant.
While plants produce their own hormones naturally, similar hormones produced by microorganisms and fungi can be added to the plant through shared soil. Hormones are produced and used for local cell functions, but the plant is also able to move those chemicals to different areas through processes of cytoplasmic streaming within the cell, slow diffusion between cells, and vascular tissues between different areas of the plant.
Types of Plant Hormones
The very low concentrations of hormones within a plant make them difficult to study. However, there are five major classes of formally recognized plant hormones. These groups contain hormones with similar chemical structures, all of which carry out both positive and inhibitory functions within the plant.
Boosting Plant Hormones
Because small microorganisms can also produce some of these same plant hormones, it is possible to aid the plant with these additional essential biochemicals. Here at Soil Technologies Corp., we believe in harnessing the power of natural plant hormone production to boost crop growth.
Our Microp products use cyanobacteria as a biofertilizer, which also produces cytokinin hormones. Once applied to the soil where a crop is growing, the cyanobacteria will release cytokinins into the soil chemistry. The cytokinins are then available to the plant and translocated to the growing point of the root, where they stimulate cell division and thereby expand the root structure.
Pests? Soil Tech can help. We specialize in pest control products that work and are safe for people, pets and the environment. New this week, we’ve got lower prices on some of our favorites and made smaller sizes available to make it easy for you to try them out.
CHASE MOLE
Get rid of moles, armadillos, gophers or other burrowing pests with Chase mole products. The granules are available in quantities from 6-600 pounds and the liquid version is available in sizes from 1 to 30 gallons. Our newly available smaller sizes are perfect if you only have a small area to treat or if you just want to give the product a trial run.
GARLIC GARD
Garlic Gard is a natural spray that you can use to repel anything from flying insects to rabbits and deer. Available in sizes from 1 gallon to 55 gallons, and the prices have been lowered on all sizes.
PLANT PRO-TEC
If deer or rabbits have discovered your plants, have a look at Plant Pro-Tec. These handy little devices clip on, last for 6 months or more, and are made from biodegradable plastic. Long-lasting Plant Pro-Tec was developed especially for use in the forestry industry. These individual controlled release repellents are perfect for protecting your plants from rabbits and deer without fences or sprays. Available in bags of 25 to 250 units, with a new, lower price on the largest size bag.
PHYDURA
If weeds are your problem, check out Phydura. This contact herbicide is made from plant extracts and is a great alternative for situations where you can’t or won’t use a chemical herbicide. Available in sizes from 1 gallon to 55 gallons, and we’ve lowered prices on our multi-packs of quarts and gallons.
NIMBIOSYS
Nimbiosys is made from pure neem oil. Neem oil is known to control insects by various means including disrupting their growth hormones, preventing reproduction and simply repelling them. We’ve lowered prices on our case offerings of Nimbiosys and made individual quart and gallon sizes available as well.
Whether it’s ornamental or agricultural, let Soil Tech help you out with all your plant needs. If you don’t see what you what you’re looking for, give us a call or send us an email--our experienced staff is here to help you out!
It’s an all-too-common occurrence--irrigation or rain water causing fertilizer to run off into nearby ponds and lakes. The turf is no greener, the plants no more lush, and fertilizer (and money) is wasted. And to top it all off, nearby ponds are polluted, leading to unsightly algae blooms. This pollution process has a long name: eutrophication.
A Closer Look at the Problem of Eutrophication
Eutrophication happens whenever a body of water becomes overfilled with nutrients thanks to runoff from the surrounding land, and it has become a hot topic in recent decades. The nutrients may come from several sources, including intentional fertilization, manure from animal operations, sewage sludge, and natural phenomenon such as falling autumn leaves.
While on land, these nutrients can be a resource. Displaced to the water, however, they quickly become a liability. The increased nutrients can cause algae blooms, leading the water to turn an unsightly pea soup color. The growth in algae leads to unsafe drinking water, fish kills, and even dead zones.
This topic made the news in summer 2014 when residents of Toledo, Ohio were banned from drinking tap water. This was due to the toxic algae bloom in Lake Erie. Growers and landscape professionals have been urged to reduce the amount of phosphorus they use and to undergo training in applying commercial fertilizers. What is your company doing to prevent and remedy such problems?
Simple Solutions for Eutrophication
Some very simple strategies can help make your business part of the solution, rather than the problem.
