Compost is Complete

We finished topdressing compost on fairways approaches and tees!  It took a little while with our schedule split between our two courses, but we got it knocked out.  120 yds were spread over 26 acres for a rate of approximately 4.6 yards per acre.  This is a little lighter than our rates in the past, but we are confident that we will have good green up in the spring and that our nutrient levels will stay strong without a synthetic winter fertilizer application to these areas. 

We are toying with the notion of including rough in our future applications of compost and foregoing any synthetics if possible.  That isn't to say that we won't use any slow release sources, but to this point, we are very pleased with the results and hope to expand our program even further.  For more information about the benefits of compost check out the United States Composting Council website.  On a side note, Chris Johnson has been asked to give an hour long webinar for the GCSAA in January on our compost program here at Legacy Ridge.  We are all looking forward to viewing it and are proud of the notoriety Chris and Legacy Ridge are receiving in the matter.

Compost is here

A sure sign that aeration is upon us, 120 yds of compost arrived today and will be a mainstay in our parking lot until aeration is completed.  In the past we have ordered 200yds, but with a tight budget for the remainder of the year, we cut our rate slightly to save a little money.  We have discussed before some of the benefits we hope to realize in amending our soil with compost, but there is no better time than after we pull aeration cores.  Just like we did in the spring after the cleanup of cores is completed we will topdress approaches and tees with a heavy dose of sand.  Depending on weather and timing, we will likely topdress tees and approaches in conjuction with fairways.

The compost serves two main purposes, though we are treating it in this case as a fertilizer source and secondarily as a soil amendment.  While the two go hand in hand, we don't use nearly the amount of compost that we do when topdressing sand to fill aeration holes.  Our concern with using compost alone as an ammendment in the case of approaches and tees is that it lacks porosity and in the profile could eventually lead to a less firm playing surface.  Obviously we have similar concerns about fairways, at the moment we feel the benefits outweigh our concerns in this case.

An ideal solution might be to blend a topdressing sand with the high quality compost we purchase, but to this point we are unable to buy the large quantity of sand neccesary and settle instead on compost alone.  We supplement with sand topdressing in isolated areas, primarily swales and drainage areas in certain fairways to aide in water percolation.

On a side note, the compost this fall is easily the product we have received to date.  A new screen had to be purchased by our supplier to reach our specs, but in our opinion it was well worth it.  It should drag in with little or no mess left behind, which is great for everyone.

Catch Up

Being that we haven't blogged anything useful, we will post twice today and explain one of our newer cultural practices, topdressing compost.

For the last few years we have been experimenting with compost as a fertility source, primarily on our fairways. We have sent off a number of samples with a wide range of results, with a Hageman Earth Cycle compost coming out as the best product for our purposes. It has nice balance of macronutrients (NPK), a good C:N ratio, and a very tolerable amount of sodium.

We typically try to apply 5 cubic yards per acre per application using our large TyCrop topdresser following core aeration of our fairways. Though it does leave a bit of a mess immediately following the application, after it has been drug in it quickly disappears into the canopy. It is not uncommon to have small amounts of pebbles and bark chips in 200yds of compost, so after a few irrigation cycles we clean up the remaining excess with our turf sweeper.

The benefits of topdressing compost are numerous, but our primary motivation is building our soil with organic matter, beneficial fungi and bacteria that also serve as a slow release form of fertilizer. These microorganisms improve soil structure, make nutrients already in the soil available to the plant, and create a "living soil" that synthetic fertilizers destroy over time. On top of all this, our soil can store hold more water as a result of compost and humus being introduced into the profile.

As a fiscal decision compost makes a lot of sense as well, the nutrient content of our Hageman compost would cost many thousands of dollars more in a synthetic form, and we wouldn't see all of the other benefits I mentioned above. Overall, incorporating compost into fairway aeration (another fairly unpopular cultural practice) has proved to be very beneficial for our course, benefits that should be enjoyed for many years to come.