fertilizer reply

here is the reply from David Hamill. Yeah!!!i'll be working out the percentages of Nitrogen tonight, im sure it'll take me forever.


Josh, I cannot go back that far on Nitrogen usage here on campus. Records are incomplete. What I can tell you is the approximate usage since about 2003. I picked 2003 because that is the year that the golf course reopened with the new configuration. Basically, since the opening, we are using about 4 pounds of nitrogen per thousand square feet per year. This is primarily done on the greens and fairways where where the maintenance is the highest. The analysis is generally 32-5-7 but other ones are used. Say in the fall when seeding is done we will typically use 12-24-9 so that the phosphorous enhances germination of the seed. Factors that enter in are weather. The past two summers have been extremely hot so we haven't applied as much nitrogen because we didn't want to stress the grass. Almost all the fertilizer that we use is poly-plus sulfur coated urea which breaks down much slower than the readily available nitrogen type fertilizers. Last year on the golf course we used approximately 7700 pounds of fertilizer. Not all of this was high nitrogen. What we call spoon feeding was done to the greens this year using 3-0-0 and 10-0-0 foliar feeds with micronutrients containing magnesium, iron, manganese, and calcium.It actually is a complicated thing but, maybe you will get from this what you need. On our athletic fields comprising of practice football, baseball and softball, are sand based fields which require a little more care due to irrigation requirements. Because they are sand based, the holding capacities are not as good as native soils. Since these fields have been installed around 1997-98, we have put about 5-8 pounds per thousand square feet per year of nitrogen and other nutrients when required. Soil samples are taken each year to determine the needs of each field. The athletic fields are approximately 12 total acres and on the golf course, the areas that we fertilize is somewhere between 45 and 50 acres. The soccer complex is about 80,000 square feet, is native soil, so it requires less nitrogen per year, about 3 pounds per thousand square feet.Some natural products that we have used in the past include turkey manure, kelp and kelp byproducts. But, due to the fact that our budgets have been cut significantly over the past six years and these natural products are expensive, we no longer use them. I hope this information will be of help to you. If I can be of any additional help let me know.Dave Hamill