With a bit of thoughtful planning and careful choice of products, landscapers and land owners can do quite a lot to prevent eutrophication and keep nearby waterways healthy and beautiful.
Q: I have a section of lawn that is in really terrible shape. I would like to kill the existing weeds and grass and start over, but this lawn is part of a playground area, so I don’t want to use conventional weed killers--can you help?
A: Phydura is great for this type of situation. Choose a sunny day in fall or spring to spray and be careful that it does not drift onto humans, pets, or any plants you want to keep. Phydura will kill both grass and weeds, but will not harm humans or pets. It even smells good--like cloves!
For best results, you should apply Phydura again a few days later to make sure you've got everything. If you time it right, you can even spray once in late fall, let the remaining weeds and grass freeze over the winter, and then spray again in early spring.
Depending on how much dead plant matter there is, you may need to break it up or remove it before you go on. You should also fill in any low spots and improve your soil and fertilize before you plant again.
Select seed that is suited to the growing conditions where you are. Re-seed your lawn according to the directions on the bag of seed, and watch it grow!
When Mike Greene, GCS first came to the Downriver Golf Course in Spokane WA in early 2016, it was the year that the golf course turned 100 years old. (See a video of Mike describing his experience with Bac-Pack, or just keep reading to learn more.)
“This is a really old poa golf course," he says. "Lots of trees, lots of shade, and we came into really constant Fusarium pressure almost 12 months a year. We threw all the tools we had at it the first year and when we got all done and when I looked back and reflecting on how the first year went, I looked back and we’d had 18 fungicide applications to finish the season and I just wasn’t happy. I just thought, 'What are we doing here? What are we doing wrong that was making that many necessary? What are we not doing to the soil that’s not allowing it to be healthy?'
"I started weighing some comparisons here and one of the things was that I just didn’t think we were doing much to support the biology of the soil. So we started initially going from your classic inorganic nutrients, the ammonium sulfates and urea’s and things like that, then going to some more vegetable-based and manure-based organic fertilizers to feed the microbes. Then we started making some compost tea initially and then we started with the Soil Tech product Bac-Pack to see if we could get some disease-suppression on this golf course. What we started seeing, was after we started using those 2 products in combination, we went from 7.8 pH to 7.2. So we definitely saw that there were things going on, again….soil!
"And we also started seeing when we used Bac-Pack, those windows when you could actually visually watch the fungicides in the past, wear off anywhere from 10-17 days, and see that disease pressure coming, it became 3, 4, or 5 weeks that you’d get between fungicide applications and then it would be, “Well, I don’t have disease on every green, I only have it on the corner of #17 and the right side of #2, not a global, down to the dirt disease epidemic like we were getting in the past. So, it was lengthening our spray windows, and then we started using it as a drench for Rhizoctonia for Waitea Patch and we actually saw, just all by itself, not just suppression but disease control. It would just visually disappear.
"So then we really incorporated it into our Waitea Patch program. It’s worked as well as any fungicide I’ve used, it’s less money per application than any fungicide I’ve used for Rhizoctonia and I’m just really optimistic and happy about the fact that we’ve probably saved….I think we’ve cut our greens fungicides about 65%, right about 2/3 for this year compared to last. Even though this year, weather-wise, should have been a higher disease-pressure year.
"So, those are the changes that I think I’ve attributed to seeing that reduction in disease pressure, and I’m really hoping that it’s going to continue, and we’re really making it a cornerstone of our agronomic program to really see what we can do first, plant health and soil heath-wise, before we get into that pesticide thing. Because I don’t…., I’m not anti-pesticide, I’ll use them if I have to in the right circumstances, but I feel a lot better about doing the things that we can control first. And, lo and behold, we saved $5,000-$6,000 by June this year, on fungicides that we were able to invest in other things on the course."
Mulching is a farming or gardening technique that involves covering the ground and planting into that soil cover or “mulch.” In a mulched garden or farm, you will rarely see any bare soil, and weeding and cultivating are kept to a minimum. Mulching serves many purposes. It is especially good at suppressing weeds. Without access to sunlight, a weed may sprout, but it will not grow. It needs light to fuel its photosynthesis processes. Another important advantage of mulching is the reduction of moisture loss due to evaporation at the soil surface. When the soil is covered, it is more difficult for sun and wind to dry it out. This preserves moisture and prevents crust formation. Mulch methods also tend to support a soil environment which is friendly to the biological life in the soil. With no soil disturbance and with constant access to moisture, the soil environment becomes much more friendly toward soil biological life. Soils that are regularly disturbed by weeding and cultivating generally have much less beneficial biology. It is now known that the biological life of the soil contributes substantially to the health and vigor of the plants.
