Why Aquatic Weeds and Algae Take Over Dams Aquatic weeds and algae in irrigation dams are managed through an integrated program: identify the cause (usually excess nutrients and sunlight), reduce nutrient inputs, then apply registered aquatic herbicides or biological...
Traffic stress on sports turf is not one problem but three: wear, compaction, and soil displacement. Wear is the immediate injury to the plant from trafficking. Compaction is the structural change to the soil beneath it. They have different causes, diagnostics, and...
Sodium damage in turf soils takes two distinct forms: direct ion toxicity to the plant, and structural dispersion of the soil itself. The two failure modes have different thresholds, different diagnostics, and different remedies, and they are routinely conflated in...
Cation exchange capacity (CEC) measures how many positively-charged nutrient ions a soil can hold on its negatively-charged surfaces. It is reported in centimoles of positive charge per kilogram of soil (cmolc/kg, formerly meq/100 g). A high CEC soil holds more K, Ca,...
MLSN interpretation is a method for reading turf soil test results against minimum thresholds rather than ideal ratios. Developed in 2012 by Micah Woods at the Asian Turfgrass Center and Larry Stowell at PACE Turf, MLSN sets a single threshold for each nutrient. If...
Raw sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) on its own underestimates the dispersion risk of an irrigation water source by 20 to 40 percent when bicarbonate is present. Three indices are needed to read an irrigation water report properly: SAR, adjusted SAR (SAR_adj), and...