What Materials Can You Use to Mulch?
There are many materials which can be used for mulch. While bags of colored bark chips may be favored in a landscape situation, there are many other possibilities in a farm or garden. These include:
• Plastic sheeting or other manmade mulch
• Straw or hay.
• Deep compost on the soil surface.
• Rolled down standing grass or legume crop. (Desired crops are planted into the crop that has been laid down.)
Potential Mulching Pitfalls
Mulched soil is slower to warm up in the spring. For that reason, some gardeners rake off the mulch to let the soil warm up before planting. Raking the soil bare, at least in planting areas, also allows for better seed-soil contact. Some mulch farmers find it easier to use plant starts, rather than seeds. After plants are well established, the mulch can be moved back.
Mulch provides habitat for small creatures such as slugs and mice. If such pests move into your garden or farm, you may need to trap them or invite their predators in for a treat!
In spite of these challenges, many gardeners swear that mulching allows them to enjoy greater productivity with less effort.
Why You Should Mulch Your Garden or Farm
Utilizing deep mulching with hay and straw and never disturbing the soil over seasons and years is an excellent method to preserve moisture, control weeds, and allow the soil biology under the mulch to regenerate itself. This preserved and renewed soil will support your crops and allow the full genetic potential of the plants to be realized.
Mike Kitchen, CGCS is “living his dream.” After graduating with a turfgrass degree from Michigan State, he pursued his goal of managing a golf facility near a world-class ski area. After a few stints as an assistant super in the western USA, he landed his current position as superintendent at Teton Pines Golf & CC in Jackson Hole Wyoming. Now,16 years later, he counts his lucky stars. “I really do love my job and the management team here at Teton Pines.”
A few years back, Mike was approached by a local environmental group called Friends of Fish Creek (FOFC). Fish Creek is a major tributary of the Snake River and runs through the Teton Pines Golf property. The FOFC mission is to enlist local stakeholders to adopt Best Management Practices (BMP) to help protect the Upper Snake River watershed by improving and restoring water quality in Fish Creek. In recent years, there had been several instances of algae blooms and other indicators of excessive nutrient loads in the creek.
“I began to think about things we could do differently here. As part of our initiative to try and reduce our fertilizer applications, I was contacted by Soil Tech’s rep Xavier Dupoux. As a rule, I’m not a snake oil guy, but what I heard from Xavier about Soil Tech’s experience over the past 30+ years, that got my attention,” says Mike. After discussing Soil Tech’s bio-fertilizers, Bio-Min and Bio-Mega, with his assistant, they decided to do a trial in 2014.
“We did a test where we used Bio-Min on selected fairway areas with 30% less fertilizer, and compared it to areas that we fertilized as usual. We followed the recommended Bio-Min program during the season and at the end of the year. We couldn’t determine any difference in turf quality in the test plots.”
As a result, Mike decided to use the Bio-Min program on all his fairway areas in 2015, 2016, and 2017. “We’ve been very impressed with the results. We’re maintaining a quality stand of grass, and we’re using 30% less fertilizer (21-0-24). In addition, we’ve noticed that areas where we had regular disease breakouts at the end of the summer just aren’t as bad as they had been. In 2016 it didn’t seem nearly as prevalent as previous years,” he observed.
“From a budgetary perspective, the savings in fertilizer is just about a break-even with the cost off the Bio-Min program,” Mike says. “But, when you add in the environmental benefits and the suppression of diseases, then the Bio-Min program is a no-brainer for us here at Teton Pines. Being in the shadow of Teton National Park and near the Yellowstone Valley, we are under lots of environmental scrutiny. We are definitely benefitting from the use of Soil Tech’s bio-fertilizers, and we will continue using the programs in the future. It’s the right thing to do.”
Wes Ory is owner and founder of Heritage Lawns & Irrigation in Kansas City, in business since 1995. Heritage Lawns prides themselves on being an earth-friendly lawn and irrigation company. Their focus is trying to do the right thing, whether it’s saving water with their irrigation services, or using organic fertilization practices.
According to Wes, Kansas City has a real heavy clay soil that bakes down into brick every summer. Heritage Lawns had been doing core aerations as part of their lawncare program for 20+ years. It worked, but there were some problems associated with it.
Problems with Core Aeration
Originally it wasn’t a big deal for them to do mechanical aerations with only a few lawns, but as business grew, core aeration became an issue and a burden in terms of labor, equipment, and coordination. And then there were the damages--most damages occurred during core aeration, e.g., bumping into a fence, running over valve boxes, or hitting sprinkler lines.
During the summer of 2015, Wes went to visit Alec McClennan with Good Nature Lawns in Cleveland, Ohio. Alec had been using Soil Tech’s Oasys Ultra and Thatch Relief with good results. Together these products form Soil Tech's Liquid Aeration Spray Program and they offer an eco-friendly alternative to running the aerating machine around the customer lawns. But would it work in Kansas City?
Promising Early Tests with Liquid Aeration
Wes tested Oasys Ultra and Thatch Relief on about a dozen lawns. The lawns bounced back after the long hard summer and continued to look good that fall.
The following spring, he picked a couple more lawns that were not greening up and had thicker thatch layers. After applying Oasys Ultra and Thatch Relief these lawns bounced back and looked good for the rest of the season.
After seeing those results, Wes decided to roll out Soil Tech’s products into their full lawncare program. Fortunately, the applicators did not have to learn any new techniques or any new skill sets. It was just like what they were going to do if they were treating a lawn with a regular fertilizer/weed control.
Liquid Aeration Benefits
The wetting agent in the formula helped loosen the soil up and open it up in the fall. The lawn quality came back fast after the treatment. The customers were very happy with the way the lawns looked, both in terms of color and the quality. Since switching to Soil Tech’s Liquid Aeration Spray Program, Wes has found that these products cut costs in both labor and damages.
“It has been a huge labor savings for us,” Wes said.
Heritage now offers liquid aeration at the same price as they did for a typical core aeration and Wes says that works out well.
“You have your offset of your labor vs. your product. Whatever you’re charging for your normal core aeration, I think you’re going to find it works,” he tells other LCO’s (lawn care operators).
Heritage Lawns & Irrigation now uses Soil Techs’ Oasys Ultra and Thatch Relief as part of their standard offerings to their customers. They still offer core aeration as an additional service, if somebody wants it.
Direct Access to Soil Tech Experts
And although moving from core aeration to liquid aeration has been pretty easy, Wes says he appreciates knowing that he can always reach Soil Tech directly.
“Soil Tech has been really great to work with. If I’ve got some questions about the products, they get right back to me right away and, if I need something, they’ve been there to help me out, so I really appreciate that.”
And now that he’s been using Liquid Aeration for several seasons, Wes has some tips of his own for other lawn care operators.
Liquid Aeration Tips for LCO’s from Heritage Lawns
Mixing: Because it is an organic product, you want to keep the mixing to smaller batches. Mix it individually with each truck as it comes through.
Being an organic product, if you leave it sit in the tank over a Labor Day weekend, for example, it’s going to get a little “whiffy” on you after 3 days. So, you’ll want to make sure that you’re using it each night as you go.
Mixing it in small batches it is not difficult at all. A couple hundred gallons at a time and it works very well.
Application: As far as application, it’s just a typical hose-end sprayer, 2-4 gallons a minute or 2-4 gallons per 1000 sq ft works nicely.
Wes sums things up by saying, “We’re seeing some real solid results and know you will too.”
TurfTech Bio-Min has been providing golf course superintendents with a unique problem-solving tool for over three decades. This multi-action bio-fertilizer: cuts fertilizer needs, replaces minerals that may have been depleted due to clipping removal, reduces soil compaction, and suppresses turfgrass pathogens.
TurfTech Bio-Min’s easy-to-use formulation consists of: 1) nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria that restore the soil’s biological fertility; 2) beneficial bacteria to inhibit fungal development; 3) volcanic minerals that supply over 60 major and minor elements; 4) polysaccharides that improve crumb structure of the soil.
TurfTech Bio-Min is a powerful tool that has helped hundreds of superintendents to keep their courses in top condition, even in the worst of circumstances. As a result, TurfTech Bio-Min was featured in the cover story of Golfdom magazine’s November 2011 issue.
The article was titled, Just Add Germs: How microbes could dramatically change the way you fertilize your golf course.
The article begins with, “For years, superintendents have shrugged off microbial biofertilizers as just another batch of snake oil. But recently, biofertilizers infused with beneficial microbes that can help release nutrients bound in the soil are starting to make an impact for superintendents around the country. The latest information suggests that biofertilizers can reduce the quantity of necessary N applications, combat diseases and increase turf health. How about that? Germs can be your friends.”
Rick Hynson, superintendent at the Boone Valley Golf Club describes his experience with TurfTech Bio-Min. “I have been a golf course superintendent for 30 years in the Saint Louis, MO. area. Saint Louis is known for having very brutal summers. Couple that with the fact that I have 40 acres of bentgrass on my golf course and it’s safe to say that I have my hands full.”
“I started using TurfTech Bio-Min in 2004 after I was introduced to the product by Barbara Agee, my Soil Tech Consultant. I was looking for a product that would help me to cut down on the need for synthetic fertilizer applications during the summer months, so I gave it a try. It is one of the best decisions I have ever made. Not only do I get a nice sustained growth response when it is applied, but there is a noticeable decrease in the amount of thatch in my bentgrass. My clay soil has become restructured and is now something I can work with. I have indeed reduced the need for granular fertilizers which saves my golf course money. Bio-Min helps me to actually grow grass in the summer instead of always just fighting to keep it alive. In conclusion I would like to thank the Soil Technologies Team for producing products that really work. You have made my job easier, and in Saint Louis every little bit counts. Thanks again.”
Mr. Hynson’s comments, made in November of 2011, provide a very clear and concise summary of how and why golf course superintendents have adopted this remarkable bio-fertilizer technology.
In 1989, Soil Technologies Corp. (Soil Tech), a leading research firm in the area of biological inputs for agriculture, submitted a project funding proposal to the Iowa Product Development Corporation Fund (IPDCF). In 1990, Soil Tech was awarded with a PROPEL grant of nearly $300,000 to accelerate market development of a “non-toxic, biological fungicide for the turfgrass pathogens commonly known as Leaf Spot and Dollar Spot.”
Even though there had been earlier research on the concept of biological control of plant pathogens in agriculture, this grant marked the first documented attempt by a commercial company to bring a bio-fungicide to the T&O marketplace. The grant application stated that, “The need for a safer technology to control fungal infection on turfgrasses is in demand. Federal government agencies, activist groups, and some scientists object to the use of chemical fungicides in recreational settings. The removal or restriction of the currently used chemicals will automatically create a vacuum in the turfgrass fungicide market.”
Once the project funding had been secured, Soil Tech moved forward to determine if isolates of Pseudomonas and Streptomyces were capable of preventing Sclerotina homeocarpa (dollar spot) and Bipolalris sorokiniana (leaf spot) from infecting Poa pratensis (Kentucky bluegrass) under controlled laboratory conditions. In early 1991, a project was begun in the Horticulture Dept. at Iowa State University (I.S.U.) in Ames, Iowa. The goal was to evaluate whether the selected bacterial strains had potential as biological control agents on foliar pathogens of turf.
The co-principal investigators, were I.S.U. professors, Clinton F. Hodges and Nick E. Christians. In the July 1991 Iowa Turfgraearch Report (pg. 155), the observations of the researchers were reported. “Preliminary laboratory studies have established biocontrol activity against dollar spot in three isolates each of Pseudomonas and Streptomyces. The isolates of both organisms substantially decrease the development of dollar spot infection. The average decrease in disease (measured as loss of chlorophyll and yellowing) by the six isolates is 97.5%. Field studies are planned for the summer of 1991 to determine the potential use of these microbes for controlling dollar spot and leaf spot in the field.”
In November of 1991, in a letter to Soil Tech management, Dr. Hodges stated, “There are numerous unknowns associated with this type of developmental endeavor, and it is unlikely that all of the unknowns will be solved rapidly. Some of the microorganisms examined by us certainly have the ability to inhibit or compete with the pathogens examined. In the process of analyzing the field study data, we have seen that the challenge will be to get this activity to function consistently in the field.”
Over the next several years, Soil Tech worked with a research team of The Scotts Co. (Scotts) in Marysville Ohio to pursue the goal of bringing a bio-fungicide product to the professional turfgrass market. Seeing the potential of non-toxic products in the golf course market, Scotts and Soil Tech had entered into a cooperative agreement that would give Scotts the exclusive marketing rights to the technology, assuming that field trials were successful and that a product registration could be attained from the U.S.E.P.A. Together with the management of Scotts chemical product R&D, two years of field trials were undertaken in 1992 & 1993 on golf course turfgrass at the Scotts research facility in Ohio. The results of these trials led to several conclusions about the potential for these technologies. First, true biocontrol of turfgrass disease was challenging for a single species of microbe. With the wide range of variables and outdoor growing conditions, it was observed that no single strain of microorganism could produce the type of biocontrol results that had been demonstrated earlier in the I.S.U. labs. Second, any potential bio-fungicide for turf would need to employ multiple microorganisms working in tandem to have enough of a broad-spectrum result to justify product acceptance in the market. And third, the pesticide registration process with the E.P.A. would be considerably more complicated and costly for a mixture of microbes than for the registration of a single biocontrol microbial agent.
Shortly after the completion of these field trials, and after their IPO in 1993, Scotts decided to discontinue their ProTurf division and exited the golf course product supply business. This ended the collaborative bio-fungicide research work between Soil Tech and Scotts.
Soil Tech then took charge of the additional work that was required to complete the product development process. The company brought the development project in-house in 1994. Then, after multiple seasons of efficacy trials, in 1996, Soil Tech introduced their new product, Bac-Pack, into the golf course turf market. Bac-Pack consisted of multiple strains of beneficial bacteria that, in addition to improved recovery from various turf diseases, had demonstrated improved turfgrass health, improved rooting and had also exhibited improved (faster) recovery from pathogenic nematodes.
In 1998, in field trials conducted by Dr. Eric Nelson and Cheryl M. Craft at the R.T. Jones Golf Course at Cornell University in New York state, Bac-Pack was measured for its ability to suppress disease symptoms from various turf pathogens. This project was designed to examine the impact of pesticide applications on the efficacy of commercial microbial inoculants used to improve plant health and recovery from turfgrass diseases.
However, as the report concluded, “our results showed that some commercially available microbial inoculants were suppressive to Brown Patch and Anthracnose diseases.” 
On multiple dates during these trials the suppression by Bac-Pack of the diseases in this study was equivalent to or better than the conventional treatments available for use on turfgrass.
Today, after 20 years of commercial application, Bac-Pack continues to be employed by golf course superintendents to improve soil health and provide a non-toxic tool to reduce the use of chemical products in the management of turfgrasses in golf and sports turf. Soil Tech continues to explore the ways in which Bac-Pack can be utilized by turf managers and Soil Tech has recently sponsored new research studies to expand the scope of what the product can be utilized for and to further understand the product's efficacy.
In a recent interview of Ben Nelson, Supt. at Downriver Golf Course at the City of Spokane WA Parks Dept., he made the following comments and observations about his usage of Bac-Pack on the golf course:
“Bac-Pack was first introduced at the City of Spokane WA golf courses back in 2017. I was skeptical about Bac-Pack at first. I am skeptical at first for many of the new products that get introduced to the market, but that doesn’t stop me from trying them. It took multiple applications here at Downriver to start to see results. Once the microbial populations started to grow in the soil is when you could see the best results. I have noticed too, that when soil temps are warmer you can see results better.
"Being in the Pacific Northwest we see a lot of different weather extremes. Bac-Pack has been an awesome product to work alongside with our regular chemical program. At Downriver we use it on a 3-week application rotation. Since the implementation of Bac-Pack, Downriver GC went from using on average 20 chemical applications a year to an average of 12 chemical applications a year.
"At first you see what it’s going to take out of your budget. Here at Downriver I use 5 gallons of Bac-Pack a year which is about the cost of one fungicide application. As I said previously, it has saved us on average about 6 fungicide applications a year, so there are no real budgetary considerations. It has ended up saving us money in the long run.
"This product has saved money in chemical applications and some labor. It was easy to incorporate into my existing spray program. I started spraying it by itself at first, but now it’s just part of the program.
"It has been a great addition to our spray program in difficult conditions. A healthier plant survives in harsher environments and Bac-Pack helps make the grass plant healthier.”
